More From Europe

Okay, so here's a brief synopsis on the rest of our trip so far. Dave and I are currently in Edinburgh, Scotland. We arrived this morning via Sleeper Train. Although we had a slight issue with that, we did make it at 7:30am this morning. But first we spent 3 days in London. While in London we did the normal sightseeing such as Kennsington Palace, Hyde Park, Kennsington Gardens, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, London Tower, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace (changing of the Guards), and the Mews (horses) at Buckingham. We also toured Stonehenge and Bath. So we managed to see and do a lot in 3 days thanks to short lines! Stonehenge was awesome. We took a guided tour so we were actually able to go out and touch the stones and play around for an hour. Dave and I had a blast there. Bath was pretty neat too. I really loved that town it self and anyhing to do with Roman times is always amazing to us!



Now we are in Edinburgh. Today we saw Edinburgh Castle which was really neat. Then we walked the Royal Mile and also through Holyrod Park up to a point overlooking the city. Tomorrow we are off to do a day tour of Loch Lomond and Stirling Castle.

A Very Long Journey

Today is the first day we have had free Wifi service so this post will be long. Here is our blog so far from the trip.

Thursday/Friday- It seemed like we were never going to get to Europe this time. The journey to Paris from LAX was a long one. We did not have a direct flight this time. Instead we flew to Philly, had a 3.5 hour layover, and then a 7 hour flight to Paris! Wow what a day. We only got about 3 hours of sleep Thursday night. Since the 16th was Dave’s official 30th birthday we went out to happy hour at Outback then back to Arielle’s to play some Mario Party. We finally headed to bed at around 12am and we got up at 3:25am!!! We did manage to sleep a few hours on the flight to Philly. But we spent our hours in Philly charging our electronics (IPODS), eating lunch, and resting.

Dave trying to sleep in the Philly Airport

We boarded our fight to Paris at about 5:45pm and arrived at 7:45am! We were exhausted, but we made the most of our first day and enjoyed the sights of Paris. Our first stop was at the Arch de Triumph. Then we took a stroll down Champs Elyses and ate lunch outside at a sidewalk bistro. Next we went to Notre Dame and there was a bread festival going on. It smelled so good and we tasted some great bread. Of course we really couldn’t understand anyone but it was still lot of fun. Our final stop for the day was the Pantheon where we took a tour and got to see more views of Paris. It was a great day in Paris but by the end we were totally exhausted. At least we have a really comfy bed at our hotel.

Road from the top of the Arch De Triumph

Saturday – Today was again spent enjoying the sights of Paris. It was looking kind of gray in the morning so instead of sticking to the original plan we headed to the Louvre. This place was soooo big and amazing. I’ve never seen so much artwork in one place. Here we got to see 2 pretty famous items…the Venus DiMilo and the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa was much smaller than I had expected, but still awesome to see. Next we decided to take a stroll through the park at the Lourve. Then it was off to catch the train to go to Monmarte and Sacra Couer (sp?). This area was really neat. Lots of personality and the cathedral that sat up on top of the hill offered amazing views of Paris. At the base of the cathedral was another little fair going on. This one had some local French wineries; of course we bought 2 bottles of wine to take home. We just couldn’t resist the French wines. For the rest of the afternoon we headed to Luxembourg Gardens and walked and had some sorbet. Saturday evening we decided to head over to the Eiffel Tower. We had dinner at a cute little French bistro then took night time photos of the Tower. We were going to go up but decided the line was pretty long and that we would wait for the next day. So instead we headed to Champs Elyses to have some wine.

Eifel Tower at Night

Sunday – well we woke up today and Paris was pretty much socked I with clouds and rain. How unfortunate since we did the Louvre yesterday. We decided to start the day our with a Nutella and Banana crepe along with “American “coffee” (meaning big coffee). Then we headed to another small area of Paris to see the Picasso Museum Oh, I really loved this area of town. It almost reminded me of Italy with all the small streets and cute buildings. After the museum we stopped at a cute Patstry/choclatier shop and bought a Chocolate Mousse torte…oh it was so good! After wards we walled around and then headed back into the main part of the city to catch a tour on the Seine River. Next we headed to the Eiffel Tower. The weather still was not great so we only went up the second level. I liked it here thought because you were still outside and had great views. Sunday night ww ate dinner somewhere near the Latin Quarter (at least we think so). Dinner was so amazingly great and we shared a bottle of white wine and sat outside overlooking the crowded streets of Paris. To end our visit in Paris we walked around by the Seine and then headed back to champs Elsyses for desert

Me along the Siene River

My wrap-up of Paris: I loved it!!! I was as comfortable in Paris as I was in Italy. I found everyone to be super nice and willing to try and understand us. The culture is wonderful and I especially loved sitting at the cute outdoor cafes. IIate horrible, but I’m on vacation. Everything I had was suberb..Salmon, beef, Crème Caramel, Crepes. But the Crème Brulee was to die for. My comparison was like drinking Guinness in Ireland…it was so much better in Paris. So anyway, I would go back to Paris in a heartbeat. It was amazing and an experience I will never forget! I only learned the basic French words but we were fine getting around.

Au Revoir for now!

Marathon Vacation

Dave has termed our latest Europe Vacation as a "marathon vacation" and has even compared it to hiking to Half Dome! Yes it's a crazy trip, and overall it probably satisifies my personality more than Dave's even though its his birthday trip. In my defense I did ask him where he wanted to go and it all meant doing a lot in 2 weeks. As he wanted horse racing, a few days in Paris (for me), beer in Dublin, and some castles.

So we start off the trip with Dave's birthday Happy Hour in Burbank. Then its off for a few hours of sleep before driving to LAX at an ungodly hour for a 6:30 am flight to Philly.

When we finally arrive we will have 3 days in Paris to visit the Eiffel tower (again), the louvre, Picasso Musesum, Arch De Triumph, a boat tour down the Seine, and other sights. We will also make sure to sit at an outdoor cafe with a bottle of French Wine!

Then its off to london via Chunnel. In london we are staying by Hyde Park and will see a lot of the sights including Kensington Palance, Changing of the Guard, the Royal Mews (horses), Londonw Tower, London Bridge, Big Ben, and do a sunset tour of Stonehenge. Here we plan to drink newcastle in some british pubs.

Next we are off to Edinburgh to see the city including Edinburgh Castle. One day we will even tour Loch Lomond and one of the National Parks.

Our next stop is Glasgow and/or St andrews (famous for scottish golf).

Finally On the 28th we make our way to Ireland. First we head to Northern Ireland by ferry and spend an afternoon in Belfast before heading down to Dublin. Our last two days will be spent touring Dublin including Newgrange, drinking Guiness, and going to the horse races. Can you believe that the horse race we are going to is sponsored by Miller Beer!!!! Give me a Guiness or Smithwicks instead please!

The very end of our trip will be spent in Pennsylvannia for my friends wedding. I can't wait to take pictures there and see how I do! So it's all pretty exciting but a little stressful at the same time since we're less than a week away. I promise to try and post on the blog and maybe photos too. We do have internet access in London. So check back for more!

Photo of the Day:

My Dilema

So this past weekend I went to go help the local wedding photographer with a wedding. After I came back I really started thinking about this assisting thing. I mean I love photography and I would love to learn more and get better. But I don’t know if it’s worth it. I don’t get to see Dave that much during the week and the weekends are what I consider “our time” together. So If I continue with the assisting thing it means I won’t be able to see Dave as much, besides we’d really have to cut down on our weekend travels. Then there is the fact that I feel like a glorified gopher. I’m not doing any photography and I’m basically just running around getting and hauling equipment. Which I really don’t think I want to spend my Saturdays doing that. Dave tells me to hang in there a bit longer and see what happens, but I just don’t know. I’m starting to think I’m just not ready to commit to something like this at this point in my life. My weekends are important me, spending time with Dave is important and learning the art of photography is imporant. So how do I fit all that in. If you have any advice, let me know. Maybe I should just stick to taking some more advanced photography classes and skip out on this assisting thing. What do you think?

On another note...Dave and I leave for our extended vacation in less than 2 weeks! OMG! There is so much to do. And we have Dave's work party this saturday down in Universal. Plus I have a ton of stuff to get down at work. Talk about stressed. I can't wait to be on that plane and know I don't have anything to worry about for over 2 weeks!