Andrea in Europe: June 2011

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Day 27/13 - Toulouse to Paris, France!

So this was an awaited day! The day we drove to Paris! It was a 7 hour drive, and we were planning on leaving at 8. Well, that didn't happen, because my parents got kicked out of the laundry mat the night before, before all our close were dry. We tried to hang them up in our rooms, but they didn't dry overnight, and we couldn't leave with wet clothes. So my parents went back to the laundry mat to finish drying everything. How nice of them. We had hoped for McDonald's breakfast, since it was right across the street from our hotel, but they aren't open for breakfast in France =[ But, there was an awesome bakery right across from McDonalds, so we stopped there and got some delicious pastries. Then it was off to Paris! After about half way through, we had just stopped for lunch and were back on the road, going through a toll, when we realize the car in front of us was our friends!! So we decided to follow them! Our GPS was telling us to go one way, but the signs and our friends went the other, so we decided to ignore Brenda for the moment, and follow our friends (we knew they were going to Paris). We finally caught up with them, and we turned on our walkie talkie (we each had one so we could talk on the road) and my dad starts flashing his lights at them and waving his arms around. They start talking to us on the walkie talkie and it was all fun! We eventually lost them because they were going to a hotel near Disneyland Paris, while ours is about 1 km from the Louvre, but we'll meet up with them again tomorrow. So we got to our hotel, and were off to see the Eiffel Tower! We had to take the metro to get there, since it was too far to walk, but we eventually made it. It was overcast and drizzling rain, but it was still super neat to be there! We walked down the park, and across the street from the Eiffel tower, and there were all these brides and limos. So we walked over to see what was going on, and they were all Chinese! Like 8 or 10 brides and grooms! SO we weren't sure if they were actually all getting married (we've seen mass Chinese weddings before) or if they were doing a photoshoot, trying to advertise for Chinese to get married here. But it was still neat to see all them dressed up. After that, Camille desperately wanted Subway for dinner, so we got her Subway, and then we took the metro home. We were walking back to our hotel so Camille could eat, and then we'd go find food, when we passed a sign saying gyros. Now I love gyros, so we walked in. Turns out, they had way more food then gyros, and none of us ended up having gyros, but we had so much other good food. We then had baklava and crepes for dessert. We will be going back to this restaurant, and thankfully its a 30 second walk from our hotel =] That was all!

Day 26/12 - Barcelona to Toulouse, France

So the morning of day 26/12, we went to Park Gurell, a park that Gaudi created. We started off, following Brenda, but soon enough realized she wanted us to go a different direction then what the street signs were saying. So we followed the street signs, but that lead us to bus parking. The lady who only spoke Spanish pointed up ahead, so we went looking for parking. Finding nothing, we text our friends and ask them if they are lost. They said their GPS was also having troubles, but that they just followed the signs and parked on the road up by the park (we still weren't sure where the park was...) so we go in a huge circle again, and we find our friends, park, and head up a path, which, once at the top, find out is the soccer field, not the park...but at least it had good views! So the man tells us where to go, and off we go again. We find the park, get a feel for it, take some pictures, and off we go. We were driving to Toulouse, France, via Carcassonne. Carcassonne is an old, preserved medieval town that has gone untouched (with the exception of people and shops moving in...) but wasn't bombed out or anything. I only knew of it because of a board game my cousins and I have played. So we made it to Carcassonne, and we hang out there for a few hours. It was a cool little place to see. After that, it was off to Toulouse. The only reason we were staying in Toulouse is because it was a long drive from Barcelona to Paris in one shot. We got to Toulouse, and Mom and Dad went off to do laundry (thats kind of necessary after being on the road for two weeks) and the kids stayed at the hotel and had McDonalds for dinner. That was about it!

25/11 - Barcelona, Spain

So we wake up on day 11, and what do we see when we look outside? Rain. Sad, sad rain. And lots of it to boot. But, all that really means is, we aren't going to the beach to relax. Which is sad. So we get up, have breakfast (which was good because they had doughnuts!) and off we head to Catalunya to meet up with our friends. Catalunya was on the water, so we figured we could go look at the shops. We all walk down Las Ramblas, headed towards the beach, and we happen upon La Boqueria! I was quite happy, as I'd heard that was a great place to check out to take pictures at. It is a market, but I was worried it would be outdoors, and since it was raining, I was worried it wouldn't be very busy. Thankfully, it is a covered outdoor market, and was super busy! So we walked around, looking at all the fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, breads and sweets, and also looking at all the Spanish locals! It was so much fun! We picked up some salami, cheese, fruit and fruit drinks, and some bread, then headed like crazy tourists to the beach. Yes, we wanted to go eat at the water front. Not sure why, seeing as it was raining and we didn't know what we were going to find at the water front, but off we went. We arrived, found a bench that was under some trees, and somewhat protected from the elements, and we had our little lunch picnic. After lunch, we found a huge mall (yes, I know) and so we headed there. Camille really didn't eat lunch and all she wanted was a hamburger from McDonalds, so we let her get some food there, and Mom, Noelle and I, plus our friends, walked around the mall. We left our friends sons, plus Ben and Camille sitting on the steps. The rain had kind of let up, but had started back up by the time we were done browsing. So what did we do? Well, we did what we seem to do best when it rains. We sat on the steps for the next 1 1/2 hours. That was fun =] Finally we decided to brave the rain and off we went. We went to see La Sagrada Familia, a crazy Gaudi church that was by our hotel. It is about 70 years old, but isn't finished being built, even though the architect, Gaudi, is long dead. So that was fun to see. We then found us some dinner! Paella, tapes, and more. So yummy! And that was about all we did in Barcelona that day.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Day 24/10 - Nice to Barcelona, Spain

I’m caught up! We are currently (were) driving from Nice to Barcelona. We didn’t get breakfast at the hotel and so we were going to go to McDonalds. We typed in McDonalds into our trusty Brenda, and she gave us some directions. We started following them, but quickly realized what Brenda was telling us wasn’t matching up with where we actually were. She was super confused, kept loosing GPS signal, and soon enough, we don’t even know where she was. So we saw some signs to the high way so we followed those. I took Brenda and reset her to her factory settings, and then once we were out of Nice, reprogrammed her to take us to Barcelona. Poor Brenda didn’t like the narrow streets and tall buildings of Nice. We are really only going to Barcelona because our friend has business there, but we are excited to hopefully go to the beach and to eat Spanish food!! So yummy!

So we are now in Barcelona, and we are waiting for our friend to finish his meeting, and then we are going to a tapas restaurant for dinner! We are here for two days, and were hoping tomorrow would be nice enough to go to the beach, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen =[ Its supposed to rain and be cold all day. So we'll see what happens!

ETA: Our friends ended up going to dinner with their company, so we went and found a braserie (grilled meat) restaurant that was really good. The La Sagrada Familia was right near where we were, so we went and walked to that, and walked around that. That was all we ended up doing.

Day 23/9 - Rome to Nice, France

So the reason we were going to Nice, France was a stop over to get to Barcelona. We didn’t want to drive straight from Rome to Barcelona, so we stopped in Nice to sleep. We also drove through Monte Carlo, Monaco on our way so we could see the fanciness of it all. We didn’t do a thing in Nice except go to dinner and watch TV =] It was by far the nicest hotel we have stayed at, complete with free internet on the TV, free movies, and it was just super nice looking. It was a very nice relaxing evening.

Day 23/9 - Rome to Nice, France

Day 22/8 - Rome and Vatican City

So Tuesday we got up early because we needed to be at the Vatican by 8:30ish. I was so excited to go to the Vatican!! So we get there (after taking the bus there and our driver not letting us off when we pushed the button) and I text our friends to see where they were. Turns out they had yet to even get on the bus to come, and they were clear on the other side of the city! So we go in (we had reserved our tickets online, highly recommend that!) and we head straight for the Sistine Chapel because I heard it was better to go there in the morning and then backtrack through everything else. So glad we did that because while there were a lot of people there then, it was nothing like later on. So we are about to go into the Sistine Chapel and I see that you can’t take pictures in there. Bummer. But I took some anyway. We sat along the edge of the chapel for about 30 minutes and my dad was telling us about all the pictures and what they are depictions of and such. And I sat there taking pictures discretely =] After that, we texted our friends again, and they had just gotten there! This was like 1 ½ hours after they wanted to be here. So we just went through and continued on with the rest of the Vatican Museum, backtracking to things we had zoomed through, and going and seeing everything new. All in all, we were in the Vatican Museum for 4ish hours. I was really hoping we’d see the Pope somewhere, but alas, no Pope for us. We randomly ran into our friends right before they went into the Sistine Chapel, so we went through and waited for them on the other side, and then we all exited together. We then of course went to St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square! I was so excited!!! Walking into St. Peter’s Basilica was just amazing. It is huge!!! And beautiful! So we spent 2 hours there, just walking around and taking it all in. Afterwards, my dad mentioned going up to the cupola (dome) and I wanted to go! So we walk over, and it was kind of pricy, so my dad let just me go up there. So I took the elevator up there, and you then walk into the inside of the dome. That was incredible! Being up so close to the paintings on the ceiling, and then looking down and seeing everyone who was down below. You don’t realize how large it is till you are up there looking down at everyone else! I spent probably 30 minutes there, and then was going to head back down, not realizing you could walk up 320 stairs and go on the outside of the top of the cupola!! So I did, and wow, that was amazing! It was so beautiful up there, you could see all of Rome!! I took a lot of pictures and a video of the 360 view from the top. I just couldn’t believe it. I spent about 30 minutes there as well, then headed down. I went down, found my parents and then we found my siblings and our friends. My dad was like, what took so long, and I was like, I was just taking pictures and such. I was like, why, how long was I gone? And they were like, an hour! Oops, I didn’t realize I had been gone so long! So we were there for about 7 ½ hours! I had wanted to go to the Borghese Museum, but we didn’t have enough time =[ After the Vatican, we took a bus to the Pantheon and saw that. Then we were hungry, but tired of pasta and pizza, so we went traipsing around the city looking for McDonalds =] We found one and ate there, then walked over to the Trevi Fountain. Wow was that beautiful! We threw in our monies (one for a swift return to Rome, two to find your husband…I threw two =) ) and then we just hung out for an hour or more. It was really awesome to just chill there and enjoy the scenery. We left once it started getting dark, and we ran over to the Spanish steps to see those, and then we had to go. It was past 9, but my dad didn’t really believe that the metro was closing at 9, so we walked to it anyway and sure enough, it was closed, but they had a night bus that would stop at all the metro stops, so we got on that and home we went. That was the end of Rome!

Day 21/7 - Florence to Rome, Italy

Once again, our drive wasn’t too long to Rome! We were there by about 1 PM and we went straight to the Colosseum. We took the metro to get there, and you literally walk out the metro station and there it is. We found our friends and went in. It was incredible. It is so big and it’s so neat to think how the Romans built this forever ago! And it’s amazing to see how much of it is still standing. My back was acting up again this day, and so I wasn’t in a super happy mood, and it was really hot! But we hung out there for about 2 hours and it was really neat to be there. After that, we were all in a lazy mood so we decided we’d be real tourists and take an open bus tour (not a hop on hop off one though). So we go up to the top and it was great to just be able to sit and relax and enjoy Rome. We saw a lot of places we never would have seen if we had been just walking around. After the tour we went and found us dinner, and then the metro was going to be closing at 9, so we needed to be back on the train by then, so home it was for us. So to get back to our hotel, we had to take the metro to a certain station, and then get off and take the bus back to our hotel. So we get to the stop, and I knew where the bus had dropped us off, but to go the other direction we had to find where the bus stop was, which wasn’t easy. 15 minutes later, we were on a bus, hoping it was the right one, and while we knew which stop to get off at, the bus wasn’t telling what stops were coming up, nor was our stop on the bus stop signs….so we just kept looking for our hotel, and thankfully it had a bright yellow sign on the top of it.

Day 20/6 - Venice to Florence, Italy

The next day we got to sleep in a bit since our drive was only 2 ½ hours! That was nice =] We went to Florence and were able to be there around lunch time so we could see things. The first thing we went to see, as to make sure we didn’t miss it, was the Duomo! I had studied about the duomo in humanities and was very excited to go see it in person! We got there right around 12:30, but it was closed for mass, so we hung out in line and got some lunch and what not. It opened back up at 1:30 and so we went in! It was beautiful, but they had the area roped off around the dome, so you couldn’t go and see the ceiling of the dome! We were so sad we couldn’t see that. It was still beautiful anyway.

The Duomo, and the long line of people waiting to get in. Thankfully, we were near the front!

I just really like how this picture of the entrance to the duomo turned out, with the sun spots and what not =]

The beautiful dome, of which you couldn't see the whole thing because they had it blocked off =[

So beautiful, and huge!

I think this was a museum...

Replica of Michaelangelo's David, as seen outside a museum. We didn't get to go see the real David, because of lines and short amount of time, but we were all ok with that

While we were walking to the duomo, we passed so many shops, but we had to keep telling everyone that we needed to get to the duomo first because we kept missing things because we were getting there too late, and we didn’t want to miss the duomo! After the duomo we walked over to a museum where the fake David was housed, but we didn’t go in because it was too expensive. So we saw some of the statues that were outside the museum and that was cool. After that we walked over to the Uffizi Museum but again, the line was too long for what we wanted to do. So we said no thanks, and walked to a famous bridge, the Ponte Vecchio. Along the way to the famous bridge we passed these chains that were covered in locks and I remembered reading about these and how people put locks on there for some reason or another.

This cupid statue guy was prettyfunny

Some of the locks. Come to find out, if you lock the lock on the chain and throw the key in the river, your love will last forever

One of the many chains full of locks

We saw the bridge and walked across it and such. There are a lot of shops on the bridge, so of course we looked at them.

The bridge. Love the reflection in the water

Me and the bridge

After we saw the bridge we took a break for a bit and I noticed huge rain clouds coming in. Never good. So we are walking to the Medici house and literally, we get to the plaza out front the house and the skies open up! It felt so good because it was hot. The dad’s went to buy tickets, the mom’s stood under the awning and the kids danced in the rain (we are travelling with some friends, hence two sets of parents =) ] So we go in, and it is just coming down, literally, buckets of water, more than I’ve ever seen it rain! So we stood around watching it for a bit, and then we walked through the museum. 1 ½ hours later, and it is still coming down just as hard as in the beginning (there was even hail at the beginning!) So we chill on the staircase for another 1 ½ hours. We meet some new people and talk to them for a long while, and then we notice they are starting to clean up….and it’s still raining outside. So my dad goes and buys everyone ponchos and off we walk in the pouring rain to find a restaurant for dinner. We find one, and walk in looking like wet dogs. Oh well. Dinner was delicious and by the time we left dinner it had finally stopped raining. Sadly we didn’t find any gelato that night =[

Incredible. I've never seen in rain so hard in my life

I don't even think when we lived in China and had the typhoons come in that it rained like this, or if it did, it didn't last for 2+ hours like this!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Day 19/5 - Salzburg to Venice, Italy

So this morning we were loading up luggage, and I was going to lift my mom’s suitcase into the car, and I threw out my back. I almost fell into a little ball on the floor, it hurt so bad! I couldn’t move really at all, nor could I stand or anything. I said I was fine, and got in the car to lay down for a bit, since we were waiting for this store to open. I got up and was able to walk a bit, as long as I was standing up straight. I took half of my friends super pill in hopes that it would put me to sleep and ease my pain (it didn’t really…) I had been sitting in the middle of two of my siblings in the car, and thought I was good because it felt good to have my feet up on the middle console in the car. But after a bit, I couldn’t do that anymore, so I took over the back of the car, where my sister had been sitting with all the luggage because I could lay down a bit more. So I was laying in the back of the car, with my feet up on the window, so my back would be straight. Of course our drive that day was almost 5 hours…but it wasn’t too bad because I was able to lay down. It also gave me an interesting view of everything. Our drive that day was through the Austrian Alps and it was beautiful! We took a lot of back roads because we were going to Birchesgarten, which is where Hitler used to hang out. It was neat little town, but the drive was the best!

That's what I looked like, laying in the back of the car, on top of the luggage =] I wasn't very happy either, and was in a lot of pain!

Beautiful green in Austria

The mountains were so gorgeous! The pictures don't do them justice.

So we made it to Venice, and I was a bit frustrated that I hurt so much and we were in Venice! But I was able to walk around, but was pretty grumpy and unhappy because I hurt, a lot. Venice was beautiful though! We went to Piazza San Marco and to see the Cathedral there, but of course, we were about 10 minutes too late. It had already closed. But it was cool to see the square anyway.

Beautiful Venice!

San Marco's Cathedral

Really cool art on the outside of the cathedral

A neat house in Venice

The famouse Rialto Bridge. We ate dinner right next to it, and then walked the shops along it.

Beautiful Venice at sunset

We walked around, and found some real Italian food, which was super good! I loved all the small streets of Venice, and I loved that there weren’t cars there or anything. We got lost getting out (since we had taken a water taxi to where we wanted to go) and were walking back to our car. So we became real tourists and pulled out our trusty Brenda =] She managed to get us out of the crazy streets of Venice, and we also happened across some neat little buildings, but by that point, I was hurting too much and just wanted to get back to the hotel. Let me say, while our hotel wasn't the greatest, I slept well that night!!

Day 18/4 - Prague to Salzburg, Austria

So we left in the morning for Salzburg, Austria. We met up with our friends and did a little caravan thing to Salzburg. The drive was great and I was excited to get there. We were hoping to go see the Abbey that they filmed The Sound of Music at, but never made it =[ We did find a beautiful castle that we went up, and even met some people who live just down the street from us in Utah! And turns out their daughter and my sister were in Choir together!! Too crazy! We also went to a cathedral and we walked around a bit and found Italian food for dinner, which was incredibly delicious! =] That was about it!

Beautiful, ornate alter

I loved the candle in front of the statue

Very interesting ceiling

A priest cleaning up after mass (I think...)

The outside of the church Mozart was baptized in (I think)

The dome (or one of them) It was a huge Church

A priest had died last year, and they had a little memorial to him

The "font" that Mozart was supposedly was baptized in

Another fortress that we went to

We took a really cool tram up to the top. That's where we met the people from Lehi

I just loved this picture; the stairs and all just was very European feeling

View of Salzburg from the top of the fortress

It was so green and beautiful!

These flowers were growing off the side of the wall!

And here is everyone (yay for tripods!) (from to to bottom, L-R):
Jared, Noelle, Camille, Ben, Andrea, Ed, Mary, Stephanie, Mark and Drew

Day 17/3 - Berlin to Prague, Czech Republic

We got up in the morning and head off to find the Brandenburg Gate, the Memorial to the Jews and the Berlin Wall! We found the Brandenburg gate and the Jewish Memorial but couldn’t find the museum my dad thought there was about the Berlin wall. The place the museum was supposed to be at was really an arts building…so we were a bit disappointed, but we needed to get going. So we are driving, and Brenda is directing us, and all of a sudden, my dad is like, that’s the wall!! We were driving right past the East Gallery side of the wall, where people have done murals all over the wall, and there happened to be a parking spot just for us right where we were. A miracle really. And so we got out and started walking the wall and such, and it was really neat to see. I was very happy that we got to see that.

The family at the Brandenburg Gate

Looking out the other side of the gate. It was a beautiful area

The Jewish Memorial. It was a large number of large granite slabs. It doesn't look like much, but it was really incredible.

Looking down one of the aisles

Inside one of the aisles. I loved the way the light fell through the rows and such

Me in front of the Berlin wall. This was one of my favorite murals because it had the date on it

A small portion of the wall

The murals on the wall were so neat!

We also walked around the Reichstag, the place where Hitler ran his army from.

The back of the Riechstag

The front of the Reichstag

So we drove to Prague and met up with our friends at the Charles Bridge. That was neat to see, and then we walked up to the fortress/castle on the hill. It was beautiful up there!! You could see all of Prague, and it was sunset, so we could see the sunset and everything. We found us some Czech food for dinner, which was really good, and then walked around some more. We found a little square to hang out in and then we took a taxi home. I wish we had walked only because the fortress was all lit up and beautiful (and you can’t take a picture of that from a car…).