European Dream

Surprise! We just got back from a 2 week vacation to Europe! It was an amazing vacation, and so great to actually be able to spend some time with each other. Our adventure included visiting: Rome, Prague, Southern Germany and Austria. We managed to travel by practically every single type of transportation: car, air, train, bus, metro, boat, tram and of course…FOOT! We walked and walked and walked. I bet on average we walked approximately 10 miles per day. I thought that my feet would fall off on more than one occasion, my calves and legs have never been more sore, but it was well worth it. I will do this post in 4 sections - one for each country that we traipsed across.

Our first stop: Roma

We had only a vague idea of where our “hotel” was. We were going to be staying in what we thought was a quaint little bed and breakfast. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Danny confirmed with the reservation center about when we would be arriving on multiple occasions, so we didn’t think we would have a problem. We wandered the streets of Rome with all our luggage for about an hour looking for the right street, and the right name. We thought we had finally found it when we saw a little place with the same name, so we rang the bell and went in. It turns out that the place we booked through has three different locations all with the same name. We had to go to a little internet café to find the phone number. When we called the man to ask for directions, we found out that he doesn’t actually live in Rome, but a few hours away and that the place that we are renting is actually his apartment. We were totally bummed out because we had our days planned out meticulously since we were only going to be there for a few days. We didn’t want to lose any time, so we hauled our luggage a few blocks to the train station and left it there in a little holding place. We then made our way to…THE COLOSSEUM! However, on our way there we found a gigantic cathedral called Saint Marry Maggiore.

We walked around the Colosseum for a couple hours before we had to go meet the guy at our “hotel.” Luckily he was there this time, but when we went in, a very overpowering smell came upon us. It smelled like an old folks home, to the max. I had to hold my breath. We got everything settled and headed to our room which was just down a tiny hallway. Our room didn’t stink which was good. We changed, got cleaned up a bit and headed back to the Colosseum. We did a tour of the inside and then walked around the city a bit afterwards. The night ended by eating real Italian Spaghetti and Lasagna and stopping for Gelato on the way back.
Day two was crazy…a lot of sights and even more walking! Here’s the breakdown of the day. We first went to Vatican City which was pretty cool. We started off at St. Peter’s Basilica, which is HUGE! We then made out way to the Vatican Museums.

The Vatican Museam tour ended with Michael Angelo’s Sistine Chapel. It was awesome, beautiful, big, and simply amazing. We weren’t supposed to take pictures, but I managed to sneak this one. Don’t worry, it was without the flash so it won’t damage the paintings!

Vatican City was almost an all day thing, but we did manage to make it to the Borghese Gallery Museum after much walking, getting lost, and a lot of foot pain. It couldn’t have been a more beautiful place to get lost though. It was just a gigantic green park with flowers, and huge trees. Day three was really cool. We saw Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps, The Pantheon, Capitoline Hill, The Roman Forum, and The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Surprisingly, we didn’t get lost one time on this day, which was great for my feet. (Pictures are in order of the aforementioned list)

Our next stop? Prague….so stay tuned.