THE GREAT ADVENTURE

Many of you know that Renee and I spent a couple of weeks in Europe, this post is to give you the full update of the trip. Well if our whole trip was going to replicate our getting into Europe we were going to be in for a long and not so fun trip. when Renee and i got ready to leave for Europe we were going to fly out of San Francisco then to Chicago then off to Frankfurt, and once there we would fly out of Frankfurt into Venice. That was the original plan boy does American Airlines know how to mess things all up. our flight into Chicago was delayed 3 hours when we arrived we ran to the next gate we were rushed down the tunnel to a airline employee telling us "SORRY I JUST SHUT THE DOOR CANT LET YOU IN" we were crushed we knew we missed our flight and that was going to mess up the rest of our itinerary. after missing that flight they were going to fly us out later into London then into Frankfurt, so we go to leave and our plane is again delayed 3 hours we get into London late we run to our connection barely make it we were the last two on the plane! we were happy to be there but knew some how some way that this was just the beginning. we get into to Frankfurt go to the baggage area and not to our surprise they had lost my bag... lucky for us Renee had hers but it would turn out that my bag was still in Chicago. so we give them our info and where we were going to be and hoped it would get to us. We also were there so much later than anticipated that we missed our flight through Ryan Air to Venice and couldn't get any reimbursement, so Renee and I had to bend over and pay for a very expensive train ride from Frankfurt to Venice... but at least it was nice and we were able to sleep on the train. LUCKY FOR US that was the worst part of the whole trip and we became very blessed with things working out and great weather the rest of the trip. in Venice we were able to see many cool things our favorite was St. Marks Basilica it was such an awesome church. we also went to museums, the bridge of sighs, and other cool things that you will see in the pictures. after Venice we went to Florence (Still not one of my favorite places) i don't understand why a place with such awesome things to see would be in a city that does not compliment it. i don't know if my bias still comes from my days in Heidelberg and our rivalry with the Florence house but i just don't like the feel of the city but we still had a great time; and while in Florence the air line found my bags and sent it to us, which was nice. 4 days with out your bags makes one a bit funky... We saw all the sights in Florence the David, the Uffici the duomo, you will see all in the pics to follow. after Florence we took the train down to ROME... i loved Rome it was my favorite so much history so much cool stuff to see, the Colosseum, the Forum, Palentine hill, trevi fountain, the pantheon, the Vatican soo much cool stuff and Renee and i also saw the pope while we were there pretty cool. it was such a great time, on a down note for Italy the food wasn't as good as we wanted it to be or hope it would be but we still had an amazing time and loved all the time we had together. after Rome we took a flight to Athens and were going to get on a boat to head out to Santorini in the morning. while on the boat we met some Americans that were studying abroad and had a great time hanging out with them on the boat. In Santorini Renee and i stayed in a hotel for only 15 Euros a nights what an amazing price for one of the most beautiful places i have been to. another cool thing about Santorini is that you can rent quads and ride them around the whole island... how cool is that! the pictures are better than my words so look for them to follow. on the way home from Santorini after staying an extra night we ran into the people we met on the boat and had a great ride back with them to Athens and they invited us to stay in their house which was a blessing and we owe them for their hospitality (so if you are reading you will always have a place to stay in nor cal). when we arrived to their house they took us up to the roof and from there they had an amazing view of the acropolis all lit up and it was spectacular. the next day Renee and i made a mad dash to fit all of Athens into one day and we were pretty successful in our attempt, Had lunch with Alex and Cez before they went back to school then went to the air port where we flew to Berlin. in Berlin we rented a car (Ford Focus) a lot cooler than i thought it was going to be, it was raining hard when we got there so we decided to camp out in the car till the morning and drove on the autobahn all the way to Heidelberg where i got to do some good ol' remembering of how much i loved being in that place. that was a great way to end our great and amazing trip.

VENICE

FLORENCE

ROME

GREECE

HEIDELBERG