Rome started out rushed. We took an early train from Florence and arrived at Roma Termini station just before 10am. From the train station we dropped our luggage off at the hotel and took a cab to the Vatican for our 11:15am Scavi Tour. This is the same tour that Matt, Lyle, and I participated in last year. Katie, Julie, and Alan toured the excavations of the Vatican without me, since I had already done it.
To Florence we went! After our arrival, we ventured to Piazza della Signoria which was home to lots of statues and a replica of the Statue of David. We were not able to take a picture of the real David so a picture of the fake one will have to suffice.
From canals to seas we continued! We have arrived in Cinque-Terre. First things first, we roamed around town until we were able to find our hostel. Little did we know we would have to hike up a mountain to get there! Eventually, we made it and got settled in. Next, we went to the coast to see what the city had to offer. We found some giant rocks that we wanted to play on that snaked around in the sea. We felt like little kids again! 🙂
From the Swiss Alps to the canals of Venice we ventured! We did not get a very warm welcome, however. When we arrived it was raining, and people if you know what Venice is like you would feel very sorry for us. The city is a labyrinth. We felt like rats in a maze as Alan put it…dead ends in every direction and streets going every which way. To make matters worse, Justin’s GPS phone was dying. By some miracle we arrived unscathed at our hotel. Unbeknownst to us, our hotel happened to be right by a tourist attraction too, which we had no idea even existed!!
DISCLAIMER: Julie wrote this post as well.
We left Paris for the relaxing countryside of Switzerland. While its very beautiful, it’s also very expensive so we have been cooking all of our meals…turns out Matt is quite the cook! We hiked up the base of Schilthorn, however, due to waist high snow we were unable to continue the trek to the top. But no need to worry we found a way! We took the lift…what a genius idea 🙂 The view was gorgeous and we could see for miles!
DISCLAIMER: Julie wrote this post.
After our arrival into Paris, we decided we wouldn’t be true tourists if the first thing we saw was not the Eiffel tower. Therefore, to the Eiffel Tower we went. We had to open a bottle of champagne under the tower. This was very important to Julie as she was able to cross it off her bucket list. It also happened to be night, so we were able to view it with all of the lights on. Also, every hour it has a light show so we were able to see that as well.
After crossing the Channel tunnel into France and taking another train west out of Paris, we finally arrived at Caen, France. Caen is the largest town in the Normandy region on France. We located our rental car and hotel and then headed over to the Memorial Museum.
Katie and Justin flew out of Salt Lake City on May 25 and met up with Julie during our layover in Detroit. From there, we flew across the Northern Atlantic to London. After some slight delays at Heathrow, we finally made it to our hotel and met Alan and Matt. We quickly ran over to Westminster to visit the Abbey before it closed.
As many of you know, we have planned a new trip to Europe for the summer of 2012. We will be travelling for 3 weeks starting May 25 and getting back June 18. Here’s the rundown of our itinerary:
I’ve had a couple people ask me how much I spent on my 55 day European tour. Here’s the breakdown.
| Airfare | $1362 |
| Railway | $1171 |
| Lodging | $2032 |
| Rental car + gas | $165 |
| Everything else: restaurants, groceries, entrance fees, etc |
$3317 |
| Total | $8047 |
It was definitely worth it. Obviously, there are hundreds of ways that I could have saved money throughout the trip. Stay tuned for a follow-up post on my “lessons learned” from the summer.