We were really excited about Rome, and because we skipped the French Riviera we were able to spend two nights instead of just one day like we had planned. That’s the beauty of not really having a set itinerary.

We woke up to a beautiful morning and hit the sights first thing. We saw the Colosseum first, which was awesome, right next door is Palentine Hill and the famous Roman Forum. We spent the morning “roaming” the ancient ruins, it was amazing to see how great the roman empire had been, their grand form of architecture. After Rome fell their great empire was forgotten and slowly covered up by the earth. It wasn’t until a thousand years later that Napoleon had it excavated and is now uncovered to experience it first hand. We headed over to the Pantheon for an afternoon snack on it’s steps, and a small siesta to rest our feet. We grabbed some famous Italian paninis for lunch and made our way over to Vatican city. It’s pretty crazy that the Catholic church was able to create their own country and have maintained a great amount of power in Italy to this day. We were able to wander through St. Paul’s Basilica, the largest and most grand cathedral in the world. I couldn’t believe how ornate it was…. everywhere! Vatican city also contains the world’s largest museum with MILES of exhibits. One can only see so many museums in a month, but I really wanted to see the Sistine chapel within this museum. We went to the entrance and it ended up being closed to entry but the people who were already in could be in there for an extra two hours. I want you to know that what I am about to tell you is not something I am proud of:) I went to the exit, and Scott who had previously been inside kindly stayed behind to keep watch. I confidently strolled in, acted like I knew what I was doing, and got in to go see the ceiling of the chapel! I have always seen pictures of Michelangelo’s depiction of the creation and God giving life to Adam by touching his hand, but to be able to see this in person was incredible! On our stroll home it began to lightly drizzle, our first drop of rain this whole time! It felt good after the long hot day in Rome. Italy has definitely had the warmest weather yet, but overall we have been very lucky with the weather.

The Colosseum

The Roman Forum

Vatican City, St. Paul’s Basilica

We made an incredible decision to tour Rome by scooter our last day. Scott forgot his license back in the states, so I…Being the flawless driver I am…had to be the sole driver! You don’t know how nervous this made the little Italian shop owner…and Scott! In his broken English he managed to explain the last time a girl had been the driver, the couple came back with thousands of dollars in damage! Luckily we have scoot back home and I have plenty of practice. The roads are a little different over here, by that I mean they have absolutely no rules, except for red means stop…sometimes. We somehow made it around town alive, we were able to visit the Victor Emmanuel monument (look that up,) toss a coin in the Treve Fountain, climb the Spanish steps and grab a gelato in Navoni Piazza. It was an amazing day and met every expectation I had for Rome!

The Trevi Fountain

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The great thing about not having any plans set in stone for this trip is that we can make whatever last minute decisions we want. We decided that we would skip the French Riveria all together just because after not being able to do the coast at Normandy we were a little hesitant to go all the way to the South coast of France and not be able to get around.  So we are going to throw in Amsterdam for a few days at the end of the trip instead.  After leaving Monte St. Michele we had a couple hours in Paris before we had to catch our night train, so we busted out our museum passes and did the Orsay museum. It’s an amazing art gallery that is home to many pieces by Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir. Why not go out of France with a bang by seeing some of the worlds most famous pieces of art? It was a great ending to our amazing French experience, so it was au revoir to Paris and bonjourno to Florence!

We had our first night train experience which went well considering you are sleeping on a train in a small room with 5 other people who don’t speak English. As for our sleeping accomidations throughout the trip we have been extremely lucky. We have not yet stayed in a hostel which is nice, it just turns out that when traveling with two people who prefer to share a bed it is not much more to pay for a hotel then a hostel. From what we have seen it is about 20-30 euro per person for a night in a hostel where you are in a twin bed, sharing a room with strangers, and have a community bathroom. Or it’s anywhere from 50-70 euro for a queen bed with foreign tv and a bathroom well equipped with a bidet in a hotel (and the peace of mind of clean sheets!) so thus far we have leaned towards a few extra bucks for a good nights rest.

As for Florence, the home of Gelato, we could not have been more pleased. It is a pretty small city with lots of town squares full of open air markets and gelato on every corner. We got there at about 7 am and since we couldn’t check in to our hotel until 1 we just hit the ground runnin. We started off with Florence’s most famous art gallery, the ufizzi. It was a great gallery but to be quite honest, we are almost museumed out! We decided we would do one more, the Acedamia in Florence, and call it good. After the ufizzi we walked around town shopping here and there,  walking the Ponte Vecchio, had our first homemade Italian pizza and carbonara, and had a gelato in Florence’s most famous gelatitaria. We then checked in for an afternoon siesta and shower. That evening we went to the Acedamia where we saw Michelangelo’s 17 ft. tall David. It was quite a sight, I had no idea how huge it was! We have seen the works of the world’s most talented artists and architects, they were truely given a gift  from god and I am so grateful that they used those gifts so that we could all benefit from them in some way. We ended the night by walking to Michelangelo’s Piazza, a garden and square that overlooks Florence, for some more gelato and a romantic view of the city lights.

On our second day we visited the Duomo, the main cathedral in Florence. It has one of the largest domes in the world next to St. Paul’s cathedral in London and St. Peter’s basilica in Rome. Grabbed some more gelato and hopped on a train for a day trip out to Pisa.  It really is a giant leaning tower in Pisa (stating the obvious!) It was fun to see though. Apparently the tower started off standing straight but the higher they made it the more crooked it got, that along with the ground beneath it settling over hundreds of years and voilà…you have the leaning tower of Pisa.

We got on the next train to Rome, and were there in time for an Italian dinner in the eternal city.

On Thursday we made a day trip out to the palace of Versailles. A French king decided he needed a bigger place so he built him self a palace out of gold and stone (more gold than stone in most places!) The palace itself sits on hundreds of acres of land, including three of his own lakes, numerous fountains, and beautiful gardens as far as the eye could see. We were able to use our museum passes from Paris which was a definite  plus! The whole palace is open to the public so we got to do a self guided tour through each of the magnificent rooms. It should be a crime to live in a place like this. The kings personal apartment was a collection of drawing rooms decked out in marble, gold, velvet decor and more gold. Words cannot really describe the over the top embellishment of the rooms! One of our favorite parts of the palace was the famous hall of mirrors. It literally was a marble and gold hallway lined with windows and mirrors (someone was a little vein). Overall we had a great afternoon strolling the gardens and sitting lake side with some gelato.

The Hall of Mirrors

We hoped on a train that evening out to Normandy. Where we arrived pretty late, but luckily we were greeted by two twin beds shoved together to form the “double” bed we had reserved! We woke up and made our way to the Normandy memorial museum that turned out to make a very special afternoon. The museum itself is a great introduction to the landing at Normandy. It walked you through the events of WWII and was more of a tribute to the soldiers than a description of their death’s. We watched a documentary about the various companies involved in the landing, and it gave us a great appreciate for the men and how brave they had to be as a part of this incredible event that changed the war, and the world. Unfortunately the farther away you get from big cities the less public transportation there is, we were unable to visit the beaches themselves but the memorial gave us a great understanding of what happened here.

We grabbed the next train to mount saint michel…which in my opinion is one of the funnest and most incredible things we have done yet! We arrived when it was low tide around the island and just as the sun was setting, so we kicked off our shoes and waded through the water and mud to get get a panoramic view of the whole island. The sunset was beautiful and made the castle look just that much more magnificent. That night we stayed at a cute little bed and breakfast and took off back to Paris early the next day in order to catch a night train to Florence!

First and foremost I need to make a small correction about the last post, Scott wants everyone to know that melt down is an exaggeration- they were simply moments of frustration:) As for our second day in Paris, it was even better than the first if that is even possible.  We woke up to another day of beautiful weather, autumn has begun and the leaves have started to change color. This is my very favorite season of the year, it is perfect sweater and hot cider weather.  We decided to get a museum pass for all the major sites around paris, you pay a flat fee and then try to make it to as many sites in order to get your moneys worth. We started with Notre Dame which was beautiful inside and out…Scott makes a perfect impression of the hunchback of Notre Dame from the Disney movie.

We then checked out Sainte Chapelle’s Cathedral, it is a more modern chapel but overwhelmingly beautiful. The detail and design of the interior was simply breathtaking.

Then we made an incredible discovery…BIKES! We had seen all the French people riding the exact same kind of bikes around the city but didnt really know why, but we came across this little bike hub on the side of the road where all these bikes were locked into these racks and when you pay money one automatically unlocks and you can ride it where ever you want around the city, when you are done you just find the nearest hub and drop the bike off.  The best part is that you only pay an intial fee of 1 euro and then your first half hour is free…so we figured out that if we just rode the bikes for a little under a half hour, dropped it off and took another one we never had to pay…Genious! (We are so cheap!) So off we went on our little bikes to see the rest of Paris!

We made our way over to Louvre where we saw the Venus De Milo, Winged Victory, and the Mona Lisa. For those of you who have been in the Louvre you know what I am talking about when I say it is massive! You could seriously live in that place for a week and never see the same things, it is four levels high and has like 4 major wings. We were in there for a good couple of hours and I am sure we didnt even see 1/4 of the museum. Then we grabbed some Fromage hotdogs from a roadside stand (that is basically just a hotdog with melted cheese on a bagette) They were magnifico! A few of you have asked about the food that we have tried over here…all I can say is that everything tastes like 5 times better than anything in America. We have tried to get something native to each area we have been in, in England it was the chips (fries), France the pastries (which I ate religiously every hour:) ) and the crepes. But there is all the little things that are just delicious like the chocolate and the bread…everything is so fresh and tasty!

This is for my mom who loves goodies almost as much as I do!!!

As for the rest of our day, we rode over for one more look at the Eiffel Tower and to watch the lights turn on at dusk. Then we did a night tour back through the city on our bikes. I just cant even really describe how wonderful this experience has been, I hope that all of you will get to have a trip like this of your own. We have been so pleased with the itinerary we have chosen, everything has been abosolutely perfect!

Champs Elysees at night from the top of the Arc de Triumph

Louvre by night

Sorry this cannot really be rotated:(

England was amazing, we made it through the week without any problems or hold ups…I knew our luck had to run out eventually! Paris was not so kind the fist day. As many of you know one of my many great qualities is punctuality; I am never late, never overbook my schedule, and am never in a hurry…kidding! Being on time is the very hardest thing in the books for me, but somehow it rarely effects the outcome of my day or what I had planned, as for catching our train out of Paris this was not the case! We showed up to the platform just 30 seconds after our train departed for Dover where we needed to catch the ferry to the French coast, and then catch another train into Paris. Scott had a minor melt down but i assured him that we could catch the next train to Dover in just 30 minutes; sure enough we got on the next train. Little did I know that we would arrive just 5 minutes before the ferry would leave and get to the port just in time to see the ferry pull away, we then had to pay double to get a ticket on the next ferry…melt down number 2.  I then let him know that this was awesome and that we now had a few hours to explore Dover and would get into Boulogne just in time to catch the last train to paris.  As we arrived in Boulogne it dawned on Scott that the continental Europe is one hour ahead of Great Britain and that the last train to Paris left an hour ago…this was the last straw… melt down number 3.  We did not want to get a room on the coast seeing as we were already paying for the hotel in Paris that we were not going to be able to stay in so that left us with two options: hitch hiking or sleeping in a park… we opted for the latter. We found a nice cozy spot on a soccer field and hit the grass. WORST NIGHT EVER! We got up at 4:30 and caught the first train into Paris, we will no longer be missing trains!

Look how sad we are!

The white cliffs of Dover

As for Paris once we got there, one word… Amazing!!!  We spent the first day roaming the courtyard of the Louvre, the Tuileries, walked the Champ Elysees, and stood in awe at the Arc de Triumph.  We then made our way over to the Eiffel Tower, I had no idea how incredibly massive that structure is… It is huge! We had some food in our bag so we picked a spot on the grass in front of the tower and had a picnic and a nap. It is so surreal that we are actually over here basking in the sun while admiring the Eiffel Tower… someone please pinch me! We then made our way up the tower where we were able to get a birds eye view of Paris. It was actually surprizing how big the city is, there were buildings, rivers, and cathedrals as far as the eye could see. Scott had read in this book on Paris of this Cathedral up on a hill, Sacre Coeur, that also overlooked Paris so we decided to end our day with that. It was on the opposite side of the city and when we got there we had to climb like 7 flights of stairs up this hill to get to it but it was beautiful. It was dark when we got there so the city was all lit up and there was live music playing outside the cathedral, it was so so picturesque and romantic- the perfect way to end our first day in Paris!

The Louvre

Arc de Triumph

Sacre Coeur

For those of you who know my sweet aunt Leslie you would know that this post is for her. For those of you who do not, let me explain. Leslie is my dad’s only sister who has played the role of a second mother to me and the rest of my siblings and cousins our whole lives. She is absolutely the most thoughtful and caring person I have ever known. She is an english major who had the opportunity of going over to the Netherlands for 11 years and teaching English and Spanish on the NATO base. The longer she lived there the more her heart grew to love Europe. She has since moved back to Utah, but when she lived overseas she would come home very summer and Christmas to visit. Growing up I would listen to her stories of traveling the continent and of what Europe had to offer, but at the top of her list was the cheery cotswolds in England. She has embedded this image in my mind of these perfect little villages filled with quaint homes with thatched roofs and quiet country sides with gardens and sheep roaming as they pleased. So when she heard the Scott and I were going on this trip she gave us some money and a map of the area so we could get our own little cotswolds experience…I was so excited! So on Sunday Scott’s cousin John, who got his masters from Oxford, was so kind to hop in the car with us on a day trip up to Oxford and the Cotswolds.

This is one of the 39 different colleges within Oxford

John was an amazing guide through Oxford, showing us all the different colleges, including his own. He explained to us how the UK runs its universities. All of the students have robes just like on Harry Potter that they wear at mealtimes, taking tests, important events etc. It is such a formal way of schooling and it was neat to hear it from someone who had experienced it first hand. We visited the Eagle and Child pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolken spent most of thier time writing and visiting. We also visited Christ’s church, one of the oxford colleges, were many of the scenes from Harry Potter were shot or inspired. This is also the college where Alice in Wonderland was thought up, and her picture along with the mad hatter are in the stain glass windows of the dinning hall. Oxford is an incredible university and I wont lie, if scott could go there for grad school i would be one happy girl!

The Stair Case used in Harry Potter

The Harry Potter Dining Hall

The Coutyard at Christs Church

Oxford was amazing and in the perfect location cause it was right on our way from the house to the cotswolds. We had to bust out the GPS in the car because the country roads were less than simple to get around on, but once we found our first village, Chipping Norton, it was well worth the trip just as Les had told us. These little villages were exactly what an English village should be! We would be driving down little lanes lined with green and country fields as far as the eye could see and then happen upon a small village of maybe 15 homes, each with its own name, a small garden, and picket fence. It was better than the image I had made in my mind! For those of you who have seen the movie the holiday, the villages are just like that with cottage after cottage that were absolutely idealistic! We loved it Les, Thank you for sending us up there for a day, my only regret is that we were not able to stay a few nights… Now we have a reason to go back!

A little village pub in Great Tew

Burford

Even though they speak english over here things are still a little different, here are just a few things I noticed while boppin around town…

1. Your pants are called trousers, and your underwear is known as your pants. So if you spill or get a stain on your pants it means something very different!

2. The hot water is on the right side and the cold on the left

3. It is not refered to as your trash or garbage but as your litter

4. You do not have a best friend but a best mate

5. When you ask for the bathroom people look at you like your crazy, it is better known as the toilet or the leu

6. The driving is a little crazier over here then in the states, thier steering wheel is on the right side of the car and they drive on the opposite side of the road. One thing that we have noticed though is that cars never honk, it is very rare or even road rage if someone honks at someone else!

7. Drinks are served warm without ice. It has not been that big of a deal just because it is overcast and a little chilly over here right now, but in the summer I can imagine it being super annoying

8. Everyone over here walks where ever they go, they even have special carts for groceries that people wheel home. but with all the people everywhere we have noticed that most families only have 2-3 children at the most, and the women dont start having children until thier 30s so you see tons of like 40 year old women pushing strollers with babies. Where in Utah you can expect a lady to like 5 children by the time she is 35!

9. A pub is not necessarily a bar over here. They are more like family restraunts where the main dishes are like grandmas cookin, pot roast and potatoes etc. Dont get me wrong there are plenty of bars and most of the pubs do have them but in a seperate part of the building, and 9 times out of 10 they are full! which brings me to my next comparison…

10. You know you are in Great Britain when half of a subway car is full of grown men singing fight songs and are completely drunk! We stepped onto the tube and the smell of alcohol was on everyone, and it wasnt just some party crazed college students, these were old men-dads coming home from a bar on a friday night. They were pretty baligerant and just singing, more like shouting, but singing nontheless. We got off at the next stop, but I am not gonna lie it was pretty entertaining! check this out…

We had an awesome Saturday taking a day trip out to Western England making our first stop out to the mysterious Stonehenge. It took just a couple hours on a bus out to the sight where ancient stones from 5,000 years ago still stand. We were not able to walk right up the the stones but able to come within about 25 yards from them. It was really a neat experience to see the historical site that I have heard about my whole life. What really gets me is that they just have no idea what Stonehenge even is, they have many theories but have not pinpointed their actual purpose. Whatever they are they are incredible!

We then hit up the local pub for some lunch and then back on the bus for another hour to Bath.  Bath is an ancient Roman city that was originally built up in the year 83 A.D. Can you even believe that, AND IT IS STILL A WORKING AND THRIVING CITY! It was absolutely beautiful. The inner city was all closed off to cars and the cobblestone streets were for walking only. The most incredible sight was the ancient Roman Baths. The baths were built around a sacred spring that provides natural hot water for the baths, they also made a drain system that takes the extra and used water out to a river to be taken away. The baths are still running just not used. It is pretty unbelievable that all the beautiful things we have seen this past week are still functioning sites even though they ancient…most of them are older than our country! We are having a blast and are excited for what is still ahead.

If you guys want to check out a bunch more pictures, just click here!

Well we have successfully dodged the jetlag bullet, we feel great and have been having the time of our lives. Yesterday we toured the London Tower which was absolutely amazing and got to see the crown jewels. There was more bling in that room then one person could ever buy. One diamond, which is the largest in the world, was the size of my fist!

We also checked out the London Tower Bridge by riverboat, enjoyed some shopping and fish n’ chips in Soho and then went to the incredible Les Miserables!

Today we woke up and went straight into town in time to watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. They make quite a production out of it, all the streets around the palace are blocked off and there are bands of soilders parading and playing music in the streets; it was pretty cool. We then took off up to Camden Market…this place was like my mothership! It was just neverending rows of clothes, purses, shoes, and food. Scott is such a good sport to put up with my shopping obsession, but the food was a plus for him! We ended our day by visiting the parliament building and another look at Big Ben. We have had such an amazing time here in London so far and can not even believe this is just the beginning to our Europe adventure!