My wife Julie and I celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary
by spending a month in Europe. NO EMAIL OR VOICE MAIL :-)
We flew First Class and our three sons - John, Michael and Tim flew Business
Class. The retail cost would have been almost $50,000. THANK YOU United
Airlines - I used 480,000 miles from my Frequent Flyer account.
Best month of my life. EVERY DAY WAS SUNNY TO PARTLY
SUNNY! No rain during any of the days for an entire month.
The Complete Itinerary is at the end of these set of photos.
John 20, me old, Michael 17 and Tim 14.
Above is my oldest son John wearing an OpenOffice.org t-shirt on top
of the leaning tower of Pisa.
Tim on a donkey riding up the long trail in beautiful Santorino.
Above is the picture of my family and my parents (aka Slim and Weasie) on the wrap
around porch we had in our Royal Carribean Brilliance of the Seas Royal Family Suite (biggest suite on the whole ship :-)
John, Tim and Michael at the Coliseum.
There were three nights where it was black tie on the ship.
We rented tuxes so we were not carrying them all around Europe.
I rented a Ferrari 360 Modena (400HP, V12) and took it on the same Monaco
Gran Prix F1 Circuit.
We had GREAT sunsets every single night on the cruise.
ITINERARY
June 23rd fly out from Dulles to Zurich
June 24-28: Jesolo, Italy (outside of Venice), Hotel
Mediterraneo pronounced YaySolo We went to Venice and saw
'The Bridge of Sighs' now I know Robin Trower did not come
up with this name for his famous album :-) Great food and
the only place you should ever order pizza.
June 28-July 1: Munich, Germany, Mercure Hotel Munchen
We went on a three hour tour of Munich. Highlights for me was the Science and
Technology Museum in Munich. The Hofbrau House is always a highlight :-) My
wife did not buy my rationalization that I was *only* drinking two beers at
night. I guess when each beer is a litre, that is different :-)
July 1: Zurich, Switzerland; Hotel Continental Zurich is a beautiful city and
we took a train to Luzern which is the most beautiful city on planet earth. We
will go back there to spend much more time. Tim jumped off a 20 foot platform
into Lake Luzerne.
July 2: Overnight train to Barcelona
We have first class cabins with dinner and breakfast on the train.
Eurail is the only way to travel in Europe. We met a very nice family
from Texas that was heading to the same Mediterranean Cruise we were
going on.
July 3: Barcelona, Spain:
Thanks to my father, we stayed at an amazing hotel called The
Circulo. Barcelona has lots of great Tapas restaurants and very
interesting architectures such as never finish church.
July 4: Board Ship, Brilliance of the Seas
We had the largest suite on the entire ship - The Roya Family Suite.
It was huge, multi-bedroom, huge living room with a wrap around porch
with our private concierge.
July 5: Nice, France Julie and the boys went to the beach and I investigated
sports cars. Highlight for me was renting a Ferrari Modena 360 and taking it
on the same circuit as Monte Carlo F1 Gran Prix.
July 6: Pisa/Florence, Italy
We had private tour of both cities. The history of Pisa and Florence
is amazing. We were the first ones up on the Leaning Tower of Pisa
and I bet the first "Open Office" photo on top the tower :-)
July 7: Rome, Italy Rome is a City that is the must category of life.
July 9: Mykonos, Greece There were 60knot winds the morning we
were to leave the ship, so we did not visit Mykonos.
July 10: Kusadas, Turkey Too many things to highlight, I will update later.
July 11: Santorini, Greece A very beautiful city on a steep cliff.
July 12: Athens, Greece BEST food of entire month.
Too many things to highlight, I will update later.
July 14: Naples Too many things to highlight, I will update later.
July 16: Barcelona, Spain, Circulo
July 17: Overnight train to Zurich
July 18: Zurich, Switzerland; Hotel Continental
We visited Luzerne again.
July 19: Return Home
