The End

Looking back on our Europe trip now, almost 2 years later, I realize that I am only appreciating this trip more and more each day. I had some unbelievable experiences and got to travel to some breathtaking cities. However, this trip wouldn’t have meant anything to me if I didn’t have my family right there with me. Remembering this trip makes me feel extremely fortunate not only to have had the opportunity to go to these amazing places but to have an amazing family to share all of these wonderful experiences with.

And it didn’t hurt to have these two waiting for us when we got home… 🙂

Days 11-14 – These Guys Invented Pizza!

The final city on “Our European Adventure” was Rome. Rome was probably the favorite out of all of us. Italy is a great country and Rome is an amazing city. You are surrounded by amazing history, great food, and a great environment.

Rome

Everyone has heard of the Colosseum but you can never understand the magnitude of it until you actually are there.  When thinking about what has taken place here over the years, its unimaginable. To just think about where you are standing, who has stood where you are standing right now, what has taken place in this amazing stadium. Pictures don’t do it justice but they help.

In addition to visiting the Colosseum we also visited the Roman ruins that are near by. Walking through the ruins makes it very evident that these people were very far ahead of everyone else for their time. It is amazing what they built considering the time period in which they lived. Again, it is very humbling to stand and think about who has stood here before and what has happened here before.

Part of an old Roman building.

In addition to visiting the Colosseum and Roman ruins, we also explored Rome by foot. Rome is a great walking city, 10-15 minutes and your at the next attraction. For Mom and Dad the next attraction was the Pantheon or the Vatican. However, for my brother and I it was the little pizza place on the corner or the gelateria. Let’s get one thing straight, Italians are some of the smartest people in the world, they invented pizza! Rome has the best food in the entire world. Amazing pasta, pizza, salads, you name it. To top it off, they have their own extra special ice cream, gelato. Rome had something special for each member of the family.

Gelateria

My personal favorite attraction in Rome was the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. The sculptures are so detailed! When we were looking for it we almost missed it. The Trevi Fountain literally just sticks out of the wall of some random building. Its so insane how they created every intricate detail. Towards the end of our time in Rome we each threw a coin in to the Trevi Fountain, hoping that we would be able to come back again someday.

Rome was one of the best cities I’ve ever been to. It certainly made our trip that much better. It was a perfect ending to one of the best family adventures ever!

Days 8-11 – Our Train Gets Derailed

We were finishing our last day in Paris by getting ready to depart for my personal most anticipated city…VENICE!!! I saw the Italian Job a few years back, and ever since then its been my dream to go to Venice. We were going to take a train from Paris to Venice. We got to the train station only to encounter our next big challenge. We had misplaced our tickets! Unfortunately, we didn’t find them in time to catch the train. So, once again, now what do we do?

We were forced to stay another night in Paris. Except this time we didn’t stay at a regular American hotel like the Courtyard. We stayed at a normal French hotel. This experience was actually really cool because we got to see how people in France really live, none of that touristy stuff. In the morning we went to the airport and found a flight going from Paris to Venice. We took it, and before we knew it we were on a Vueling plane towards Venice.

We arrived in Venice very late that night. About 1:00 in the morning. We checked into our hotel, which was the most wonderful hotel I’ve ever stayed in, and fell fast asleep. The next day we began to explore Venice.

Our hotel in Venice

We had an amazing time exploring all of the little canals and side streets of Venice. It definitely lived up to my high expectations. There is no other place in the world like it. Its simply amazing.

These are some pictures I took while walking around:

Days 4-7 – Back to Civilization

After our little “family reunion” outside of Mt. St. Michel we began the long 4 hour drive back to Paris. All of us were happy to get back to a place where you could get by knowing almost no French. Over the next couple of days we did many activities that included exploring the city, climbing up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, going to the very top of the Eiffel Tower, and visiting the Louvre.

View of Paris from the Arc de Triomphe

First we went to the Arc de Triomphe. Thinking that we were just going to go there, see it, and take a couple of pictures. We were very surprised when we found out that we could actually climb the stairs up to the top of the Arc and see the view of Paris from one of the most famous monuments in the world.

Small model of the Arc de Triomphe

View from the top of the Arc de Triomphe

The next day we decided to visit the Eiffel Tower. Which was the highlight of our time in Paris. We arrived at the tower in the afternoon. It was amazing, we all ran around taking pictures of the view and the tower itself. But don’t worry. We didn’t lose Mom here. It was getting dark. Just as we were about to leave, they lit the Eiffel tower blue! The lights coming off the tower and flashes of cameras down below were beautiful.

Looking up at the Eiffel Tower

Looking up at the Eiffel Tower lit up in blue.

Next up was Mom and Dad’s choice. We went to the Louvre. We tried to do the Louvre in a day. We failed, miserably. I don’t think you can complete the Louvre in a month let alone a day. There is so much to look at. Sculptures, paintings, Napoleon Bonaparte’s castle, etc. My favorite part of the Louvre was Napoleon’s castle and the famous glass pyramid that is outside of the Louvre. However, when I think of the Louvre I will forever remember RUNNING through it to try and get to the Napoleon exhibit before it closed. We made it just before it closed, just in case you were wondering.

Glass Pyramid at the Louvre

View of Napoleon's castle

View of Napoleon's castle through the glass pyramid.

We had so much fun in  Paris, we explored so many places throughout the city. As we were walking around we passed things like the Notre Dame Cathedral, and France’s Statue of liberty.

The Notre Dame Cathedral

Statue of Liberty in France

Day 3 – We lose Mom

Day 3 was Mont Saint-Michel day. We got up in the morning, ate breakfast at the bed and breakfast, said goodbye to “Mrs. Plum”, and started the 45 min drive to Mt. Saint Michel. This was one of the  most anticipated attractions for us on this trip. Almost everyone knows about Mont Saint Michel and we were only 30 minutes away from being there! As we got closer and closer we started to see Mt St. Michel off  in the distance.

Mont Saint-Michel off in the distance

We arrived at Mt St Michel during the low tide. Not as exciting as it would have been if it was high tide but it was still pretty exciting. As we entered Mont Saint Michel we were amazed at every turn. All four of us had out cameras and were taking pictures of everything and anything. Mt St. Michel has almost a small little town surrounding it. So before you can make your way to the huge staircase leading to the castle you make your way through the small town.

Entrance of Mt. St. Michel

Little village at the base of Mt. St. Michel

Once we got past the village we began the long trek up to the castle.

Stairs

Once up, we explored the castle and everything in it. We were all going in different directions to take pictures of different things, but at the same time, keeping an eye on the rest of the group.

View from the top of Mt. St. Michel

Mom always loves to learn about new things, and there were at least a dozen information plaques in the castle (Mom’s dream come true). So naturally when my Brother, my Dad and I were about halfway through the castle we started slowing down thinking that Mom was behind us. We finally backtracked and couldn’t find her.

Where we lost Mom

Maybe she is ahead of us? We rushed through the rest of the castle and down the stairs looking for Mom. No luck. It turns out Mom had gotten ahead of us and thought that she was being left behind. She ran down from the castle and upon not finding us went to the car. After scouring every inch of Mt. St. Michel we finally decided to go to the car with hopes that at least she would come and meet us there. We were surprised to find a grumpy Mommy waiting by the car. Whoops.

Day 2 – “Get Me to Caen!!”

We start off Day 3 in Honfleur. According to our schedule, today we will travel to a small town in between the two larger French towns of Caen and Mont-Saint Michel. We leave Honfleur around 9:00.  After the time change we were all a little tired except my dad, who had been dubbed “The Energizer Bunny” by my bother due to the fact that dad was always up and ready to go. I apparently was most effected by the time change because I fell asleep 5 minutes into the drive.

About an hour later I was woken up to arguing.  Almost immediately after we had left Honfleur we got lost. If you’ve never driven around France, one thing you should know is that there are dozens and dozens of roundabouts. I think the roundabouts are what threw us off. All I could hear is maps moving and my dad saying “Just get me to Caen!!! Get me to Caen!”

After a few hours of driving around, we finally got back on track. We got to our next bed and breakfast a few hours behind schedule but still a few hours too early to check in. So we decided to explore a small nearby french town. We stumbled across this old castle! This was one of the best parts of the two week trip and it wasn’t planned at all. It just goes to show you, sometimes spontaneity can lead to amazing discoveries.

We spent an amazing afternoon exploring the castle and the surrounding area. Finally it was time to go back to the bed and breakfast. This bed and breakfast was located on a farm. We spent the night in a renovated barn.

Renovated barn at the bed and breakfast.

The next morning we made some awesome discoveries. First, my brother and I woke up and opened the window to find grapes growing right on the windowsill. (We thought it was pretty awesome). Next, while we were at breakfast, we learned that this estate was once taken over by the Germans during WWII!

The house the Germans occupied during WWII

So the history surrounding this estate was unimaginable. Finally, we discovered a farm dog named “Mrs. Plum” running around the property. Being huge dog lovers my family and I had a great time playing with the dog.

An old barn at the bed and breakfast.

Days 1 and 2 – We Might Be the Loudest People in France

After getting to Paris, we immediately got in the car and drove to a small town on the coast of France called Honfleur. Mom and Dad are in the front seats of the car trying to translate the french signs while my brother and I are sitting in the back seat thinking we are contributing, when really we were just probably making things worse. It wasn’t very hard to find the main road to get to Honfleur and soon we are all just enjoying the scenery of the french countryside.

French Countryside

When we felt like we had the directions down, we ventured off the main road to stop at a grocery store for some snacks. As we enter what seems to be a local grocery store we realize two things, 1) Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is in French and 2) We are currently the loudest people in the store. Now when my brother and I are together we are generally pretty loud. We go back and fourth between being best friends and worst enemies. It changes on an hourly basis. This particular hour we happened to be best friends, which means we are talking loudly and joking with each other. So here comes our family, talking and joking with each other as we enter the store. Within two minutes we realize that the only sounds in the whole store are our voices. This is really strange because there are at least a dozen other people in the store. We quickly tone down our volume, pick something which we hope is an edible snack, and get back in the car. You know that scene in the movie where everything is still and quiet before the shooting starts? Well that’s the scene we were in. We just felt lucky that machine guns weren’t part of our scenario.

We finally make it to the small port town of Honfleur. Here we enjoy the famously delicious creeps while sitting by the inner harbor of Honfleur. That night we slept at a bed and breakfast. Because this was the first time any of us were getting sleep since our long plane ride to Ireland we all slept a LONG TIME.

Honfleur

The Beginning

My parents have always wanted to take a trip to Europe. They have been looking forward to this “Europe Trip” for the past 10 years. But with two kids, panning is a necessity. What age is the best age to take your kids? You don’t want to take them too young, because they won’t be able to appreciate anything. On the other hand, you can’t wait until they are too old and have their own families to worry about. My parents decided that the “right time” was when I was 17 and my brother was 14. It was the summer before my senior year. We planned to go to Honfleur, Normandy, Mont Saint-Michel, Paris, Rome, and Venice thought a two week vacation, spending no more than 4 days in each city.

Now if you’re thinking we ran this vacation like any other family, you’re wrong. Not only did we visit 6 different cities and 2 countries within two weeks, we also did this without suitcases. Have you ever seen those crazy tourists walking around with camping backpacks? You know, those backpacks that always seem bigger than the person carrying it? You watch like 3 people go by and then a few seconds later you see a straggler dragging their huge backpack, trying to catch up. Well that was my family!

The backpacks that we used for our two week trip.

Summer comes and we have everything ready. Our backpacks are all lined up, our itinerary is planned, and the doggies are taken care of. We drive to the Orlando International Airport to catch a 4:00 plane that will take us to Philadelphia before going on to Paris. BUT we encounter the first of many challenges in our trip less than an hour in. Due to the rather predictable afternoon showers that Central Florida gets almost everyday, our plane to Philadelphia is delayed. This means that we wont be able to make our Philadelphia to Paris connection. So basically because of the rain, we don’t get to go to Europe.

So now what do we do? We waited until we could finally get on our plane to go to Philadelphia. Once we got to Philadelphia, we ran as fast as we could through the terminal to get to the gate of out next plane. (I’m sure we got tons of crazy looks, with those backpacks and all). As we are running up to the gate we see the plane moving towards the runway….pretty much the most dramatic moment of the day. So what are our options now? We could stay overnight in Philadelphia and try and get a plane to Paris tomorrow, but that means losing a whole day of our precious time in Europe. Instead we tried to see if we could get on ANY other flight going to Europe. We finally found a plane that was leaving from Philadelphia to Dublin, and then from Dublin to Paris. We take it, and before we know it we are going through customs in Ireland. Fortunately we encounter no problems in Ireland and we arrive in Paris almost 12 hours behind schedule. But hey, it could have been a lot worse. We get in the car and we are off on our European Adventure…

Looking out the window on the way to Ireland