Gimmelwald

On Sunday, we took four different trains for a total of about 6 hours of travel to get from Avignon to Interlaken in Switzerland. We ate a late lunch in Interlaken and then took a train, a bus, and a gondola to the small village of Gimmelwald. The first day, we just did a small hike of the town, because we were pretty tired.
Yesterday, after waking up, we took a gondola ride to the nearby town of Mürren where we had breakfast (there are only two restaurants in Gimmelwald). We then hiked back down to Gimmelwald and did some light hiking in the areas surrounding the town. It’s so picturesque and tranquil here…everything seems to move slower. We ate dinner at the local Hostel…the mushroom soup was very good.
Today we took a gondola ride up to the very top of the Schilthorn, the mountain that Gimmelwald sits on. At the top, we had a breakfast buffet in a revolving restaurant. The views started out pretty good, but then it started getting cloudy and snowing. After taking the gondola back down, we’re now sitting in a restaurant in Mürren, enjoying our last full day in Europe.

Avignon

We started our day on Friday by taking the train from Paris to Avignon. The whole train ride took about 3 hours. When we arrived we had lunch in a small age run by a 2 very nice people who helped us a lot to understand their menu. Afterwards, we rested for a little while and then took a train to a nearby city called Arles.
In Arles, we visited the ancient Roman arena and where the forum square which use to be a Roman forum but now only 2 columns remain. We ate dinner in Arles and had really great food. Karen’s rosemary and garlic pork was especially good. After walking back to the train station, we found that our return train was going to be delayed by 75 minutes because of a fire in Marseilles. We met a couple traveling from Wisconsin at the train station and had drinks with them while we waited for the train.
Yesterday, we woke up and ate breakfast at a local pub. We tried to catch a bus in the early afternoon to Pont du Gard (the Roman aqueduct), but when the bus came to the station the woman who was driving said she wasn’t picking people up and we couldn’t understand why. We ended up splitting a cab with three students from Brown who were also waiting the same bus that passed us by.
Pont du Gard was really impressive. It’s height is only 6 feet less than the colosseum in Rome. We did some mild hiking and spent a lot of time just enjoying the views.

Paris

Yesterday, we took a morning flight from Athens to Paris CDG. After a long bus ride and metro trip, we arrived at our hotel. We rested for a bit and then went out to see the Louvre. It was great! We were able to see the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory and lots of other amazing paintings and sculptures.
Afterwards, we went to the Eiffel tower where we had dinner on the first level up…about 300 feet up. The food was good, but the views were spectacular. We explored the next level up and got some great pictures.
This morning, we started out after breakfast by visiting the Arc de Triomphe. We were able to climb to the top and had some more great views. We visited the historic core of Paris where we saw Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle.
From there we took the metro to the Orsay museum. We’ve been having lots of fun riding the metros in different cities. So far in Paris we’ve seen lots of people jumping turnstiles. Today, we had to run to catch a train, and after Karen got in, but before I did, the doors began to close. Karen tried to stop it and the guy on the platform was telling her to let go. I told him that she was my wife and I was just able to squeeze through.
The Orsay museum was also great, but we were pretty tired by that point. Still, we were able to see works by Monet, Rodin, Cezanne, and Degas. There was a huge special Manet exhibit with long lines but it was getting late and we were too tired to wait in line…next time maybe.

Athens

Today, after eating breakfast in our hotel, we headed out to the Acropolis. We first visited the acropolis museum and saw all the ancient sculptures. The museum was cool because in certain sections there were clear glass floors where you could see people working on an excavation site beneath the museum.
We then went to the acropolis itself which was very impressive. The Parthenon is humongous. We got some really great pictures and it was amazing to be around structures so old.
After lunch we were pretty tired so we just went back to our hotel and rested for a bit. We ate dinner at the restaurant of the only Michelin star rated Greek chef (the restaurant was called Varoulko). The food was really good needless to say and we both left full.

Santorini, Athens

We left our hotel in Crete 2 days ago early in the morning and drove two hours to the port. We were catching a ferry from Crete to Santorini. The ferry took about two hours and thence were driven to our hotel in the city of Fira. We were so tired after eating lunch that we just slept most of the afternoon. When we woke up, we took the bus to the northern end of the island, to a town called Ia. We did some shopping and ate dinner there. The town is known for good sunsets because you can watch the sun as it disappears behind the water of the Mediterranean. We couldn’t see the sunset from where we were eating so Karen and I took turns getting up and walking to a viewing spot. There was one viewing spot that was super crowded but I was able to find a spot that was much less crowded.
Yesterday we went for a boat tour around Santorini. The main island of Santorini is a crescent and there are some outlying islands as well as a volcano in the sea in the middle of the crescent. We visited the volcano where we hiked to the top. There were steam vents and certain areas that smelled strongly of sulfur. We visited a little cove where the water is really warm due to the volcano. The water there is red due to oxidize iron and it stained Karen’s bathing suit. We visited one of the outlying islands where we had lunch and then we came back to Fira. After showering, it was time for dinner and we ate at a nearby restaurant that had some good sunset vies as well as good food…the chocolate mousse for dessert was awesome.
This morning after breakfast we took a bus ride to a red sand beach and just relaxed and had a nice swim. When I walked to get some lunch, I saw a super cute puppy that I took a picture of. In the afternoon, we headed back to Fira by bus and then took a different bus back to the airport for our flight to Athens.
When we arrived at the Athens airport, we had to take the Metro to the city. We got off at the Syntagma stop and there was some craziness going on at Syntagma square. There was apparently a protest going on due to the tough economic times over here. We didn’t linger and our hotel was just a short walk away.

Samarian Gorge

We drove to the Samaritan Gorge this morning which is supposed to be a 6 hour hike through the gorge to the shore of the island. We hiked about 1 hour or so just until we were down in the gorge. There was a nice small stream down there and it was very peaceful. The hike back out was very tiring and took a lot longer. We drove back to Hania later in the afternoon. There were goats all over the place along our drive including on the road in front of us. We ate dinner in Hania…Karen had Moussaka which was really good and I had pork Souvlaki. Afterward we watched the sun set from the old Venetian harbor (Hania used to be a part of the Venetian empire).

Lafonisi

We slept in this morning and had a great breakfast that included Greek yogurt with fruit and honey. We then drove about 2 hours to a beach on the Southwest side of Crete called Lafonisi. It was beautiful. Lafonisi os a small island just off the coast that you can walk to because the water that separates it from the rest of Crete is shallow…and super warm. We ate dinner back in Hania. Karen had Mediterranean chicken with couscous and I had meatballs with eggplant…both super yummy.

Crete

We woke up super early to catch one of the first flights out of Rome’s airport. We flew to Athens and after a short layover we flew to Crete. We picked up our rental car and drove for 2 hours to our destination of Hania. The streets in the old part of the town are so narrow! We were so tired that after a quick lunch, we tried to nap. When we woke up, we ate dinner (mostly leftovers from lunch) and walked around the harbor after sunset getting some cool pictures.

Rome

Today we visited Vatican city. We toured the Vatican Museum and saw works by Raphael as well as Michelangelo, including the Sistine Chapel. It was really amazing. We visited St. Peter’s Square and Basilica as well. The Basilica was huge. I went up to the top of the dome and took some awesome shots of Rome. Karen was too tired so she didn’t come.We of course had another great meal and are turning in early to catch an early flight to Greece tomorrow.

Civita di Bagnoregio and Rome

Yesterday, we left Cinque Terre in the morning and traveled on multiple trains for a total of 6 hours to the Orvieto station, about 2 hours north of Rome. Someone from our hotel picked us up at the station and drove us to the small town of Bagnoregio. From there we took a shuttle bus to the bottom of a foot bridge that lead up to a town on top of a hill: Civita di Bagnoregio. It was a steep climb, but worth it. The town was beautiful and was fairly quiet compared to everywhere else we’ve been. We took a leisurely walk through town and had some bruschetta with home made olive oil…very good. We got some great pictures and headed back down to the main town where we had dinner in our hotel (very good of course) and turned in early.
Thus morning, we took the train to Rome and walked what felt like over the entire city. We visited the coliseum, the Roman forum, and the Pantheon. It was amazing to see such old structures with so much history. There were strikes/rallies going on at the coliseum and the Pantheon.
I had spaghetti carbonara for dinner and Karen had spaghetti with meatballs. We then had some great gelato: mango and dark chocolate. We heard that bus drivers who were striking so we ended up walking all the way back to the hotel.