JAYanthem blog

You can thank my cousin for pushing me in gear to finally get something out here on our Europe trip. I haven’t posted anything about Europe yet as I was trying to wait until we got our travel blog & pics up- but that is proving to be quite the effort so I’ll finally post some comments and give you a sneak peak at what we are working on in regards to pics.

If you recall we went to Europe for about 3.5 weeks back in May. As part of the journey we went on a Rick Steve’s 14 Day Best of Europe tour which was absolutely AWESOME. The tour included Paris, Beaune (France), Switzerland, Austria (near German border), Venice, Tuscany region (Florence), and Rome. We also spent 4 days before the trip on our own in London/Paris and 6 days after in Germany.

I like using lists so I’ll start with that:

Favorite Moment: Gondola ride in Venice with the beautiful musicians echoing off the canal walls

Wow Moment: Walking around the corner and suddenly seeing the Eiffel Tower (for the 1st time) between two buildings.

Favorite Activity: Biking 3,000 ft down the Swiss Alps from Murren to Lauterbrunnen

Favorite Big City: Paris, there is just so much to do and it is so beautiful.

Favorite Small Town: Tie between San Gimignano, Italy & Lauterbrunnen Switzerland

Friendliest People: No one was unfriendly to us, but surprisingly the French were the nicest of all!

Best Meal: There were tons, but the best was this little shop in San Gimignano, Italy that had the best gnocchi I’ve ever had. They also had a wonderful red house wine. Neat little place with only one waitress and one cook- neither spoke a single word of English but loved to smile!

Best Place to Get a Beer: Hofbrauhaus in Munich, no question. Community tables, 4,000 people, great beer in liter mugs, and an oom-pah band. Come on…

Best Place to Enjoy some Wine: Sitting out behind our quaint inn looking upon the rolling hills of Tuscany

If I Had to Live There: Munich Germany, what a great city- lots of greenery, bike paths everywhere, and great beer!

Absolutely Must Return To: Paris, the Swiss Alps, and Tuscany

We are very glad we did the Rick Steve’s tour as it was an extremely stress-free way of traveling not to mention we had a great tour guide (full of great info) and a surprisingly young & fun group. The tour was filled with built-in free time so we still enjoyed plenty of great moments on our own as expected. It was perfect for a first trip to Europe as it helped give us confidence to travel on our own if we should choose. Although to be honest we enjoyed it so much that I wouldn’t be surprised if we did another Rick Steve’s tour somewhere in Europe.

Ok this is getting long- so I’ll post to other comments I had about culture and reception tomorrow. For now here’s a sneak peak at the pictures. We are using a sweet site called Tabblo and here is the first city- London, which we did on our own prior to our tour.

Pictures: Europe 2007 – London