May 28, 2014

After Paris, we took a high speed train underneath the English channel  to London.  The one thing that was really exciting about London was that the signs, the products in the grocery stores, and the menus were all in English for the first time this trip. 



On the first day, we saw the Tower of London right beside the Tower Bridge.  The king used it as a place of retreat from political uprisings and also for torture.   The most famous forms of torture were the Rack and the Plowman’s Daughter.   Basically, one makes you taller and dislocates every bone in your body; the other squishes you and crushes your bones, making you smaller.  Pleasant.


We also went on the London Eye, the biggest Ferris Wheel in Europe and saw Big Ben and Buckingham Palace.  We also toured Westminster Abbey where Prince William and Kate  were married.


One night we went out to a London play called War Horse.  It was amazing.  The next day, for something different, we decided to go to the London Dungeons.  It was basically this really creepy horror show where you walk through small dark passageways and they do freaky things to make you all scared.  The freakiest part was when they talked about Jack the Ripper and then he appeared from nowhere, started walking towards us, and then the lights went out.  It was really fun-nish.

After about 4 days in London, we headed to the last stop in our 4 month trip!!   Amsterdam - land of windmills, wooden shoes, legal marijuana and prostitutes.  






We went to see the Anne Frank house.  It shows you the secret annex where she and her family actually lived for two years before the Nazis found them.  It was very sad, but interesting.  We got to walk through the swinging bookshelf (1942) that hid the secret rooms from the store and the workmen downstairs. 

 

This is my last blog on my travels.  By the time you read this, I will either be home or on my way there.  I saw lots of very cool things on this trip and some things and places that have been not so nice.  I especially liked Thailand because the people were really nice and you could get foot massages for an hour for 5 bucks. J J  My favorite countries are England and France, because they are the closest to home, there was Starbucks JJ, and it was relaxed and normal.


I am really excited to go home (four months is too long a trip in my opinion), but it has been fun. Thanks for reading my blog!!!  It has been torturous to keep it up to date sometimes (usually) but I like writing so it was good challenge.  Thank you to those who commented  back to me.  I hope you all enjoyed following our travels. 





By the way, someone commented back to us that there must be a lack of camels in Europe...well not true, we found this one for you.

 

 

 

May 21, 2014


We flew to Paris from Barcelona. On the first day we went out to see the catacombs of Paris.  It is the largest underground cemetery in the world, and there was more than 6 million people (and their bones) piled here from the late 1700's to mid 1800's.  It was mildly freaky being down there because of the dim lighting and the bones stacked up to a height of sometimes 5 feet along the narrow 2 kilometer trail.  Then you turn around and there are 100 skulls staring at you.  There are more than 300 kilometers of tunnels like this under Paris.



We also saw the Notre Dame cathedral and walked up one of the two towers to see the famous gargoyles.  Even though I half-heartedly looked, I saw no sign of the Hunchback or of Esmeralda...



Then we saw the big tourist attraction, the Eiffel Tower!!!  It was very cool to see in real life and was very big (as expected).  We walked up the stairs and I decided to try and count the steps to the top, but gave up about halfway to the first landing. 


On the way back, we stopped to visit the Bridge of Locks, where people lock a padlock onto the metal rails on the bridge.  We bought a cheap lock from this dude selling them and I locked in on to the bridge.  Then we each thought of a special memory, threw our keys in the river, and walked away.



It was supposed to rain for the next few days, so we quickly decided to go to Disneyland Paris sooner than later.  It is much smaller than Disneyworld in Florida, but there was less people and the wait for the rides was only 10 minutes, sometimes 30 at the most.  Sadly, the Indiana Jones rollercoaster was closed, but I got to go on some other really cool rides, like Thunder Mountain, a haunted house, Pirates of the Caribbean, Space mountain, and Drop of Doom. It was a fun day.



Today we saw the Louvre - the largest and one of the most famous museums in the world.  We took a group tour that took us to all the famous sites, mostly paintings and statues.  At the very end of the tour, we saw the Mona Lisa.  It was very cool, but smaller than what it looks like in pictures.  After the tour, we decided to walk around and see a couple more things, but we ended up getting lost because the museum is so big.  It was a former palace.








 Click on the pictures to zoom.

May 15, 2014


Barcelona is home to 1.6 million people and is located on the coast of the Mediterranean sea in northern Spain.  We stayed in an apartment near the Gothic Quarter (center of the old city).  Many buildings there date back to medieval times and are recognized as world heritage sites.



We saw apartments that Antoni Goudi designed (Casa Mila), which were extremely cool.  They were built in the late 1800's and were unlike anything people had ever seen back then.  He was thought to be mad because of the crazy designs and shapes the buildings had.  He looked at architecture as a form of art and usually incorporated nature into his designs, giving them swirling balconies and a wave-like exteriors.  He was a brilliant engineer as well, so used unique ways to support his buildings.




He also designed the Sagrada Familia (Sacred or Holy Family) basilica.  Goudi was put in charge of the Sagrada Familia's building process in 1883, a couple years after it was started.  He changed the original designers'  plans for the church completely, but, sadly, he died before it could be completed. 



For the future architects, though, Goudi left clever mathematical patterns that can be deciphered using computers and graphic design, to complete the unfinished project to his desire.  A little while later, we took an elevator up to one of the church's spires. They are all about 100 meters high so we got amazing views of Barcelona.  The outside of the church is all carved in various scenes.



The Sagrada Familia is still being built, though they hope to have it done in time for the 100th anniversary of his death in 2026.  I think it was as equally amazing, if not better, as St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.  The church holds 13,000 people, including room for a 1000 person choir. 







The next day we just hung out at the beach in the hot weather.   Barcelona is a very nice city.

May 13, 2014

 
After Florence, we went on another high speed train to Venice. Venice is thought to be one big island but it is actually located in a swamp, where hundreds of small islands are connected with over 400 bridges.  It is built on a bunch of pilings which are very strong, but also very flexible.   
 


We took a gondola ride through the many narrow canals and waterways which was very cool. The gondolas are hand made and are longer on the left side than the right. The gondolier always paddles on the right side, so the boat goes straight. 

The canals are about 6 meters deep and would be extremely fun to swim in, other than the fact that there is about 800 years of drained sewage floating around in there...

There are 120 churches on the island, St. Marks Basilica being one of the more popular ones.  We also visited the Doge's Palace.  The Doge was the guy who ran the shipping and trading in the city, and the port, and most of this part of the world from about 700 AD until after Colombus discovered America.  There were many doges over the years. 

The Doge's palace was spectacular - gold on the staircase and the ceiling.  But underneath the palace, in the basement, was a different story.  It was where the prisoners were kept in living spaces and conditions almost inhuman.  The cells usually flooded during the rainy season.  The bridge that is crossed to reach the dungeons was named the Bridge of Sighs, because you could hear the prisoners cries as they crossed it.  

 

May 10, 2014


After our 6 day break on Santorini, one of the Greek Islands, we flew to Rome, Italy and saw some amazing sites like the Coliseum, the Palatino, the Pantheon, and the Roman Forum, where Julius Ceaser was assassinated in 44 BC.












The next day we got up early to see St. Peters Basilica inside Vatican City.  It is probably the most spectacular church we have seen so far because of the pictures and drawings on the ceiling, the incredible size of the place, and the many life sized statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary (including the Pieta). 

We went back to our 325 year old apartment to have lunch and then walked over to the Vatican Museums.  Vatican City is the smallest country in the world and is where the pope of all the Catholics lives.  In the Vatican Museum, there are many religious statues and paintings but the main attraction is at the end of the tour, where the famous painting of God touching fingers with man is on display on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

A couple days later, we took a high speed (300 kms/hr) train to Florence, Italy.  It was very smooth, unlike the ones in Vietnam, where the train basically pitched you out of your sleeper/bed every time it hit a rough spot.  Florence is very old with 300-800 year old buildings and very narrow streets. 



We saw the biggest cathedral (Duomo) in Florence and were able to climb up steep, tight stairs between the walls of the dome and look down from the very top of the church. We also saw the famous statue of David by Michelangelo.  It is carved from one massive piece of marble and is considered one of the most beautiful sculptures in the world, but they forgot the fig leaf.

 

April 28th

YAH - WE ARE FINALLY IN EUROPE!!!!!

Yesterday we arrived in Athens, Greece.  We felt like being lazy so we walked around a small market at the base of the Acropolis and then we went  back to the hotel and watched TV for the rest of the day.  Greece has a population of 12 million and Athens has a population of 6 million people.  I liked it because it was a very chill city, the people are very nice, the food is good, it is a great city to walk around in, and you feel safe.

Athens has been populated for about 5000 years and used to be a strong believer in the Olympic gods when it was powerful about 460 B.C.  We visited the Acropolis and the Parthenon today and rode an open double decker bus around the city to see more ancient ruins and the National museum. 

 

The next day we  drove 6 hours north of Athens on a bus and visited a town called Kalapaka. It was amazing because there were churches and monasteries (Meteora) perched on top of tall, skinny cliffs. The only way to reach some of them is to take a tram across, but the ones we visited we just walked over a small bridge or climbed up some steep stairs that clung to the cliffs.  All the churches are still active and there can be anywhere between 1-15 monks or nuns living in them. 

Yesterday, we arrived at Santorini, one of the islands off the coast of Greece in the Mediterranean Sea.  We are going to spend about 5 days here to take a break from the constant travelling around. 

Santorini is very different from the other Greek Islands, because the towns on the island are perched on the cliff edge of what is left of a massive volcano.  It exploded (blew apart and collapsed) in 1350 B.C.  It was one of the biggest explosions in recorded history.  There are still many earthquakes on the island, some that destroyed the town we are sitting in.  The sea now covers most of the crater, but the center is still active with hot springs there.



One thing I found cool on the southern part of the island, was an old city (Akrotiri)  dating back to around 1500 B.C., with some underlying ruins dating back to 5000 B.C.  It is thought to be a possible location of the lost city of Atlantis.  It was destroyed by the volcano.

With all of the bus travel in Greece, I have been able to work lots on my homework for school.