Travels to Europe

My dream of traveling to Europe has been fulfilled, and that makes me the luckiest girl in the world. This wasn't one of those relaxing, read-a-book-in-Tuscanny type vacations--it was go-go-go from sun-up to sundown. Needless to say, we saw a lot in the short time we were there. Since I can't share all 2,000 pictures, I narrowed it down to a few highlights... And when I say "few," I mean like 40... so grab a snack and schedule a bathroom break, because it's going to take you a while...

We began our journey in Roma--or as the Italians say it--Rom-UH. In many ways Rome was the way I imagined it--the narrow cobblestoned streets with tall buildings on either side, outdoor cafes, really hot, and of course the ruins of Ancient Rome. Although it was different in many ways too. It was kind of dirty, crowded  (it's a tourist trap that claims 30 million visitors a year), and traffic was unlike anything I'd ever seen. Most of the cars were smart cars and tiny mini-cooper-like cars, but they go so fast down those narrow streets with the mopeds and scooters shooting in and out. I had to take a deep breath before crossing the streets or getting into a taxi--it was a real test of bravery just to cross the streets.

The Colesseum. This was by far my most favorite site in Rome for a couple reasons: it's a massive structure that is still standing after 2000 years, and it's history is so interesting--thousands of people sat in the stands and witnessed the destruction of thousands of lives through gladiator fights and even naval battles.... pretty cool.

The Pantheon. It was built as a Pagan temple but was later transformed into a Christian church.

The Trevvy Fountain. It was impressive, but just a hop-skip-and-a jump to my left was a gelato shop that was even more impressive. The creamiest and dreamiest ice cream I've ever tasted. Let me just say, the 11-hour trip is worth it.

The Spanish Steps. Quite a popular place as you can see.

Overlooking the Arch of Constantine and other ruins near the Colesseum

I can't remember what this piazza (city square) is called. But it's where we met to get on the bus for our tours. Italy is full of these piazzas--which are huge city squares where people socialize or try to sell flowers to the tourists.

St. Paul's Basilica. (You'll see St. Peter's later, but this one is all Paul's.) This church was beautiful. The faces of all the popes line the walls with a light shining on the current pope. There was a little booth in the corner with a priest inside where you could make confessions (we jokingly tried to convince Collin to not take any chances before his mission and get clean, but he wouldn't) and the dome was filled with a beautiful mosaic. Interesting fact: this church has a door that only the pope can open every 25 years on a jubilee year. Then every catholic is encouraged to walk through this door or the doors of one of the other 3 main churches in Rome/ Vatican City sometime in that year. At the end of the year the Pope closes the door. So just a heads up, if you're planning on visiting Rome, avoid the year 2025--it sounds busy.

Another view of the inside. Like I said, gorgeous.

Here is a short tour of the food in Italy. Near the bottom is that gelato I mentioned. It's chocolate chip and strawberry and so, so, so delicious. Above is bruschetta, they put tomatoes, mushrooms, and all sorts of stuff on their bruschetta. And to the bottom is a pizza called Mt. Vesuvio. The pizza is thin and comes uncut, so you had to cut it yourself.

Now on to Vatican City, which is NOT Italy. It is its own country. The Italians seemed to be pretty adamant about it, so don't you forget it. As the headquarters of the Catholic church, we saw St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, and other buildings. It was beautiful and interesting, but very, very different.

St. Peter's Square and St. Peter's Basilica. An entire church dedicated to Peter--it houses his ashes and in the back of the church is a special chapel that only the Pope is allowed in to. Also in this chapel is a majestic looking throne that is said to be St. Peter's throne (of course!)

Here's the whole group in front of St. Peter's square and the basilica.

This famous statue is also found in St. Peter's Basilica. It's called the Pieta, and it was Michelangelo's first piece done in Rome. I think he was only 21 years old.

The Swiss Guard. To qualify you do have to be Swiss, and by my reckoning, extremely confident.  It would take guts to pull off a uniform like that. They serve for 3 years.

The Sistine Chapel. This experience was unique. All the tourists were herded through the maze that is known as the Vatican Museums. We saw multiple statues of naked boys, numerous tapestries, and all in no air-conditioning. It turns out this is the only entrance into the Sistine Chapel. Once in the chapel, it was packed wall to wall with people. And an Italian guard who stood on a pedestool would clap his hands and then yell, "This is a holy place! Silencio! No Photo!" Then all the chatter would quiet down and the flashes from cameras would stop. But then just 2 minutes later everyone would start talking and taking pictures again, so the Italian guard would clap his hands as he yelled "Silencio!" and repeat the whole process over. My dad was able to capture the most famous scene in the whole chapel--Adam touching the finger of God. The whole thing is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

The view overlooking the city of Napoli and the Mediterranean was incredible.

Next, we visited Pompeii. It was a 3-hour bus ride down to Naples and then over to Mt. Vesuvio. The volcano that erupted and destroyed the city of Pompeii 2,000 years ago. The way up the mountain was a narrow road with sharp switch-backs across the mountain. Oh yeah, and the way down is the same way as going up. So here we are on this huge charter bus, and each time our bus driver, Antonio, reached a turn he would start honking his horn to warn the buses coming down in the opposite direction. There were  few close calls--like within mere inches--but somehow Antionio took us up and down safely.

My most favorite day of the whole trip--Florence. This was another 3-hour bus ride but this time to the North up into Tuscanny. Florence wasn't only the most beautiful city I've seen, but it is home to many of the great minds and pieces of the Renaissance, including Michelangelo's David. A lot of the famous art work we have today was either completed in this city or comissioned by the Medici family that ran the city. Oh, and we can't forget the leather. They had numerous markets that sold belts, jackets, wallets, and purses all made of luxurious Italian leather.

The drive up to and through Tuscanny was beautiful. We saw countless villages such as this tucked up in the hills that literally looked like they were stuck in medieval times. Since the villages were up in the hills, the valleys were a beautiful array of farmland--vineyards, corn, grains, and my favorite, sunflowers.

Ah, Florence. Nothing can quite compare to this quintessential European city. The huge building with the dome is what everyone calls the Duomo. But it's real name is the Cathedral of St. Mary the Flower. We've seen St. Peter's and St. Paul's churches, but this one is all St. Mary's. Italian Catholics love, and I mean LOVE Mary. Their love is evident in this cathedral, because it is incredible.  It is massive and beautiful on the outside, and just as massive and beautiful on the inside. That huge dome was possible because it was actually built as a smaller dome inside of a larger dome. You can climb to the top and walk in between the two domes, but we didn't have time. When I go back, I guess....

Florence

One with the fam

Why not? One more

Like I said, Florence was home to many brilliant minds. One of those minds being the author of Pinocchio. We kept seeing Pinocchios all over and finally asked our tour guide. Who knew that Pinocchio was Italian? I guess the name "Gepetto" would be a good clue, but I had no idea. The things you learn on vacation...

Rubbing the boar's snout for good luck, along with every other visitor to Florence as seen by its shiny nose. You can probably tell by the look on my face that I'm not thinking of my soon-to-be good luck, but rather the amount of germs on one small space of metal from all those tourist hands.

Now our time in Italy ends and we head up to Germany. We went from one extreme to the other--Italy, with it's dirty streets and unbearable heat and humidity; and then, Germany, with it's super clean streets and unseasonably cold and rainy weather. We flew into Frankfurt and then drove two cars on the autobahn to a place called Homburg. I just loved these little European towns that looked like they were stuck in time. We arrived on a Sunday, so the city was dead. No shops were open (except for the ice cream shop, thank goodness) and people weren't out and about. This town had more than own church, and on the hour  these church bells would ring and ring. I really liked this little town, but sadly we only spent one night in it and then were off again the next morning. (If I would've known that was the plan I would have taken more pictures.)            

The view from our balcony. This is right after Collin sang "the hills are alive with the sound of music" out the window. Then he asked for a picture of him with the nuclear power plant in the background, he's not one who usually requests pictures taken of himself so I decided I better take it.

After our John Deere chopper/combine tour in Sweibrucken, we were on the road again to yet another John Deere plant. This one in Mannheim. But we took the scenic route and avoided the autobahn. It took a bit longer, but boy oh boy was it worth it. We saw some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen and even made a stop in France.

Thanks to Collin's photography skills we were able to capture this sign. We were on our way to Zweibrucken, not the town listed above it....

... which is too bad, because it looks like they were having a party. That would have made for a good story to tell back home.

Like I said, the most beautiful scenery of rolling hills and agriculture I've ever seen, that's why I had to make this photo extra large. And the sad part is, this picture doesn't quite do the real thing justice.

A lovely agricultural shot with the parents captured by Collin.

This was our stop in France--a grocery store. We didn't even know what town we were in, somewhere near Metz is all we knew. But this grocery store stop proved to be one of the favorite European sites (and in Uncle Steven's opinion, probably THE most favorite site.) This grocery store is evidence as to why America is obese and Europe is not. Pretty much the entire store was whole, fresh produce. However, near the front they did have an incredible candy counter. And where were the only Americans in the store found? Yes, at the candy counter. I'm positive we looked like foreigners. Here are a few things that gave us away: Uncle Steve taking pictures of almost every vegetable and green olive, our whole group trying to clean out the county counter, Jamison unintentionally almost stealing the key to their bathroom, and Uncle Steve returning to the candy counter on three different occasions (as evidenced in the above picture.)

Out last day was spent in two different locations. The morning was spent in Mannheim, where we saw yet another John Deere plant. This one was huge. I was more impressed with all the people eating in the cafeteria than I was at the actually tractor production. We spent the afternoon in a quaint little place called Heidelberg. This place is known for it's Heidelberg castle which is up against the mountain overlooking the town and the Neckar River. This little town is home to Germany's oldest university. My favorite part was the narrow cobblestoned streets lined with shops and bakeries. It reminded me of Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley.

This is the town of Bad Durkheim outside of Mannheim. I liked this little town a lot. We stayed overnight here but didn't have the time to explore it much.

This is me sitting in a big tractor tire at the factory in Mannheim. There was a variety of tractors in the "show room" of the factory, and I was told by my parents to go sit by my favorite one and they'd take a picture. Well my "favorite" was the one with the tires taller than me.

The whole group in front of the castle. Heidelberg is known for three main things: the oldest university in Germany, their Christmas store, and the Heidelberg Castle. The castle has many different looks to it because each different prince added on to it. It was kind of rainy and cold this day; hence why I''m wearing a white Italian leather coat courtesy of Stacey (the lady in the red hoodie.)

View of the city. It's uniqueness is captured in the fact that it wasn't bombed during WWII, something that is a rarity in Germany.

"Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb..." Surprisingly, her little lamb tasted good. The food in Germany was all about the meat and potatoes--a lot of pork dishes like schnitzel, and a lot of beef and lamb too. I found everything I tasted quite delicious.

On the bridge over the Neckar River. This bridge provided some amazing views of the city and the river.

This statue is at the entrance of the bridge. I couldn't tell what it was until someone told me. I will give you a hint--the statue is a baboon and you're not looking at this face.


All in all, it was a fabulous trip. I'm dreaming of a return trip someday, but it's ok if it doesn't happen because this one was very memorable!!