10 Years and counting...

Ok, technically it won't be 10 years until July but Bryan and I celebrated our 10 yrs of marriage with a trip to Europe, namely London, Paris and Rome. We had...A WONDERFUL TIME. We did a tour with Go Ahead Tours that was structured while still allowing a lot (if you wanted) of free time to pick and choose activities. It really worked out well for us. The tour took care of hotels and busses and provided guides for included and add-on activities. Our trip guide Erik was awesome (totally recommended) and the folks in our group were pretty great too.:)

I was so glad to be there with Bryan, not only because he's my favorite person in the whole world but also because he is awesome with a map! We only got misplaced once and he got us back on track just fine. The transit system in London and Paris is to be admired and longed for. WHY don't we have something so convenient and cheap here?!! I know this is Detroit and we love our cars but still...:) The system in Rome wasn't as good because, as our guide told us, every time they go to dig another subway (or Metro or whatever they want to call it) they dig up another ruin and the ancient studies people descend en masse. So I'm thinking they should go up and do an El or something. Anyway, we got in and out of all the cities just fine!:)

At any rate, we did and saw OH SO MUCH!

In London, we saw (from the outside) the clock tower of Big Ben (you of course know that Big Ben is actually the bell, not the clock. I didn't know that before our guided tour of London. Oh, the things you learn...), Parliament, Westminster Abbey, multiple statues (everyone from Winston Churchill to Nelson Mandela to George Washington) and more. We went inside St. Paul's which houses some beautiful mosaics where we enjoyed Evensong. The "sermon" was provided by the visiting librarian from somewhere. We figured stopping her outside the church to discuss some misinterpretations in her sermon probably wouldn't go over well. We also heard a bit of organ which...well, when heard inside a cathedral of that magnitude and beauty is not to be missed. We also visited the Tower of London in a guided tour by this yeoman warder . He was very funny and informative but I was very glad the kids weren't there as he spent some time discussing monsters under the bed and assuring the kids in his group that they were real!:) The Tower was a highlight. While there we saw some of the crown jewels. We couldn't take pictures but, ladies, the biggest diamond was slightly bigger than a large chicken egg and beautifully cut! We also ran into the British Museum where we spent most of our time in the Egyptian and Greek displays surrounded by beautiful statues, mosaics and mummies!:) We also went to a very nice Indian restaurant (which is basically the national food of London). We also went to a nice steak restaurant. It was good but I do have to say, save buying steak until you come home. It's one thing we do much better than Europeans!:)

So, after London, Paris! We did a driving tour of all the biggies: Tour d'Eiffel, L'Arc de Triomphe, Paris Opera House, etc! We also added a trip to Versailles where our guide Isabelle did a phenomenal job leading us through the palace of the Sun King (who really did fancy himself like Apollo). The gardens were expansive and really would've been impossible to see in the time we had available to us. That night we went to the Arc De Triomphe, took pictures, walked down the Champs-Elysées (you would think that Swarovski would be cheaper in Europe) and back up to the Arc to take pictures at sunset. Wonderful to walk together, sit and experience Paris. The next day we decided to visit the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie which both house beautiful impressionist works by Monet, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Sargent, etc. Why, you ask, did we not go to the Louvre? Well, with our limited time we decided to go to a museum (or two) that could actually be seen in a day rather than a week plus. I'm glad we did. The Orangerie housed eight HUGE Monets. IDK, maybe it's just me but I never quite think of the SCALE of some of the pieces I see in books. These Monet pieces are housed in two large oval rooms with long benches in the middle. Sitting, your whole periphery is filled with the beauty of Monet. Four of the pieces were 30 ft long. Just beautiful!
To those who know of my addiction to le café, yes, I did manage to score some at the various brasseries, cafés and restaurants we ate at.:) Be careful though. In Europe they tend to use milk instead of cream. Blech!:)

Ok, now to Rome. Our first stop was a restaurant right outside the Colosseum! The pasta was very good but the scenery was better!:) Then some kind of race of antique cars (the Mille Miglia) was going on and they were driving right by the restaurant. The guys were getting very excited by that!:) The next morning we went on the Vatican tour (btw, buying a tour was totally worth it just for the ability to get in without standing in line for this. They receive over 4 million visitors a year!). One of the popes was a lover of art and he had Michelangelo whispering in his ear on which pieces to buy so there were some absolutely amazing things in the Vatican collection! Amazing statues, tapestries and in St. Peter's, mosaics you wouldn't believe. Awestruck! The tesserae (mosaic pieces) were so small, the mosaics looked like paintings. I seriously thought the lines I was seeing were the crackling that appears on old oil paintings. Unbelievable. The Vatican has a college of mosaic masters who are in charge of repairing the works inside St. Peter's. They also create other works (recreations of Van Gogh, Monet in mosaic). Bryan and I have never been so tempted to spend that amount of money on a non-necessity! We managed to walk away because the piece (Van Gogh) we would've wanted was about 13,000 dollars!:) Guess I'll have to see what I can make at home!;) The next day was historical tour of Rome. Our guide Joanna took us on a bus tour of various sites and then to the Colosseum where we went inside and spent some time. Then we walked to a city center where there were a lot of ruins of various temples and the senate building (which was not ruined as it was turned into a church). Most of the ancient Roman buildings in Rome are in ruins unless they were commandeered into churches. The people cannibalized the marble and other things for their own homes as it wasn't important to them to keep them. The Colosseum is two-thirds gone because of this. We were told this city center was a popular place to get married and indeed, we saw 3-4 brides in the 20 mins we were up there.:) Bryan and I took the opportunity to go walking a bit (with our guide and by ourselves). We saw Trevi fountain, the Spanish Steps (including some kind of band/parade thing that was going on), the Pantheon, various temples, etc. The streets of Rome were unbelievable; So tiny and haphazard (So glad I had Bryan!)! We took a taxi to really nice restaurant recommended by our guide. If you want to know where the good places are, look for the ones that are filled with locals! It was delicious! We were so disappointed not to be able to finish our food and it was probably the cheapest place we ate at!:)

Ok, I might come in and write more later but this is a huge post and I'm tired of typing now! Hope you got an idea of how great our trip was. We are so thankful to our parents who watched the kids for us so that we could have this marvelous adventure and we are grateful to GOD for 10 amazing years! We look forward to all He will do in the future!

p.s. the gelato in Rome was AMAZING! We went back to this one shop twice. The guy gave me a weird look when I told him I wanted three scoops of the chocolate (I guess he's more used to mix-and-match). So Yummy!:)