My husband and I took a trip for our 5 year anniversary to Europe. There are so many amazing places to go in Europe it was hard to choose where to go. But I am a beach gal and Tay is a city guy so we decided to combine the both of our likes and it ended up being the perfect vacation. We started off with Paris for a week, then we went to Nice, Barcelona, and London. (We just flew to each place because it was cheaper than taking a train. It surprisingly went really smooth with no delays or problems) Also can I just point out a huge myth..people in Europe are NOT rude. We did not run into ONE person that was rude to us. We always greeted people with "Bonjour" and we both knew just a few general words to get us by but everyone was so kind to help us and most of them speak english. I already miss hearing their beautiful language.
I am starting a new paragraph for the food in Paris (because food deserves its own paragraph). There were so many options it was kind of overwhelming at first. So my husband just looked up reviews of good restaurants and then starred them on google maps. It made it really nice and easy to find places and be reassured they were good. Their food (for the most part) was homemade from scratch and very fresh. The crepes were my all time favorite! Our last day in Paris I made sure to get one last crepe from my favorite stand and right after I took one bite a boy came up to me and asked for it, I of course gave it to him! (there were so many beggars so it was hard not to give to all but when it came to kids I just gave in every-time!).
PARIS:
We walked and WALKED EVERYWHERE (until the top of my feet were bruised from my shoes) if we wanted to go out of the city or give our feet a break our source of transportation was by bus, subway or the funniest- renting a bike. We also decided to be selective on what activities to do because it adds up quickly. We did a bike tour to Versailles and it was by far my FAVORITE. It rained so hard the day we did it to, but for some reason the rain sent me into hysteria and I have never laughed so hard in a long time! We were with a great group of people we all looked like we took a shower with our clothes on by the time the day was done. Another activity we did was the Louvre museum (that is the only museum we paid to go to because we are not huge museum lovers, don't get me wrong though we still LOVED the ones we did go to) we both highly enjoyed the architecture of the museums, and I was in love with the originality of the buildings/furniture). .
The last activity we paid to do was to walk up to the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower which was amazing and I highly recommend.
(WARNING: LOTS OF PICTURES BELOW)
Not sure what is happing with my hand, I really hope I don't walk like this normally.
NICE:
AH..this was my favorite place. It was SO relaxing. It was like a vacation right after vacation. The weather was so warm and our dining experience was satisfying. We rented a scooter and just had the best time touring around seeing little villages. We had fun strolling around
Really loved this retro little cafe we ate at: the tulip chairs are just too perfect against the wallpaper!
BARCELONA:
We lucked out with the place we stayed in Barcelona, we stayed in a guest house and we weren't sure what we were getting but it ended up being one of our favorite places to stay!
We were so excited to try the paella in Barcelona but we were a little disappointed it was one of the most expensive meals we got and the rice was not burned a little at the bottom which we think is what makes it! We were going to give it another try at a different place but just weren't feelin it (we did get some in Nice and it was cooked to perfection).
Gaudi's architecture was so cool! I recall learning about it in design school so I was thrilled to see it in person.
LONDON:
When we landed in the airport we were like, "WE CAN READ!" ha it was nice to be able to read everything on the menu and understand others around us again. (Although it was not bad getting around in the other cities).
It was an extra sweet treat to get to our hotel and they upgraded us to a suite that overlooked a beautiful park..score!
We were going to do a bus tour in London but once we got there we realized all the monuments/palaces were not too far apart so we ended up just walking and giving ourselves a tour (which I am so glad we did cause the cheapest tour was $50 for the both of us). One thing we did splurge on was going on the London eye. It was way over priced but the view was amazing!
We waited 45 min to see the guard change which I felt so silly that it made me so excited to see but there were hundreds of people there on the palace grounds and we loved hearing the cops trying to keep things/people in order with their British accents. Well when they finally came marching in they were on the opposite side of the huge circle so we didn't even see them. Although to our delight (well really my delight) we got to see the Queen and Prince for like 15 seconds. So it was worth it:)
Tay and I really loved spending time together alone it was so refreshing and we felt like we were on our honeymoon. Although every time we saw a little baby/toddler we longed for Owen. My arms started to feel empty without our little bubbies so we were so elated to see him, he really enriches our lives so SO much!!!
We walked and WALKED EVERYWHERE (until the top of my feet were bruised from my shoes) if we wanted to go out of the city or give our feet a break our source of transportation was by bus, subway or the funniest- renting a bike. We also decided to be selective on what activities to do because it adds up quickly. We did a bike tour to Versailles and it was by far my FAVORITE. It rained so hard the day we did it to, but for some reason the rain sent me into hysteria and I have never laughed so hard in a long time! We were with a great group of people we all looked like we took a shower with our clothes on by the time the day was done. Another activity we did was the Louvre museum (that is the only museum we paid to go to because we are not huge museum lovers, don't get me wrong though we still LOVED the ones we did go to) we both highly enjoyed the architecture of the museums, and I was in love with the originality of the buildings/furniture). .
The last activity we paid to do was to walk up to the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower which was amazing and I highly recommend.
Not sure what is happing with my hand, I really hope I don't walk like this normally.
perfection on every street in Paris I love it!
Is it weird I took a pic of a random bathroom? probably but I loved it for the design and also because it was free! (a lot of places charge to go to the bathroom).
Our bike tour:
On our bike tour we had the great pleasure of going to the Palace of Versailles:
The floors were simply beautiful. I can't believe they are the original! After all these years and they still look this good! Talk about timeless design.
Then we got to go see this awesome little village that the queen had made for herself ONLY. It was a whole little village for herself (kind of like an escape from all her royal duties). It was so fascinating..kinda like a little fairy tale.
They had so much fresh food I LOVED it! All their little shops just stole my heart.
We had some fabulous dining experiences together. This was our favorite little place- it was Argentina food and it was SO tasty!
The Eiffel Tower!
NICE:
AH..this was my favorite place. It was SO relaxing. It was like a vacation right after vacation. The weather was so warm and our dining experience was satisfying. We rented a scooter and just had the best time touring around seeing little villages. We had fun strolling around
Our hotel that we stayed at:
We had the funniest little adventure on our scooter ride! We found the quaintest little village with an incredible view!
Not sure why our faces look so majestic in this pic but I kinda like it:)
BARCELONA:
We lucked out with the place we stayed in Barcelona, we stayed in a guest house and we weren't sure what we were getting but it ended up being one of our favorite places to stay!
We were so excited to try the paella in Barcelona but we were a little disappointed it was one of the most expensive meals we got and the rice was not burned a little at the bottom which we think is what makes it! We were going to give it another try at a different place but just weren't feelin it (we did get some in Nice and it was cooked to perfection).
Gaudi's architecture was so cool! I recall learning about it in design school so I was thrilled to see it in person.
The place we stayed at:
LONDON:
When we landed in the airport we were like, "WE CAN READ!" ha it was nice to be able to read everything on the menu and understand others around us again. (Although it was not bad getting around in the other cities).
It was an extra sweet treat to get to our hotel and they upgraded us to a suite that overlooked a beautiful park..score!
We were going to do a bus tour in London but once we got there we realized all the monuments/palaces were not too far apart so we ended up just walking and giving ourselves a tour (which I am so glad we did cause the cheapest tour was $50 for the both of us). One thing we did splurge on was going on the London eye. It was way over priced but the view was amazing!
We waited 45 min to see the guard change which I felt so silly that it made me so excited to see but there were hundreds of people there on the palace grounds and we loved hearing the cops trying to keep things/people in order with their British accents. Well when they finally came marching in they were on the opposite side of the huge circle so we didn't even see them. Although to our delight (well really my delight) we got to see the Queen and Prince for like 15 seconds. So it was worth it:)
Tay and I really loved spending time together alone it was so refreshing and we felt like we were on our honeymoon. Although every time we saw a little baby/toddler we longed for Owen. My arms started to feel empty without our little bubbies so we were so elated to see him, he really enriches our lives so SO much!!!
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