Back to Reality

Well we got in almost a week ago and are just now starting to feel like we are back to normal.  I started the 8 loads of laundry we have this morning and it took us over 2 hours to do the yard last night.  We are happy we don't have anything going on this weekend and we can just relax.  It was hard to come back and get thrown into a crazy week of work.  There is a lot of "restructuring" at work and there is more to come.  I'm not worried about my job considering the same guy that let 5 people go yesterday had a 2 hour meeting with me and the lady I work with giving us the long list of things that need to be done by Oct. 1st.  They are moving a lot of responsibility from other departments to ours... which I'm grateful that I still have a job, but we are taking on a lot more which can be stressful.

Europe feels like a dream now.  We got into Paris about 9 am on the 17th.  After finding our hotel in the beautiful streets of Paris we were able to leave our luggage but could not check in until 3.  We we started walking and stumbled upon these beautiful gardens with rows of trees that were in front of this Palace.  I'm not sure which palace it was but it was beautiful and everyone was enjoying the gardens.  There were picnics everywhere, people taking naps, kids playing - I loved how these grounds and the grass was open to enjoy.  We hung out there for a while and then had lunch in a small cafe near the park.  We walked around a while and then found our way back at our hotel a little after 3.  We were so tired so we unpacked and took a nap... waking up to the dark.  We ended up sleeping 3 hours.  So we got up, got dressed and a map and made our way to the river.  We were at the river and looked up to see a big church, and looked at our map to find out it was Notre Dame.  I wish we could stumble upon things like this in Ringgold!!  Anyway, we had cheese fondue in a sidewalk cafe there near the river and enjoyed watching the people of Paris.  While in Paris we saw the inside of Notre Dame, the Pompidou center, the arch de triumph, the eiffel tower, the Musee d'orsay, hung outside of the louvre on the lawns, saw the inside of the louvre (including the mona lisa), Santre Croce (another church) and the hill of Montmontre all the while having great food and wearing our feet out.  I found a great little painting on Montmontre - all of the artist hand out there and sell there work.

After 3 nights in paris we were on an overnight train ride to Florence.  

We arrived in Florence around 8 in the morning and again found our way to the hotel.  The streets of florence were nothing compared to the streets of paris.  They were tiny, smelly, and a little shady.  We were so happy to finally find our hotel and that it was a nice one.  The one we had in Paris was also very nice - very modern and perfect.  Florence was more romantic.  We had a 4 poster bed with curtains and a beautiful marble bathroom.  Again we could not check in but we left our luggage and got a map.  We were pretty uncomfortable considering we were wearing what we were the day before plus had slept in them on the hot train.  I never really slept, which also meant I was very tired.  Anyway, we got a map and looked for a park... but soon found out the parks in florence are just like the streets, run down and disappointing compared to paris.  Nonetheless we sat down for a while after having a small breakfast and tried to figure out our game plan.  We wanted to try to work in a day trip up to Venice and after reviewing the map thought we could if we did some things that day.  So we got over being tired and smelly and started site seeing.  We saw beautiful churches in florence, went down to the river and all the while shopped.  The shopping in florence was fantastic.  The leather and jewelry were incredible.  I got a bracelet and purse.  We had reservations to the Accedemia museum which has the David in it for the next morning.  We got there and that museum was very disappointing.  The David was not - it was beautiful, but the museum was tiny and not kept up very well.  So since we had extra time we decided to try to go to the other museum as well - the Uffizi.  The Uffizi is the busiest and largest museums in italy so we knew it would take a while to get in.  We found out we could either stand in line for 2 hours to get in, get reservations to come back in 2 hours and go in, or come back at 8:30 pm and have an hour to walk through the museum free.  Hmm, exchange rate... money going out everywhere - we go with the free option!  So we saw the gardens of the Medici family which again... were run down and disappointing.  But after a nice dinner we got the museum and got to see almost the whole museum in an hour with barely anyone there.. for free.  Quite Exciting!!

The next day we went to Venice.  It was about 2 1/2 hour train ride so we arrived about noon.  We got a map and made our way to the other side of the city to San Marco Square - where all of the action is.  We had a nice lunch near some famous bridge right on the grand canal and were in San Marco by mid afternoon.  The shopping there was great as well.  I got some glass jewelry and got the pendant that Mom asked for at this one particular shop in San Marco.  G got a real nice pen as well there.  After taking our time going back, including a fun little Gondola ride we got back to the train station at around 8 pm.  Only to find out there were no more trains back to Florence!!  So after a small breakdown we got a ticket for the next morning and found a hotel reservation desk at the train station.  Luckily we got a great room right next to the train station for a great rate.  Plus we were right on the grand canal so we could open our windows and see & hear the canal.  We had a nice dinner right on the canal as well and end up having a nice night in Venice while our luggage enjoyed our room in Florence.

The next morning we had a 6:45 train to florence which gave us enough time to get to our room, pack and be ready by checkout.  We were on our way to Rome by noon.  

Rome was great.  We got there and found our hotel right away which was a nice change.  We almost could get to our room, but still had to wait an hour so we left our bags and walked around and got something to drink.  We got to our final room on the trip which was also very nice.  Nothing fancy but large and clean.  We recouped a little then went out and went to what we thought was the Trajan column, trevi fountain, and ended at the Pantheon.  We had dinner in front of the pantheon and got to see it with the lights on it in the evening.  After we made our way back to our hotel we figured out our game plan for the rest of the trip.  The next day we spent the day in Ancient Rome which was pretty cool, and ended at the Colosseum.  We ate just a block down from it and came back in time to see it with the lights on it and G got some great pictures. Our last day in rome we went to the Vatican city and saw st. peter's basilica.  Then we went around and went to the Sistine Chapel.  We loved walking through the rooms that Raphael painted and ended our trip in the Sistine Chapel.  Short of the people working there yelling at people for taking pictures - it was the perfect ending to our trip.  Truly spectacular.

We did some shopping on our way back and had a couple hours to relax in our room before we got ready for dinner.  We dressed up and ate at a roof-top terrace which gave us a great view of rome at sunset.  We had a great dinner and got the treat of some fireworks in the distance too!!

We left the next morning and are pining to go back already!

It's good to be back to the US dollar, water that is free, and our own bathroom and bed, but we loved Europe and had a great time.