Rome

Amazing!! We are here right now and running out of time at the internet cafe. will need to fill you in later.

Awesome place.. could spend a month here and still not see everything!

Florence

Yuk. Didn't like it much. Hotel was the "Auto Park" - yes as dodgey as it sounds. Spent 12 hours on the bus... (Italian can't drive lots of accidents) didn't get our dinner til 11pm. Experienced some rude Italians (don't blame them really - for every 1 local there are 16 tourists). Climbed 462 steps (and back down) up to the top of a huge cathedral dome (very claustrophobic). Had some dodgey food and slept on hard beds... woot.
Saw statue of David and some other awesome statues and paintings on a city walking tour. They have tourist police so you have to be qualified to lead a group around the city. Their water tastes like asprin,. That night we had dinner with another Contiki group, awesome 5 course meal with lots of performances and wine.

Nice (French Riveria) and Monaco

Everything was under construction... first impressions was a very dirty and smelly place :( hahah.. that soon changed when we got to walk around town. Had a sleep on the rocky beautiful beach and tried out the freezing blue crystal clear ocean water. Climbed a lookout and did some shopping. Went to an Irish bar during happy hour with our fellow travellers .. way too many cocktails.
Bus trip to Monaco at night to visit the Casino. Won some money and we dragged cars (in our bus) on the Monte Carlo street circuit.
Next morning we went to a French perfumery and learnt all about the 'Nose'. Then a gorgeous drive on our way to Florence along the French and Italian Riveria.

Barcelona

Party town. 2 nights in Barcelona. Nicest hotel so far.
Did a city tour (Olympic stadium, great views, etc...) checked out the night life had heaps of fun at a traditional Flamenco Spanish dinner (lots of dancing and singing and drinking home made sangria) then visited two very unique bars (fairy bar with trees and stuff inside - kinda weird, and an awesome local bar). We learnt what a 'Spanish Pour' was.... 80% spirits, 20% coke.... ouch! Saw an amazing fountain and light show at the Imperial Palace that go to music.
Got stuck in a leather demonstration with the psycho shop owner trying to sell us stuff while poking everyone in the head. Learnt a lot about this history of the town too.

Bordeaux

Bordeaux - Boring.

A one night stop over on our way from Paris to Barcelona. Awesome hotel, not much to do though. That day we checked out some huge castles and ancient mansions along the way (fingers falling off freezing).

Paris

Paris is gorgoeus! First afternoon we arrived in Paris and climbed Eiffel tower, it is HUUGGEE! Back to a very nice hotel and then a full free day to expore the city. It was Easter Friday so most of the shops were closed :( We ran all over the city seeing all the major famous places. Very sore feet! Dinner was at the hotel. Loved Paris. Very beautiful city, could spend weeks there. Next day we went to the Moulin Rouge, show was great! So many colours and just 110% wow! The side acts were also great. We had front row seats and all the dances hit us in the head with pink fluffy things. Interesting...
The Louvre was unfortunately closed on our free day in Paris, so our (awesome) tour manager Lucky changed our itinerary slightly so we could get a few hours the next morning to explore the museum before heading off. Saw the Mona Lisa and heaps of Egyptian exhibits. This museum is HUGE! Randon Fact: If you spent 1 minute on every item it would take you 9 months to see everything... and thats only for the 15% of items they have on public display.

London

London is cold!!!!

We had a smooth flight into london and arrived at a the underground railway after a 3 hours wait at the air port. It was chilly at 7:30pm and we had no idea where our hotel was haha. Contiki tours was closed by the time we arrived so we checked straight into the hotel. Our room is small, smells a bit funky, and the beds have springy bits, but it is warm and safe.

Finding our room took half an hour. They have fire doors every 10 meters through out the hotel, heavy super spring loaded bastards that catch your fingers. Very hard to get through dragging a bag. After a quick shower we headed down for a late dinner at the self service that is not self service. We got worried when the guy started looking in the cupboard when I asked for Roast Lamb. :)

Next day we headed out on a Red Bus "Original London Tour" for the day. We stopped and rode on the London Eye (line was huge but it was worth it), walked around Big Ben, went on a river cruise through the city, and stopped at all the famous "Squares" with their ancient fountains and statues. We had a quick run through the London Museum and passed many historic monuments and buildings through out the day. Ride home was rough, the tour stopped on the other side of town at 6 so we had to make our own way back to the hotel. We learnt a few things that night, it gets cold very quickly, noboby knows how to drive, and bus drivers wont help you then close the door on you (Hayley wants sympathy). Eventually got home, passed out on the bed, and woke up starving at 10pm. Ordered a pizza from the local but we waited an hour and a half and it never came, so back to the self service that wasn't self service (I didnt ask for Roast Lamb this time).

Day 2 in London we woke up early and went on a full day London country Stonehenge tour. This was awesome! Our first stop was Winchester, beautifyul little town, little old houses, and a massive cathedrial (that was 400 years old). This was used in filming the Da Vinci Code movie. Our next stop was stonehenge. FREEEZING. Just off the highway and surrounded by sheep and lots of open land. We walked around it, took a million photos, it was so amazing! Some of the stones weigh 50 tonnes and are absolutley massive when you stand close to them. Next we went to the famous town of Bath. When the romans invaded they descovered a hot spring and built many buildings around it, using the springs for healing. People came from far and wide to be healed by the magic water. The underground springs pump out 50 million litres of bioling water a day into the local river. Most of the transport between farms is done via boats on man made raised canels. On the way back we passed Winsdor Castle (one of the 3 pernament residence for the Queen). We finally caught up with our Contiki tour guide after running from the train station to our hotel. Found out half of our tour are Australians with a couple from the Gold Coast. There are 35 people on our 28 day tour so we will have plenty of room on the coach.

We start our tour at 6:45 am tomorrow morning. So have to go home and dry our clothes with Hayleys hair dryer. :)

Oh and weather in London has been amazing for us. It hasn't rained once and we have had blue skies the entire time. We even got sunburnt!

Until next time!