Ciao Bella

I am not sure where to begin, Rome was amazing, we saw the Colosseum, ancient ruins, Sistine chapel, ate delicious food, climbed the Spanish steps, saw famous fountains...then we headed off to Florence, where we climbed to the top of the duomo (amazing views and over 500 steps up and down for that matter) we saw the David, went to Uffizi museum...we did a day of Tuscany where we stopped in sienna, San gimignano (amazing wine and food) and saw the leaning tower of pisa. The next top was Venice where we saw the San Marco piazza and took a gondola ride at sunset.

Then we caught the cruise. The cruise itself was awful, I may never go on another cruise again, however the ports of call were awesome. We went to santorini and saw Oia village (the postcard town of Greece) and Fira village,


We went to Mykonos and had a traditional Greek meal, we then saw Rhodes, which is where my family is originally from, and we have our names on a plaque dedicated to those that were killed in the holocaust-It was amazing as my grandparents had done the same trip years ago and I grew up seeing those pictures.


The last stop was Dubrovnik which I am sure was amazing, but it was pouring rain and really windy and it was a Sunday so everyone was in church the whole town was closed up. We walked down the main street and saw the shops, and then walked on top of the wall of the old city-views were amazing-lagoons were unreal.


The pics we took are amazing, Joel's camera was awesome. So thank you to all who contributed. The album of pics is on facebook, because the files are huge. I am sure Joel will add some notes and his hilights of our trip.

For now just trying to settle back in, we have Amsterdam in a week Paris in 2 weeks and Iceland in 3 weeks...from there it will be a count down to come home.

Care Package

A care package from home is the nicest thing! My grandma just sent us a Halloween snow globe(by my favorite-Jim shore) candy corn and toffee to snack on! Its officially Halloween in London. It looks like another box is on its way with hommade cookies! The best part was seeing a handwritten note. Its a lot of fun here, but we sure do miss everyone, and to have a such a nice suprise really made my day and warmed my heart!

Thanks Grandma!

More to come!

So this weekend we have a day trip to Cotswold planned, and visiting the various museums and exhibits on the board walk at the Thames (sharks, Beatles, and Dahli).

Next week is the start of the travel break. Joel and I will be traveling to Rome, Florence and Venice before we leave for our Greek cruise. The cruise stops at Bari, Katakolon, Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes, Dubrovnik before returning to Venice.

After that the next trips are to Paris, Amersterdam and Iceland. We are working on more but that's all for now!

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace is usually off limits to tourists. However while the Queen is on holiday in the summer in Scotland you can get a special tour of the palace.



The palace is lavishly decorated and just gorgeous to see. The rooms have amazing artwork, cutlery, and clocks.

My favorite was The Apollo clock , it shows Apollo in his chariot drawn by four horses, in all gold! Joel's favorite was a Rembrandt Self Portrait.



The rooms are actually used by the Queen, her family and guests so no pictures are allowed to be taken (we have a souvenir guide book with pictures for anyone to see when we get home. It really felt as the palace was actively used, as stated in all of the tours. Which was completely different from the feeling I got seeing the White House tour in DC.

The grounds are just as amazing as the palace. They are wide and expansive and completely block out any trace of the hustle and bustle of the city just outside.

Abbey Road

Abbey Road Studios-The Beatles, recorded 90% of their recordings at Abbey Road studios. In April 1969, they came together to record their final album as a group and titled it ‘Abbey Road.’ This album became their best selling work and featured Abbey Road Studios and the now iconic image of the zebra crossing on the front cover.



On Abbey Road Studios they have painted over the brick wall, so you can write a message.



Everyone wants the shot like the album cover, what they don’t know is Abbey Road is a real street with a lot of very real traffic.

London Eye

The London Eye-Amazing panoramic flight on the world's tallest cantilevered observation wheel.



Joel and I decided to do the London Eye at sunset last Saturday. It was absolutely perfect and relaxing.

Museums

There are three museums within walking distance of our flat. So far I have seen "bits and pieces" of two of them and absolutely love it! I am sure as the rainy season hits, I will be spending more and more time meandering through the museums.

The first one we went to was the Victoria and Albert Museum, but we really only saw about one exhibit before I had to get back to work.

Last week we started working our way through the Natural History Museum. It was absolutely fabulous.

Here is the entery to the museum and then you work your way down floor by floor.





The best of the museum by far was the amazing dinosaur exhibit. We have to get back as there was no way to see it all in one day.



The museum had a special butterfly exhibit call the Butterfly Jungle, that I was able to go to. You walked into this large hot house to see tons of different species of butterflies flying all over the place. The butterflies were as different and varied as you can imagine, stripes, spots, and realy exoctic colors. My my favorite was a blue morpho butterfly.

EU Trip

EU Trip - short for European Union

I am sure Joel can add great insight to the reasoning for this trip and the various things we saw. So I am going to tell you about the craziness and beauty of the places we saw.



The basic premise was to see how the European Union worked by going to different courts and parliment. We started off in Brussels, went from there to Luxembourg, from Luxembourg to Strasbourg (now French but has been fought over so often between France and Germany the name itself is half German, Stras, half French, Bourg) and then back to Brussels. Needless to say we spent a lot of time on the bus and in trains.

In Luxembourg I didnt see much more than the main part of town and the hotel, however the hotel room we had was on the top floor with a wrap around balcony overlooking the city. It was stunning. The main center of town was hugely diverse, you could have any type of food you wanted and we able to view the town playing from sun up to sun down.



Strasbourg was like walking into a French movie.



Strasbourg was surrounded in wonderful pastry shops, history, culture and water ways. We saw a chapel that was contructed in the 1300s and took a boat tour that included the use of a lock!!! It was soo beautiful and a place I would love to get back to.







The best part of the trip for me was being back in Brussels just before leaving. We stayed at this 5 star resort call Be Manos, the rooms and bathrooms were sooo luxurious I did not want to leave.



Upon getting there and looking around in the city, we headed back to the the rooftop bar at the hotel. We all decided to get comfortable to enjoy our last night of the trip, all I can say is good times, good friends and great memories!!

London Antics

Its all very different here. Like say you need to go to the store and stock up on necessities, as opposed to having to go to the store every other day. Joel and our roommate John decided to go to Tescos-similar to a large market (i.e. costco and walmart) with discount prices.

We orginally tried to order online but due the fun of a US credit card, and a UK verification process we couldnt get that to work. So the boys left, armed with their oyster cards (tube card) and duffle bags to bring the food back. Apparently their eyes were much bigger than their carriers. The guys came back with arms filled with groceries, bags tied together so they could be worn on their shoulders and belts! Then they had to get down to the subway (you take several flights down) and then out of the subway (several flights up)and then treck at least 6 blocks home. It was quite a site!

I mean imagine going to costco and then trying to get everything home without a car!

Bad Blogger

Hi Everyone

I am just going to put it out there I am a bad blogger. So much to see and do and not enough time to write it all down. So I am going to start of easy with a quick general update on London and life here. Then I will go a little bit back and put on the EU trip and then hopefully that will catch us up just in time to be gone for Italy and Greece =)

The Mews-London has this adorbale cobble stone alleyways that are like a hidden network for getting around and avoiding busy noisy streets. The one we take from our flat to Joel's school actually makes you walk through what is called "the hole in the wall" just as you think you have hit a dead end you look to the right and there is a doorway that links you to yet another mews. Its very cool and you can see what London authors have such great imaginations. Secret passages ways, holes in wall, its all VERY clever.