Lucky

Have I ever mentioned how lucky I am to have married such a great guy? I really am. And he really is. (a great guy. I don't know how lucky he feels)  I have had a life long dream of going to Europe and we did it! We spent 3 amazing weeks with backpacks and cameras, and a whole lot o' excitement. We flew from Charlotte directly into London and flew from Rome back to Charlotte. I really wanted to edit some of the pictures before posting them here, but I know some of you aren't facebook users so I'll put a few of the pics up now.

We had such an awesome time, and even though it was a little more stressful not having every detail planned ahead of time, we actually really enjoyed being able to be flexible and change things up whenever/however we wanted. We used Expedia to book hotels/B&B's from night to night and actually got some really great deals! We got to stay at a Hilton one night. I decided we should be Hilton people:) I like the sound of that!

In London, we got there just as the Changing of the Guard was happening, which was neat since it was raining the rest of the time we were there... Thus, no changing of the Guard. We Loved all the gardens in London, especially the Queen's Gardens, and we even went to check out the London Business School... Just in case Alan decides to go in that direction;) We got to tour the inside of Buckingham Palace, as well as see the Royal Mews, and the Queen's Gallery which had an exhibit of original, recently acquired Leonardo DaVinci drawings of the human body. These drawings were incredibly detailed and accurate, and would have transformed medicine had they been seen at the time they were done. However, Because they were not, we waited 400 years to "rediscover" what he had already known. Pretty amazing stuff.

                         

                       

If you look close, you can even see he knew all about the numbers of/types of teeth!

 We went from London to Paris and stayed in Paris for a few days. We did it all in Paris. The Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Pantheon, a boatride on the River, La Chapelle (LOVE!), the Arc de Triumph, walked Champ d'elysse, mass at Notre Dame(I kept crying and Alan kept telling me I was weird. But when the organ started and you looked around where we were, I just couldn't stop...) We took a day trip to Versailles, which we loved, and I basically lived on croissants and ham n' cheese crepes.  We then took an overnight train from Paris to Venice. That was quite the experience. I liked it. Alan...not so much. Venice was beautiful, but my heart belongs to Florence. Ahhhh Florence. I LOVE Florence. I am torn between Paris and Florence being my favorite places on Earth!
Florence is absolutely gorgeous. I love the Tuscan feel, the food is just a little different but delicious, and I found my favorite gelato place off one of the bridges. Not the Ponte Vecchio. It was one off from that.They had beautiful streets full of jewelry and leather, and the Duomo was pretty amazing. We went to see "the David" and wow... Talk about spectacular. I couldn't stop staring up at it. Alan says it looks just like him. :) Keep in mind the pics I am putting up aren't edited, so hopefully they aren't too dark or anything.

There really is nothing quite like when the tower started sparkling...

Mass started at Notre Dame. There was such a sense of reverence. Such a neat experience

 Alan said he tried to take the picture so it looked like I was about to be hit by the bus. Awww!:/

 Future home?

 Future bedroom!

  My favorite picture of them all. Not edited at all, and it captured exactly what I was seeing. I love it! This is why Florence stole my heart. Just look at how beautiful it is.

OK, OK...LET'S TALK GELATO. 
So. I love Pistachio. But not as much as coco. And I can't decide if Stracciatella is equal to coco or above it. The mint was pretty tasty. As was the banana. Alan liked the crema, and he tried a really nasty burnt sesame. The blackberry was tasty, but not really creamy, and overall, if you gave me a scoop of just about anything at all, I would be totally happy! I LOVE GELATO!!!! :)

Gelato...

                         

 Gelato again... 

So romantic, no?:)

 Every day at 6pm, they light a ceremonial flame for the 'unknown fallen soldier'. This burns at the base of the Arc de Triumph. 

We were going to go to Prague and/or Switzerland, but vastly underestimated how tiring travelling would be (walking 10-12 hrs a day is tough!), so we kept it simple. I'm so glad we did. We got a chance to really spend time in where we were and experience so many new things. We went from Florence to Pisa (you know.. with the leaning tower?:), then on to the Cinque Terre. There are five 'cities,' if you will, that are on the coast of Italy and look like fairy tale lands. They have been largely untouched by modern upgrades and have such a charm about them. You can take a boat ride to the furthest one, and then hike down through each town and explore the different areas. The hiking path was closed when we got there, and it poured rain for a few hours, so we just hung out and ate some of the best focaccia I could have imagined. It was so good. As was the pesto. We went back and from there we went down to Rome. We spent the last few days exploring Rome and laughing at ourselves for getting lost so often. We went to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, Trevi Fountain, St Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museum, St somebody's castle (I can't remember now), Piazza Navona (and other Piazzas while we were somewhat lost), and basically just had a blast. I just can't believe all the history behind such incredible places and it truly inspires one to look back on civilization and how much progress we have...and haven't made.There is so much out there to remind us of where we have come from. So many wars have been fought, freedoms won and lost, pain and joy experienced, and art/buildings/cities left behind to express all of it!  

 "It looked like he was...Leaning." - movie?! (While You Were Sleeping)

We took this pic for Dad and mom. If they really want to live in the middle of nowhere, we found the spot!! Plenty of land for ya! :) hahaha

Trevi Fountain

 The Roman Forum

 Look carefully. Isn't this beautiful?! This is a record of a marriage between these people a REALLY long time ago...

 The Sistine Chapel. pretty amazing. Although surprisingly, not my favorite place.

Vatican Square

I'm sure I missed some things that we did, and I will have to add a post later with a bunch of pictures from Alan's phone. (There are some really cool ones.) For now, that is basically how we spent our time as backpackers in a new land. We thought the showers were a little odd, but it just added to the experience I suppose. Alan really liked the bidets (sp?), and kept watching tutorials on how to use them, though I'm not sure he ever did. There were many nights we slept on separate twin beds, and it felt a little like being on a campout or something with my best friend. We could stay up late laughing at how we couldn't sleep because it was a 6 hr time change, and we got a chance to kind of get to know each other even more. I am so grateful we had a chance to do this and even more grateful to have somebody in my life who shares the same interest/passion for traveling and for other cultures. It was so much fun and I just can't thank him enough.