Well, the time has come to let everyone know about my upcoming adventure throughout Europe. I am leaving May 15th at 3:30pm from LAX on a jetplane straight to London. Unlike last year’s little 2-week excursion to Poland, Czech Republic, and Germany, this trip will be much longer. Eight Weeks (May 15th – July 10th) to be exact.

I will be traveling with one of my best friends, Shaun Bruce. Instead of having an itinerary to try and keep up with, we decided to just play it by ear and do things as we please. The only thing we will be doing, is making a list of must see places.

Please help us by suggesting things to see all throughout Europe and leave your suggestions in the comments.

Thanks in Advance!

We are in London.  We have done a lot so far and my feet hurt, partially because I have blisters from my new shoes (I am dumb), but also because we have walked a ways.

Anyways..the flight was long but good, we only crashed 6 times. (Joke)  We have seen a lot of stuff so far, here is the list. The Tower of London and the stuff that accompanies it, London Bridge, St. Peters Cathedral, Imperial War Museum, we walked through Trafalgar Square, the Tate Modern art museum, millenium bridge, the ferris wheel, Big Ben, Westminster abbey, that building that Jose said looks like a rocket ship made of glass.

I am 95% sure that we will be heading out of London tomorrow after a visit to the National Gallery.  We probably missed some things, but that only gives me more reason to come some other time.

Oh, I havent had a chance to hook up my camera yet.  But I am taking them, and yes they have us in them too.

I will  probably think of something else to write about in 15 minutes, but thats how it goes.  Thanks for the comment Jon, just for it Ill admit that you made Gurglemurf up.

Leave some comments and/or email me.

Cya later,

Steve

After another eventful day in London we rode the train to Salisbury, which is the closest city to stonehenge. The city also has a wonderful cathedral, we didn’t have time to go inside though I heard it was beautiful.

Anyways there wasn’t much to do in salisbury, but we did take a nice tour of stonehenge by a fantastic tour guide. She was really into earth energy and probably crystals (mom I see you frowning) I didn’t buy her book on earth harmonies and stuff though. As I previously stated she did a wonderful job with the tour.

After the tour was over we got back on the train and headed to London then bought tickets to Paris to escape the high priced England economy (everything is x2 in price)

I am currently beginning a post for Paris, but I will give everyone some time to look through the pictures and comment on things. Our hostel here is great, I really like it because I am “borrowing” wireless internet. The only problem is that I have to have the window open and use the windowsill as a desk all crooked so it works correctly. I will make sure I get a picture for you. It just started raining (just like it has been every day since we got off the plane) so I better get my laptop off the sill and finish this post.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we are now in Paris soaking up the sights and sounds of the largest city in France. Before I go on, I will apologize for the picture of me in a comforter. As I tried to explain, neither Shaun nor myself packed towels. I really wanted to shower, so I dried off with the Coca-Cola blanket. Is that really so wrong?? haha

Anyways, back to Paris. We arrived at about 10pm, luckily there were still rooms, because the first one we tried was full. Our room overlooks rue de Parme and rue de Clichy (both streets) We really love this room because it has free internet, hot showers, and is close to the subway. Our food has mainly consisted on free hostel breakfasts and sandwiches we make from supplies gathered at the local grocery stores. We could spend more at cafe’s and such, but I dont mind and neither does my (or shauns) wallet.

We didn’t work too hard today. Our day consisted of going to the rail station, the market, Arc de Triumph and the Eiffel Tower at both day and night times. It was really lovely. Make sure you check out the pictures of them both. I should add that we didnt go to the Arc at night, but we did see it from the Tower.

Our next few days are going to consist of exploring the rest of Paris, going to the d-day beaches, Chartres, Mont St-Michel, and a couple other northern french areas. Because I have access to internet right now, you can look for updates every day or night (I am unsure of what time it is back home, -9 hours I think.

I hope everyone is having a good time in warm weather, It has been cold and rainy here.

As of the time of this writing, we are still in Paris. It’s about 9pm here and we are planning on seeing Jim Morrison’s grave in the morning, traveling to Versailles for a bit, then heading out of Paris to Bayeux and Mont St. Michel.

Yesterday was an eventful Sunday with our journey to the magnificent Cathedral in Chartres. It is by far my favorite cathedral in Europe so far. I haven’t had a chance to go inside St. Paul’s in London, but Jon says it is amazing. Another aspect of Chartres that I really enjoyed was the number of people that were there. I could honestly say that there were probably 25,000 people there, maybe 5000 were tourists. The remaning 20,000 were all there for religious reasons, many of them waiting through an incredibly long line just to see and touch a statue of the Virgin Mary. I’d say that many people get upset when they can’t find a close enough parking space at their church in the US, let alone traveling hundreds of miles just to wait in line and still being happy. Call me old fashined, but there is probably something missing these days in the good ol US of A.

Anyways, enough with that. Enjoy the pictures of the amazing stained glass. We also ate an extremely tasty lunch of fries and a kabob sandwich. It was almost too good.

Between last night and today we saw both Notre Dame and the Louvre in the day and night. Norte Dame is nice, but not the best. I think that pesky hunchback has given it more fame than it actually deserves.

At the Louvre we saw some amazing paintings by all nationalities. I also think that the recent fame of the Davinci Code has only added to the allure of the Mona Lisa. Again, I liked it though not as much as everyone wants me to. I also made it my goal to look at the dutch painting of Van Ruysdael, whose street my parents live on (Van Ruysdael Lane) There are actually several famous Van Ruysdael’s which make me feel extra good about my parent’s address. (insert me gloating here)

I tried to go to the Musee d’Orsay, but it is closed on Mondays. Oh well, more reason to come back again some time.

blah blah blah….

We are in Madrid right now. The weather is great, subway sandwiches are great, and our spanish is not so great. Well, it´s better than our french was. I can understand fairly well, but speaking is atrocious. Shaun is good at saying tengo el gato los pantalones, which I’ve been trying to tell him means that he has a cat in his pants. But he likes saying it.

I wish I could update some pictures from the last few days, but I have not had a chance to get the pictures from my camera at these internet cafes. Anyways, the plan is 4 nights in Madrid, 2 in Seville, and another 4 in Barcelona. Then we make our way along the south of France toward Rome.

Um, I can’t think of anything else. Bye Bye for now.

I don’t know if you know what doner kabob is, but eating it all of the time makes my day. I have found two different kinds; lamb or chicken. Basically think of a big piece of meat that spins around, which they shave pieces off into a pita or onto a plate. It’s usually greek food I think, but the places we have been going are arabian. Anyways, its tasty and cheap. As far as tourist attractions go, there aren’t too many here in Madrid. We went to the Museo del Prado yesterday, they didn’t have any Rembrandt paintings anymore, but they did have Raphael, who is fantastic. They also had a very large Goya collection, who is a very famous Spanish artist.

It has been hot, around 95F, or 34C everyday. Not deathly hot, but hot enough to not make me nearly as adventurous during the day. I believe the plan today is to go to the botanical gardens and to the park for a little bit. As I mentioned before, knowing some spanish has been coming in handy for understanding. For instance I was able to tell a brasilian where the bathroom was because we both knew some spanish.

Our next stop is Seville then Barcelona. Oh, I also found a Real Madrid energy drink to add to my collection. Today is a good day. haha

2014 Addition – In editing and reformatting the travel posts, I noticed that my original writeup covered 3 weeks of time in a short, hastily-written post.

“Barcelona was simply an amazing city.  Our first hostel was right in the heart of the city, the old Olympic grounds were very nice although they seem to be falling into disrepair as of late.

Our second hostel there was in the mountains and a ways from the city.  It still turned out alright, I was able to see an amazing sunset and an even more spectacular sunrise from the tallest point in the city.”

While all of that is true, finding our second hostel was a real pain. Especially since we stopped one tram stop too far and missed the easy-to-follow signs. Instead, we walked around for a couple hours in the June heat only to hitch a ride with a nice gentleman looking for the same hostel.

My diet was also suffering at the time which I believe was made up of an entire loaf of bread each day and water. At the time, it seemed to make the most sense in order to preserve my limited resources for another 5-6 weeks.

2014 Addition – Another disappointing entry about four night destination was as follows:

From there we headed to Nice which was a very nice city.  Not much to see sights wise, but it was nice to relax some on the rock beaches.  Sigh…there was hardly any sand, very unlike California.

For some reason brevity was the name of the game in travel posting, but if my memory serves me correctly we did spend a lot of time relaxing. One day was spent beaching in Ventmiglia, Italy skipping and stacking stones.

What did we do the other days? I literally have no idea, but here are a few photos from them.

2014 Addition – I decided to fill out my previous writing about our time in Italy with some additional information, data, and photos.

“After Nice, we made out way down to Rome to pick up one of my good friends Aimee from the airport. Once she flew in we were going to spend about 10 days together all throughout Italy. We explored Rome pretty well, saw the Capuccin Church, The Vatican, and of course all of the old Roman ruins. I am leaving some stuff out, but we saw a lot and our feet took a beating.”

When Shaun and I actually arrived in Rome it was somewhere around midnight and we had absolutely no idea where we were after we arrived at a different train station than we assumed we would. Classic.

There was a bit of debate as to whether or not we should spend 25 euros on a room for only a few hours rest, but after spending an hour or so laying on the steps of the Coliseum it seemed like a much better idea.

I don’t remember being particularly impressed by Rome beyond its many historical sights. My favorite sight was the Vatican Museum, which I felt like would have been impossible to enjoy without taking a guided tour.

“After Rome we headed up to Florence for a couple nights and saw the spectacular church there. The view from the top was simply breathtaking. Saw the David, it was great.”

Florence was probably my favorite Italian city. It was fairly small and compact with many amazing things to see: The Uffizi Museum, the David, and the Duomo.

“Went to Milan and it was probably the worst city as far as seeing things goes. The tickets to see the last supper are sold out for several months in advance. Which was a bummer because it was really the only thing to see there besides their cathedral.”

After Milan, Shaun decided to head back west to Amsterdam and London while Aimee and I went to Venice for a couple days. What did we do in Italy’s biggest tourist destination?

Eat food, drink wine, and people-watch.

And the best part is that it was one of the most fun times we had in Italy.

Well, I decided a couple days ago to make my way even further east before heading west.  So here I am in Budapest, Hungary.

At least one of the 2 people that casually read the random things I write are thinking Eastern Europe? Why?  Well here is why:

First of all, There must be something good about the area if everyoen is fighting over it all of the time.  Secondly, it isn’t communist anymore.  Thirdly, Why not.

So far I have trekked around quite a bit, seen some new things.  St. Stephen’s Cathedral was very nice, thought I need to make my way back at night.  I am going to go to the communist statue park tomorrow to see all of the old statues of Stalin and Lenin and that whole bunch.  There was also another really great church called Matyas church, I didn’t go inside but it was crazy/cool/interesting on the outside.