Day13 ROME

We had breakfast early and then left the unicorn hotel in Florence early to head out to Rome! our train was on time and we arrived in to Rome by about mid morning. This was the first time we were not prepared and we had a nightmare experience finding our hotel! It was so so so hot and we did not have the sheet with all of the directions. There was confusion about what and when and how to go. It meant both metro and a bus and lots and lots and lots of walking. We made it but it ended up that there was a shuttle that could have helped. Oh well. Better luck next time

After checking in we headed down to the colliseum. We joined a tour for that and for the forum. These were good but exhausting in the heat. We finished about 6 and needed to find dinner. After that we went to metro stop where the hotel shuttle could bring us back home to hotel. We have a very early tour tomorrow am that we have to get up for. Tomorrow is the last day in rome!

Day 12

FLORENCE !

Okay today we headed out after our breakfast and walked over to the "David" by Michaelangelo. We had bought tickets ahead of time online which proved to be a smart thing to do as the line went on forever. I did not go in with John and the girls since I have seen it before. Rather, I sat in a small cafe and tried to write in my journal. They were not in there too long and then we headed back towards the leather outdoor markets. Anna really had fallen in love with a coat yesterday so we were curious to see if she still liked it as much and if we could get price down. We left there with her coat and I got one too. From there we went to lunch at Cafe Duoma and it was fabulous. We then headed to one of the better gelato shops and then we headed to the hotel to drop off our goods. After that we headed to the Ponte Vecchio bridge where all the gold merchants have shops. It was so hot and so crowded in this part of town! We went further and went in to Medici palace and Boboli gardens. Elise and I did not go as far as Anna, John and Georgia. We were hoping for a bench and a nap but the bugs attacked me! I was miserable! I had welts on my poor body. After the gardens we walked back towards our hotel via the plaza with the fake David. We ate at a great little restaurant recommended from the tour book and then stopped by a plaza area on the way home so the girls could feed the birds. Off to bed then as tomorrow we get on our last eurail adventure to Rome!

I am so sad we are on the last leg of the trip. We have been gone a long time but it has gone fast. It will be nice to see everyone but it is so nice to be on vacation!

Day 11

Today we again had a great breakfast at our beautiful Venice hotel. We headed to the train station as we are off to florence. The train was on time and we were in Florence by early afternoon. Our hotel is called hotel unicorno and it's only about a ten minute walk from the train station. One of our rooms were ready so we stashed everything in there and headed down to the Duomo. This is definitely one of the most amazing buildings we have seen this trip! From there we had gelato (actually about our 5th one) and then we had to walk just a couple blocks to find the leather. Georgia has been saving money for a long time and she was pretty sure she wanted a leather coat so we began the serious job of bartering. Georgia did get a coat but John and Anna struck out today! We bought a few other smaller things and had lunch. We then walked around some other amazing areas in florence. We went back to our room to get into other room and chill for a bit. I am not sure if we just can't handle the heat or if we are just trying to be how they are in this culture.

It was hard but we rallied and went back out for dinner. Tomorrow we will see more of Florence!

Day 10 -venice

We had a really nice breakfast at our hotel. Our people at our hotel told us we could take a private water taxi that would pick us up and bring us out to the island of Murano. We then went in to a glass blowing shop and watched glass being blown and molded. This was amazing! He did a vase for us and then he molded a horse in about 3 minutes. The cool part was that after these lives are made they must go through another step and that is like some sort of oven that takes natural gas and because that is so expensive it's not worth saving the piece so in about ten minutes after the pieces are out of the heat they explode! Sort of sad!

We walked around for a couple minutes and the we took another water taxi and headed to the island burano. Here the island stands out because the homes are all different pastel colors. Your family has a set color and that must be the color your house is when you move into any home. It is believed this is because it is a fishing village and it was the way the drunk fisherman could find their way home. We then took a water taxi back to venice. Ergot off at San Marco Square and then we just wandered all afternoon on the streets that you easily get lost on as they dead end. We found a restaurant for lunch and wandered more and then had dinner and wandered more. Tomorrow we head to Florence!

Day 9. Leaving Paris and leaving group

Okay last night was a great ending to Paris. In Europe nudity is just not a big deal so poor Georgia has just been dying! The cancan show had lots and Georgia was just about under the table. Today we parted from the group and went on our own. We took a taxi to the train station. Our train was right on time. We figured it was good to do part of this trip on our own so the kids could learn about the eurail system We pretty much spent the day on the train with one switch in milan. That one was also on time. We got into Venice about 5:30 pm. Okay this place is hopping. People everywhere. Our hotel was fabulous. It was just about a block from the train station which was such a treat. It was really nice. The rooms were comfortable. We did not look over the canal but that's okay. Everyone could tell immediately this was going to be an active place. We found an outdoor restaurant and we shopped around. Then off to bed!

Day 8. Paris

We of course were woken at the crack of dawn! A guide came to our hotel and jumped on our coach and led us on a tour of Paris. I did not learn any of this the first time I was in Paris years ago. She then took us to the Eiffel tower where we were again guided through. It was so nice to just walk right in and not have to wait in the huge long line that was already formed! We spent about half hour at mid level taking pictures and the guide pointed out all the sites she had showed us this morning on the bus. You can see the mini statue of liberty just like the one we got from France and have in new York city. From the tower we walked down a zillion steps - this took about fifteen minutes to do. We headed to the Louvre and had a couple hours where she led us through a few main sites to see in the Louvre. It is so amazing how huge this place is and how full of people it is. Today is the first day of France's vacation. It is weird -they all take vacation the same 5 or 6 weeks. After the Louvre John and the girls headed out for food and some shopping. I spent a couple hours at apple store trying to deal with my broken iPad. They agreed to exchange for a new one but they were out so my next chance will be in a few days in Rome - I definitely am not holding my breath! We raced back to hotel for an hour down time and then got as dressed up as our suitcase permuted and headed to a dinner show tonight. We are seeing the cancan dancers. Should be fun for the girls and hopefully a great ending to a fabulous stay in Paris. We have really enjoyed this place too! People are so friendly and just amazing architecture.

Haven't heard from too many of you and I realize you may not even be reading this as I didn't give out to more than just a couple of you. Sorry if this is boring....I just knew it would help me sort and document our trip after I get back and thought it might be fun for you guys to know where we are. Lori, I bet you are packed to go. We miss everyone!

Day 7

We left Switzerland and we are off to Paris. This was a long bus ride! We made a stop at the Rhine falls which was a spectacular waterfall. We got in to Paris in time to spend half hour checking into the hotel and then we went to notre dam church. Our travel guide got us there right on time within 5 minutes of us entering they were closing the doors. We then walked to the Latin quarters for a great dinner out with some folks that were part of our group. From there we hopeed on a bot and floated down the river. Seeing Paris from a boat is amazing because you can see the original Paris is an island. We went past the Louve that went on forever. We also passed the Eiffel tower. I have never seen such huge and beautiful buildings in my life. I had forgotten how Grande everything in Paris is! The city lights at night was a great first night. I will have to add photos to all these posts when I can get it to work. Off to bed as day 8 in Paris is going to be very fast paced.

Day 5

We were up early and we headed off to Switzerland. We had a really long day of travel but it had a fabulous ending when we arrived at Gisvall, Switzerland. This is a very tiny town outside of Luzern and it was quaint. Cow bells could be heard off in the distance and a few few down the road there was a yard that the owners had 3 billygoats, rabbit and ducks. A little further from there we found baby pigs and we talked to a farmer who let us in the barn to hang with the cows for a bit! The girls loved having a low key night with all the animals

The next day we had another crazy day! We went in towards Luzern where we took a gondola up mount pilotus This was amazing! It had a hotel at the top that I have no idea how it could have been built. We then took a cog train down and from there we jumped onto a boat to get a tour of Luzern. From there we split from the group and did our own thing. We did a little shopping and then I stopped in the apple store to try to get my iPad fixed -no luck yet! The kids fed the white swans and ducks. Luzern is also amazing (and expensive). There is this beautiful covered bridge with flower boxes all along it. We indulged in a cheese fondue lunch that was heavenly. Anna and I picked out our $150,000 rolex watch. Guess we will get that next time. We had a low key night in our quaint village again and hung with the animals. Tomorrow we head for the complete opposite environment -PARIS

Good night!

Day 4

Wow am I behind! We lost wi fi for a bit so I am going to try to catch up.

We had a bit more reasonable wake up time. It was hard to leave the nice hotel in Amsterdam. We had the best breakfast yet. We headed to the republic of deutchland - Germany! We drove through the black forest. We stopped in an adorable little town with a huge cuckoo clock and they did glass blowing. We then headed to Boppard and boarded a boat for a float down the Rhine. There were castles everywhere and some were ruins and others hotels. It was a nice day to be on the boat for a bit - a nice break from the bus! We got off in St Goar and looked around. Then back on the bus to Heidelberg. Wow! I loved this town. We had about an hour here and it is exactly what I stereotyped Germany town to be like. Lace doilies, beer mugs and pastries. There were flower boxes everywhere and its a college town. We headed to our hotel for the night.

Day 3

What a day we had yesterday in London. We were still sleep deprived but we headed out by nine and took the subway from where we stayed in to Picadilly. From there we jumped on the double decker tour buses (just like ones in new York city). We headed to buckingham palace to see how the Queen lives and to check out the guards. From there we saw Trafalgar Square, we saw central London and learned about the plague caused by the rats and then the London fire which burned just about everything down! We spent a couple hours at the Tower of London and from there we jumped on a cruise up the river where we got wonderful views of the gorgeous Parliament buildings, Westminster abbey where the big wedding just took place and the eye of london. We jumped back on buses and toured some more. Finally at about 8 we landed back at picadilly for dinner right about the time things were getting very lively in London. We should have taken the subway back earlier as we would have avoided the drunks but wow what people watching! We got back abot 1 in the morning only to find a note from our tour company that our tour was ready to go and that we had to have a 4:15 wake up call the first tour day OUCH!

Well this led to day 3 which began on a very exhausted note......we headed to Dover where we took a ferry across the channel into Calais , France. From there we drove into Belgium where we stopped for lunch and a little chocolate and then we continued on to the Netherlands as our goal was to get to Amsterdamn to have enough time to site see. We did make good time and by about 4 we were able to gather for a walking tour of Amsterdam's Dam Square and their red light district. They do not prosecute people for marijuana consumption so a little strange smelling it everywhere and having it sold in the coffee shops! The girls working the district are given permission as prostitution is legal. They rent spaces and pay taxes. So hard to believe that they say the population is only 7 % HIV infected. After that we continued on to a river or canal cruise for about an hour where we got to see the beautiful and affluent parts of the town. We were amazed how many people live in houseboats along the canals and even more shocked to find out how much they cost! Everything over here is so expensive compared to back home. After the cruise we had dinner on a floating restaurant and now we are off to bed. They warned us this was our nicest hotel tonight and then we were going to have to adjust to Europe's standards. We miss everyone and we hope to continue finding Internet access!

Our flight went smooth. Our first day was a bit crazy as we were tired and like zombies. This second day and final day in London was great. We took a bus tour and saw everything twice. We just finally figured out how to get a connection so hopefully we will have better luck! We haven't figured out how to download yet. Tomorrow we leave to catch ferry across to Europe. Bye for now