I booked a tour that included ten countries. What a nice trip with so many places to see. The tour left out of London.
June 17th: I left for London. The flight was delayed some, but a good flight across the pond. American Airlines used the huge 777-300, what a nice jet. I watched two movies.
June 18th: Arrived in London in the morning and rode the tube from the airport to Greenwich where my hotel was located. This would be the location for the pickup of the tour. Since, I arrived early in London I went to see the Cutty Sark. Afterwards I cruised the Thames River to Westminster; from there I walked to Victoria Station to get a tour ticket for the next day. I toured London last year, so I saw many of the sites of London at that time.
June 19th: Toured Winsor Castle, the Roman Baths in Bath, and Stone Hedge.
June 20th: Met the tour bus at my hotel (Holiday Day Inn Express) and we were off to Paris. The bus used the ferry at Dover to cross the channel. I was able to see the White Cliffs of Dover as we sailed to France. We arrived in Paris and checked into the Ibis Hotel located in the La Defense area. Had a bus tour of the city and photo stop; we were left at the Sacre Coeur (church) where we had to climb so many steps to the top of the hill. This is the highest land point in Paris. We had dinner at a nice French cafe in the area and walked down the hill towards the Moulin Rouge where we rode the subway back to the hotel.
June 21st: This was our free day, so I went back to the Sacre Coeur area where we had dinner the night before. There is a nice view of the city from there and many talented artist in this area. I walked around viewing the art work as I made my way down the hill. I saw Vincent Van Gogh's home. I toured Paris last year, so I hopped on a train and went to Versailles for the rest of the day.
June 22nd: We departed Paris and headed for Avignon, on the way we stopped in the Burgundy area for some wine tastings. Saw lots of vineyards. Arrived at our Ibis Hotel and went to dinner in a cafe. Dinner was nice, afterwards we toured the city. This old city is known as the 'The City of Popes'; they had three popes at one time living there. It also was a walled city. The ramparts were in very good condition and included a very large area around the city.
June 23rd: As we continued south we stopped at Pont Du Gard a 2000 year old Roman aqueduct. A pretty place. We passed the Pyrenees mountains. We arrived in Barcelona in the afternoon and had a bus tour of the city. Made a few stops for photos. Arrived at another Ibis Hotel. I had the Spanish rice dinner without the seafood. It was a holiday and many things were closed. They were celebrating the Summer Solstice on Tuesday; it didn't make sense to us since the Solstice was on that past Saturday. In the bar at the hotel they had free cake and champagne, also had a few rum and cokes with the ladies from Australia. Stayed up till 1 a.m. The bus driver Drew took the younger people to the beach to see the fireworks. They came back about 3 a.m.
June 24th: This was our free day so I went to see Parc Guell, this was an interesting place. All mosaic tiles, the buildings looked like Candyland. Had to use the subway system; walked the Cataluña (La Rambles) this is a very long street with lots of stores and vendors. It is a very wide street with no cars. Next stop was at the La Sagrada Familia. This church is still under construction and will be completed in 2026. What a piece of work, no words to describe it. I was able to go up into the Passion Tower, a good view of city. Then I went to see the Magic Fountain and stopped at a shopping mall that was once a bull fighting arena. Bull fighting is outlawed in Barcelona. You have to go to Madrid to see bull fighting. Ate on the run and later met the girls in the hotel bar for some drinks. Barcelona was a nice place; had a good time.
June 25th: As we headed to Nice we stopped at Arles, France where Van Gogh painted over 300 painting within two years in this old town. They had a bull arena there and some old foundations of a bridge on the river. It was very, very hot there. Next stop was at Galimard a French perfume factory to learned about the process of making perfume. Afterwards they let us make our own perfume from about 50 different scents. Arrived in Nice in another Ibis Hotel just off the beach. I went to the port area on a bus #9 and viewed the sites. Lots of squares with live music. It was getting late and decided to go back to the hotel, the #9 bus stopped running for the night. No one spoke English and I didn't know which way to walk (I was in the Garibaldi area). All the taxis were on strike. I walked around and found a few other buses with different numbers, and the drivers didn't speak English. I wrote on a paper the area I wanted to go (Megnan) and showed it to the drivers and finally found a bus N5 that was going near that area. Had to walk about 4 long blocks to the hotel; but made it back. It was an adventure.
June 26th: Today was our free day so I walked along the French Riviera. I went to the top of the hill where the Chateau De Nice was and walked back to hotel. It was hot here too. I put my bathing suit on and went to the beach which was just across the road from the hotel. The whole beach is full of river stones. You would sink in the stones and made it hard to get in and out of the water. The water was nice, just too many stones. Later they loaded the bus and we were on our way to Monaco. They stopped at EZE with a view of the sea below. What pretty views, then they brought out some cups and bottles of champagne. We stayed there about 30 minutes or so sipping the champagne and enjoying the gorgeous view. Monaco was super clean and nice. Stopped at the Palace and St. Nicholas Church were Grace Kelly was married and is entombed. Then off to the Monte Carlo Casino. A rum and coke was 20 Euros there so us girls only had one drink. I played some roulette and won 25 Euros and called it quits; I left a winner. Saw many expensive cars all over the place and yachts. So many tunnels to go through to get back to the main road to Nice.
June 27th: Today we left Nice on our way to Italy; we passed Carrara; which is where they were carving the very large mountain for its famous marble. It looked like snow in the middle of the mountain. Next stop was the Tower of Pisa. We stopped in Florence and had a local guide. Another very hot day and very crowded. There was a river with a bridge that had many jewelry stores. Spent the night in the Tuscany area. Had a Tuscany feast for dinner at a local hotel ( Corso Matteotti, Montecatini Terme, Italy) where we stayed the night. Nice hotel with a very large room.
June 28th: Today we continued our way to Rome. After checking into the Hotel Cristoforo Columbo we rode a local bus and subway to meet a local guide for a three hour walking tour. On the subway an elderly woman tried to pick pocket Susan. She was caught by Wayne, and dropped Susan's wallet on the ground, she didn't get anything. We were warned by our tour guide about these situations. It was about a 5 mile walk in the heat. We saw the Coliseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon which has a large dome with a open area, Trevi Fountain (which was under renovation), Plazza Navona, and ended the tour at the Spanish Steps. We also saw many other sites along the way. Rosemary didn't go on this tour because she was concerned about her legs. We both had cellulites, I had it worse than her. She elected to go to the hospital.
June 29th: Today was our free day. They had an optional tour of the Vatican; however, it was St. Paul's and St. Peter's Day and the Vatican was closed due to the holiday. They did get a local guide to take us inside the Forum and Coliseum. The advantage was we didn't have to wait on the very, very long lines to get into these places. It was also very, very hot, about 38 Celsius. Europe was in a heat wave. After the tour I went to Vatican area and St. Peter's Square. Later I went back to the hotel and stopped at the shopping mall next to the hotel. It was called the Euroma, it was a big beautiful mall with lots of high end stores. This mall had lots of brass, glass, and class with a grocery store that sold liquor. The girls bought a bottle of rum and two large bottles of Coke for 8 Euros. This is one way how to cut down on your bar bills. We sat in the hotel lobby drinking our rum. (it lasted us 3 nights)
June 30th: Now we are on our way to Venice. We stopped in the Tuscan town of Siena. This was an interesting place. They hold horse races around the town square. We arrived at our Elite Hotel and checked in. We traveled by local bus to the canals with our tour leader Carly. We were only on the bus for one stop when a pick pocket lifted Rachael's wallet. She screamed and he dropped her wallet and fled out the rear door of the bus. At the waterfront we had our gondola ride, the gondolier didn't sing to us. After the ride we walked over many bridges and in narrow streets to a pizza place for dinner. Afterwards we continued to walk and crossed the Rialto Bridge on the way to St. Mark's Square. Instead of walking back crossing all those bridges we rode a small water taxi. It was getting dark and there was a full moon. It was cooler and a very enjoyable ride through all the canals.
July 1ST: Today was our free day in Venice. I rode the local bus to the waterfront. There I walked across many bridges to get to St. Marks Square. I went into St. Marks Basilica and toured the museum. There they were the magnificent horses that came from the Hippodrome in Istanbul. They looked almost real. Gold mosaic glass tiles from the Byzantine era on the church walls and ceilings. Mosaic tiles were displayed depicting religious events and stories, even the floors were beautiful with these mosaics. Later I went up into the bell tower known as Campanile, they had some big bells up there, and a nice view of the city. Saw Doges Palace and the Bridge of Sighs; and an interesting clock with the signs of the Zodiac. There was so much to see and do with so little time. As I walked back to the bus I did some shopping. There were many stores even on the Rialto Bridge. I crossed the Rialto Bridge four times that day. When I arrived back at the hotel I ran into the girls. They were going to dinner at an Indian restaurant near the hotel, so I joined them. The food was ok and we received free champagne with our dinner. We had a few more drinks at the hotel later on. I forgot and left the party supplies (rum) on the bus.
July 2: We passed Lake Como and Lake Lugano on our way to Switzerland today. The Swiss Alps were pretty with lots of water falls and glaciers. The bus stopped for a few photos. We stayed in the Oberland Hotel in the heart of Interlaken; which is the Jungfrau area. It also was very hot there. I walked around town and saw the local sites. I found a very large Koi fish pond near a church. The hotel had no air-conditioning. It was a very hot night.
July 3: It was our free day, so I joined the optional excursion to Jungfraujoch (11,782 feet). This was a two hour train ride to reach the top. The train stopped at Grindelwald were we had to change to a cog train. When we reached Kleine Scheidegg we changed to another cog train to the "Top of Europe". You can see the tower on top of the mountain at this point. We rode in a reserved car. This train entered a tunnel for about 20 minutes or so. It stopped twice for five minutes so you can view the mountain side from within the tunnel. Near the top they had a large snow globe, an ice cave with ice carvings. At the top the view was fantastic, I walked around in the snow. We stayed there for three hours before we boarded the train to the Kleine Scheidegg station. We transferred to another train going to Lauterbrunnen and then back to Interlaken. It still was early so I rode the bus to Thun around the lake. It was only 7 p.m. when the bus stopped service back to Interlaken. Stranded again; luckily they had train service back to Interlaken. The train rode on the other side of Lake Thunersee, so I went completely around this lake.
July 4th: Today we traveled to Germany and cruised the Rhine River to see some of the castles on the hills. The small towns along the Rhine were quant and made some pretty sites. The Rheinlust Hotel was on the Rhine River in Boppard, Germany. Before dinner we had another wine tasting at Vineum's wines. They made ice wine which was very sweet and very expensive. They said the only two countries that make this type of wine was Germany and Canada. They harvest the grapes after a hard freeze to make this wine. They stand a chance to lose the grapes if they stay on the vine too long before this freeze. The grapes will rot and be lost. After our German feast we had karaoke in the hotel. It was lots of fun. Us girls finished our rum, had a good time, another late night. Hotel was very hot with no air-conditioning.
July 5th: Today we were on our way to Amsterdam today. We stopped at a windmill that had people who were living in it. Later we visited a farm that made wooden shoes and cheese. They had lots of farm animals there including the cows that they milked for making cheese. This cheese was unpasteurized. We toured Amsterdam before we checked into the hotel, this time it was a Hilton. After check in we were taken for a dinner cruise along the canals. Lots of bikes here, had to watch out for them before they ran you over. Carly took us for a walking tour around town after the cruise. We went to the Red Light District, Dam Square, and other places of interest. The weather finally was cooler.
July 6th: Today was our free day. I rode the train into town and did some shopping, saw the Anne Frank House, the Market and other things. The place was interesting; pot all over. When I arrived back at the hotel I saw the girls, they were going to Burger King for dinner, so I joined them. After we got back to the hotel Janis had a bottle of wine she purchased in France at the winery. She didn't want to carry it on the plane so we drink it in the lobby.
July 7th: Today was our last day. We stopped in Bruges, Belgium. The town was unique with all the old brick buildings, canals, and cobble stone streets. This was a very pretty place. I wish we had a little more time to spend here. It didn't take too long to reach the ferry in France for the channel crossing. This was a big ferry that held many big trucks and buses on three levels. Crossing the English Channel was like being on a cruise ship, the land disappeared. The water was a little rough today. It takes about two and a half hours to make this crossing. Then the White Cliffs of Dover appeared. They were snow white and I knew our tour was coming to an end soon. We reached London and said our good-bys. Now it was time to take the tube to Heathrow Airport. I arrived early for my flight. I spent most of the night in the airport.
This was a wonderful trip and I will cherish all the beautiful places that I visited.
