Emily and Cody's Eurotrip: June 2011

Tuesday

The Trip of a Lifetime!

After a lifetime of dreaming and years of planning, Cody and I embarked on a five week journey through Europe. We visited ten cities in seven countries. We flew from Dallas to Newark, New Jersey, and then from Newark to London.

These posts are all messages I sent to my parents as a way to keep them updated on our travels and to journal about our trip :) Some are goofy and long, and most have major typos and misspellings due to the fact that we were paying for the internet by the minute, and the keyboards were all organized differently. I have organized the posts chronologically, from where our trip began, to where it ended. We started in London and ended in Santorini. Anyway, if anyone is interested in Europe, or maybe planning their own trip one day, I hope this helps! Enjoy!

The following link will take you to the itinerary we left with. A few things changed along the way, but most are as posted.

http://www.tripit.com/trip/public/id/45A42E1FE166

Monday

London, UK

Sunday- 6-5-11- Left DFW!!

Monday- 6-6-11- London

That’s AWESOME!! Don't you dare move by yourselves! When do ya'll close? We are at an internet cafe now. We walked MILES and MILES today and haven't slept yet. We saw Big Ben, The House Parliament, Buckingham Palace, the Thames River, St. James’s garden, The London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, Westminster Abbey, little toilets, and fish and chips. haha. We are going to go on a walking tour tomorrow and will use our London Pass to enter lots of museums and historical sites :) Wednesday we see Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Oxford!

Tuesday-Thursday- 6/7-9/11

Mom and Dad, we have internet at our hostel, which is pretty neat. We took an amazing "for tips only" walking tour today, and got a British History lesson. It was GREAT! We also went inside St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and the National Gallery. Westminster Abbey was AMAZING. Isaac Newton and Darwin among every British monarch imaginable are buried there! I had no idea. It was really neat to see where the royal wedding was held. Diana and Charles were married at St. Paul's Cathedral. We also saw the changing of the guard which was pretty neat, and we took a Thames River Boat Cruise :) Tomorrow we will do Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Oxford. Then it's on to Amsterdam. P.S. my body and feet hurt. Haha, but we are doing great with the time change. Our hotel last night was tiny, but we slept well. It was great to have a private bathroom.. We might not have that luxury for a while :) Oh yeah! It is free for us to receive texts, but not to send them. If you have questions or think of something to tell me, text me, and I will get back with you through here. Tell Dad we love him, forward this to Mas and Jordan, and let me know how King and Queen are when you see them. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We love you! I'm so excited about your house!!!!!!!! It will be perfect :).

Mom and Dad, last night was not fun. Haha. Our room is microscopic, and two guys from Mexico are our roommates. They came in after twelve, and tried to be quiet, but it's just impossible in that space. It was really awkward for me to sleep in such close proximity to two random dudes. haha. Needless to say I didn't sleep well. It didn't help that I had to wake Cody up, on the bunk above me, because he was talking about luggage in his sleep. Haha. Before bed, I took a shower minus hot water. It was ice cold, like whirlpool cold. Cody discovered a shower with hot water after his turn in the frigid glacier shower. We will be washing ourselves in that one tonight. Nevertheless, we had a blast today. We were able to nap some on the bus! I am learning so much, and we have been in awe of everything we have seen. Windsor castle was seriously UNBELIEVABLE! It was so beautiful, and gave us a whole new perspective on the royal family. Oxford was also an amazing experience and a cool little town. Don't tell anyone, but we ate at KFC in Oxford haha. It was the only place with a public bathroom. They have been shut down all over London because of vandalism. They also have no trashcans anywhere because the IRA kept putting bombs in them. Ha! We ate food from the supermarket for dinner tonight. It was yummy, and then we had a cappuccino on the street. :) We leave for Amsterdam tomorrow, but we haven't bought tickets yet. We won't get there until tomorrow night. Pray we sleep well tonight, and please message us with your address! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Arriving at the train station in London.

St. James's Park outside of Buckingham Palace.

St. James's Park

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben

Fish and Chips (We weren't super impressed)

Palace Guard

Tower Bridge

The London Eye

Courtyard at Windsor Castle

Stonehenge (One of our FAVORITE places on the entire trip!)

It was incredible seeing this place.

Wooden house along the streets of Oxford and our tour guide.

Oxford

English Breakfast

Piccadilly Circus

Buckingham Palace

Windsor Castle

The City of London wanted to do away with the phone booths, but the citizens protested. The city is now gradually replacing the phones with ATMs.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Thursday-Saturday- 6/9-11/11- Amsterdam

Mom and Dad, Today was primarily a travel day. We left London for Amsterdam around12:00 because that was the first train we could get out. We took a high speed train to Brussels, and from there we took a train with our Eurail pass to Amsterdam. This was our first experience navigating travel in a language other than English. We lost an hour because of time change, but we made it here to Amsterdam around 8:00, which is apparently still early. Amsterdam is every bit and more as crazy as I thought it would be. We are currently sitting in the hotel bar getting contact high ;) Chill Mom, that just means everyone around us is smoking weed. Haha. Our hostel is really neat, but crazy. It is pretty much in the center of the Red Light District. Speaking of The Red Light District, WOW naked women and LIVE porn EVERYWHERE! Despite all of the weirdness, Amsterdam is beautiful! The streets and canals are so old and interesting and have so much history and character. We had more fun walking around the streets tonight. We ate at some little cafe; I think we ate some sort of turkey and French fries with mayonnaise, which is apparently a local fave :) We will be going to bed soon, again, don't tell anyone ;) It's pretty early for Amsterdam, but we have a big day tomorrow. We plan on seeing The Anne Frank House, The Van Gogh Museum, and taking a Canal Cruise. We leave for Paris at 11:00 on Saturday, and will get there around 2:30. This is seriously the experience of a lifetime. We are seeing and learning SO much! Thank you for watching our baby dogs and for playing fetch with them :) Please keep us updated about your new house. We are SO pumped about it. Love you! PS Please forward this to Mason and Jordan :)

Love, Us

Mom and Dad,

Today has been long, mostly because last night was long, but today was amazing too. Sleeping among incredibly stoned individuals can make for a rough night. We woke up early and went to the Anne Frank House. This was the house she and her family hid in before being discovered and transported to the concentration camps. It was sobering, and sad, to stand where she was forced to be so careful and quiet for years, and where she wrote in her journals. We are both really glad we went. After that, we took a walking tour of the city. It lasted three hours! It was very informative and gave us a better understanding of the history and culture of Amsterdam. We saw much more marijuana and many more naked ladies. Ha! When our tour came to an end, we made a stop at a huge flee market that was pretty interesting. We then walked even further to the Van Gogh Museum. They had many of his most famous paintings, and we learned about the tragedy of his life. We did this at a pretty quick pace though because by this time our bodies were tired. Ha! On our way back to our side of town, The Red Light District, we ran across the world's largest floating flower market. They sale all kinds of flowers, seeds, and bulbs. It was pretty neat. The canals and the building here are really what make this town special. It has been a great experience, and the answer to the question I know you want to ask is, "No," we did not sample the local cannabis. We thought it might prevent us from recovering and experiencing Paris like we should. :) We love and miss ya'll! We will call soon!

Love,
Emily and Cody

Inside The Bulldog where we stayed

One of the many beautiful canals in Amsterdam.

The Bulldog Coffeeshop connected to our hostel.

One of the many sex shops.

Streets of Amsterdam

The Anne Frank House

The Royal Palace (Where no royals have ever lived)

Amsterdam really was gorgeous!

Dr. Martins at the HUGE flee market.

Our Room at the Bulldog

Bikes SO MANY Bikes!!

Mystery cheese meat roll at a restaurant/vending machine.

Paris, France

Saturday-Tuesday- 6/11-14/11- Paris

Bonjour, from Paris! It is amazing, but it is also by the grace of God that we are here and safe haha! It was smooth sailing from Amsterdam this morning. We made it to our train early and rode first class straight to Paris. We had booked these reservations upon our arrival to Amsterdam. First class included snacks, sandwiches, drinks, and a delicious lunch. We were spoiled and apparently let it get to our heads because as soon as we got to Paris things went wild. First, we wanted to book our next train to Interlaken, but we went to the wrong desk. Then, the right desk could only book us on a train with three stops departing at 7:00 in the morning on the 14th. We want to stay on schedule, so we booked it. God willing, we will be able to find and make it to all four trains! After that stress, we decided to buy a three day unlimited metro pass for transportation in the city. That worked out for a while. The first time we ran the tickets, the gates closed on my bag, which Cody was rolling. Haha, he was trapped, and no one would help. Finally someone came up behind and swiped their ticket and the gates opened again. He was free again. Now here comes the worst part; on our way through the subway to the hostel, the door to the train closed behind me, and left Cody standing on the platform. There was no opening it. That's right, I was now alone with hundreds of Parisians and no husband, AND he had the map, my phone, my train tickets, and the money. Surprisingly, after all I had heard, all of the people next to me tried their best to help. One man tried really hard to pry the door open, another offered his phone, and one woman who spoke English tried to talk me through what to do. The phone didn't work. All I got was some French recording. I got off at the next stop, but jumped right back on because I was afraid Cody wouldn't see me. I decided to get off at the stop where we had intended to get off and I waited. Finally the next train pulled up to the platform, and there he was. I cried, but you can leave that part out when you read this to Dad. After we were reunited, our three day train tickets for the city stopped working, and we had to have them fixed, but we found our hostel easy enough. Praise God, it is a single room with two twin beds and our own bathroom!!! We need it tonight :) After settling in, we headed out to see, what else but The Eiffel Tower!!! It truly is BEAUTIFUL!! We walked around the park and had sandwiches and wine for dinner as the sun was setting! It was seriously surreal! Tomorrow we see the Notre Dame Cathedral and take a walking tour of the city :) We are so excited to be here, and every Parisian we have spoken to has been so kind and polite. Weird, huh? We love and, miss you! Write me and let me know how things are!

So, yesterday we took the walking tour, and we had a great guide from Los Angeles. Haha. He was really knowledgeable and told great stories. The tour was three and a half hours long. We saw many old bridges and buildings. All were beautiful; most are now museums. One of our favorite sites was unexpected. It was a bridge built by King Henry the III, I believe. He was known for being a party animal. The ¨New Bridge¨ is now the oldest standing bridge in Paris. The thing that makes the bridge so great is that after taking years and years to build the new stone bridge, upon its completion, the King decided to have a big drunk party. The 300 guests cleared out the Kings vast wine cellar and, as a souvenir, the king had his portrait painter paint their portraits. The next day, he decided to have a stone carver carve theses portraits into stone and attach them to the bridge. They are very amusing. Three hundred drunken noblemen forever preserved on a bridge is humorous to us :) Anyway, on to the things that, may interest you. We saw the place where Napoleon is buried, the site where the guillotine stood that cut off the head of Marie Antoinette, and the Arche de Triumph. After our tour, we went to the Louvre. It is by far the largest building I have ever been in. There was art from the beginning of time in that place. The Mona Lisa was much smaller than expected, but still really cool to see. We also saw a few more famous pieces like the Venus de Milo, and The Law of Hamurabi (Cody knew about this); it is the first written law or something :) After being awed by the Louvre, we made our way through the Metro back to our side of town where we did laundry. Then we went to a local bakery, bought bread, and went to a supermarket for cheap food and wine. Back at the hostel we hung our clothes, and then took the metro to the Eiffel Tower for its light show which happens every night on the hour starting at 10:00 PM. It was beautiful! We recorded some of it on my phone, so I will post it later :) Having wine with dinner had its consequences haha. We ended up lost in a very unfamiliar part of Paris on the way home. It was close to midnight, but we eventually arrived safely at our hostel. The three day metro ticket we bought has been a lifesaver. We have become pros (when we haven't had too much wine) at traveling through the city, and it is saving our tired feet. This morning we woke up, had breakfast, which consists of a baguette and jelly, and decided to take the train to Notre Dame Cathedral. It is beautiful, and free :) The stained glass is so intricate and beautiful. After saying our goodbyes to Quasimodo's home, we headed out to Montmartre, which is home to the highest point in Paris and a beautiful view. This was our favorite part of our visit here. Montmartre is the Paris of movies. There are cafés, cobble-stone roads, artists painting, and musicians playing all over the streets. There are also scam artists and pickpockets all over the city, but we have been oh so careful :) We climbed to the top of the hill to see the view, which was gorgeous, and wondered into the church (google it, it has spherical points on its roof) where we happened into a traditional Catholic prayer service just beginning. It was all in French, but it was AWESOME! Neither of us had ever seen anything like it. When the service was over, we walked through the streets, and had a sandwich from a local vendor. Then we took the train down two more stops to Moulin Rouge. It is housed in the "Red Light District" of Paris, but is tame compared to Amsterdam's. After seeing that, we tried to get our tickets for tomorrow exchanged, but it was a no-go :) Looks like tomorrow will be an adventure! Just as this entire trip has! Ha. All in all, we love Paris. The people have all been very kind, and it is mostly beautiful. The streets in a large part of the city are dirty, as is the metro, but after our visit to Montmartre, we feel like we have seen the real Paris, and we appreciate it and its beauty. It was so great to hear your voices yesterday. I miss ya'll, and we go longer without seeing each other when we are home. Haha. I guess it's the distance :) We both love you and will keep you updated. Kiss Max for me, and tell Mason and Jordan we love them. Bonsoir!