We soon discovered that that day must have been a holiday, every church was packed with people paying tribute to some state, so we didn't visitmany churches. There was also a plaza filled with people watching a band play (mostly old people). We made our way through he town and the. Market, but soon got lost trying to make our way back (this has been happening way too frrquently).

We made our way (by bus) over to a more modern area of town, it had a beautiful park that led up to some amazing artsy buildings. It was veyr cool. We thenmade our way back to train station to catch the night train to Granada. The ticket guy ( or us ) got confused so we didn't even have to use one of our days because we traveled that day alredy, so that was nice.

The ride was long but we managed to get a fair amount of sleep.

written by  Trevor and Amber on May 12, 2009 from Valencia, Spain
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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Anyway, as we were leaving the church this old lady came up to me and gave me a rosemary branch which i tried to hand back to her as she grabbed my hand and would not let me go. I think she was telling me my fortune and I told her repeatadly I don´t understand, No espanio, No intendio but she persisted while Trevor stood by laughing and taking pictures of my horrified face. It was not funny, i felt so taken advantage of....after all this drama and our long night I needed a nap so we checked into our hotel room. The hotel rooms was really nice it had a great view of the Ava Maria cathedral, and a little kitchenette with fridge and microwave. I cannot thank my cousin Sandra enough for planning and booking everything for us in Spain, it was so nice to have everything taken care.

After our nap we had some dinner and walked down the street to view la Alhambra from the city. la Alhambra is an old walled fortress on the top of a hill, the fortress protected a castle and the surrounding grounds. We ate some ice cream and continued on to our appointment at the Arab baths. We decided to take all the back roads while trying to find the address, and by decided I mean we got lost because we left the map from Sandra, showing exactly where it was, at the hotel room. When we finally found it after help from some locals we enjoyed the various baths or pools and a massage. Each bath is a different temperture and you are supposed to switch pools frequently, although i will say we didn´t stay to long in the cold one as I am pretty sure they put icecubes in there. It was very relaxing and exactly what we needed at this point in our trip. I wish there was one of these we could go to every week.

Day 2 in Granada we took a walk to the train station, after a lazy morning, to pick up our train tickets to get to Madrid, grabbed some sandwhiches and made the hike up the hill to la Alhambra. The grounds and gardens were beautiful and it was very interesting to see the palace and the very intricate work on the walls and celings, the attention to detail in the patterns was astounding. I love imagining in places like this what it would have been like to live there and what the Queens, and Princesses would have done throughout the day as well if I was a princess what would I be like. I know silly but doesn´t every girl think of those things? The other part of la Alhambra that amazed me was the genious of the fortress and the tactics they used to protect themselves against there enemies.

After a long day of walking it was time for more amazing ice cream then we sat in a plaza and read our books in the sunshine before going for dinner.

written by  Trevor and Amber on May 13, 2009 from Granada, Spain
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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20 minutes or so later, we couldnt check yet, so we left our bags and toured around.
Amber thought it was a good idea to take the maps away from me, because I am constantly checking them {it makes me feel safe to know where i am and where I am going, i hate being lost}. But she wanted me to relax and stop being a tight ass, as we tried to get to a palace. Needless to say we did get lost without the map (i told amber so), but we eventually got there after much freeking out by me.

We toured trough the gardens and then Amber wanted to go into the palace and see it, i didnt really want to go, but thats ok. so we toured around the palace and saw amazing things ( i couldnt take picuters, there were gaurds everywhere telling me not to ... so irritating). The palace was really nice and interesting, so i am glad that we did go and see it. Amber was right ...

By the time we were finished, it was 6 oclock and we were hungry again, so we made our way back to the hostel, but stopped at a major square for some food. We were bombarded by waiters trying to get us to sit at their resturaunts, again very irritating. We fininally found a place that didnt irritate us, the food was ok. We were serinated by an acordian player, i touhgt it was quite nice, Amber wanted to pay him 10 € to go away.

The square that we ate in was supposed to be really nice (Plaza de Mayor), but there is some festival going on in afew days, so there was this huge stage set up in the middle.

we then got lost again going back to our hostel but eventually got there thanks to many people giving us directions. We decided to plan out our next few days and then head to bed.

I didn't fare too well, i tought i had a fever, i was probably de-hidrated, too much sun, heat stroke. I shivered in bed for a few hours, trying to drink water, then decided to just go throw up and i felt great after that. Slept like a baby, i didnt even hear the group of drunk people coming in at 5 in the morning.

The next day we got up, had breakfast, update our blog. we had to change rooms, because we only planned on staying here for 1 night, so that is all that was booked. By the time we left here it was nearly 1. So we went to the train station to book our tickets out of here.Got there .... stood in line for almost an hour ... got to the ticket agent, and found out we needed to go to a different place to book international tickets ... crap, well that was an experience to learn from.

went to the 2nd place to get tickets and our original plan didn´t work with the trains, so instead of heading to Toulouse France, we are now just heading to Hendaye, France (or Spain) its right on the boarder, a small town, apparently very nice.

So we left the train station around 230 and walked to a HUGE park, like 20 square blocks. It was really nice, and in the middle there was a huge monument and man made lake thing. There were people paddling around on boats (but i said I am a bum, and we´re not doing that). We grabbed a sandwhich from a stand (pre-packaged and not very appatizing). We then relaxed in the 28 degree sunshine, reading our books for an hour or so.

We then got our lazy butts in gear and got some ice cream and headed to a HUGE arch. That was all that we had planned so Amber took it upon herself to make plans for the rest of the day and decided to fill it with shopping (can you sense the enthusiasum in my voice). It was alright ... ok i enjoyed myself, we picked a few things up, got yelled at by a security guard, got lost in Zara ... and then called it a day.

Now off to dinner and bed, and then we head out in the morning...

Good bye Spain, hello France.

written by  Trevor and Amber on May 14, 2009 from Madrid, Spain
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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After touring the city we found a new hotel for a little cheaper and then went to see a movie. I've been feeling a little home sick so it was nice to hear some English, I was so comfortable in the theatre and caught up in the movie that I actually had to remind myself at the end if the movie we were in France.

Tomorrow we are off to another city for some beach and sun.

written by  Trevor and Amber on May 17, 2009 from Toulouse, France
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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We were starving so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed to see some sights. We headed to the old part of town because the lady at the tourist office circled it. There was a really cool church, but that was it, the rest was very dingy looking streets ( Which I got us lost in as I always do) and it was all uphill. So we abondened that and went to stop #2 for he day.

We jumped on the metro and headed across town. We were going to see this giant fountain and park. I got us lost again, even though it was supposed to be right by the station (are you seeing a trend here?). We back tracked and found it, it was really neat.

We hung around for a bit and then headed back for some supper. We found a decent place but then I started freakin out about prices in France for hotel and food, and what our trip was going to cost, but amber put me in my place and all was fine.

Day 2 in marseille was more eventful. We got an all day buspass to see some things around the city. First we took a bus to the highest point in the city. Yes it was a church, we've seen a lot of these but this one looked differnet so we decided to go. It was really nice and had lots of colour which was different than all other old churches that we've seen so far.

We had some gross lunch ( the French like their meat really rare, I mean like blue rare even hamburgers ).

Then I wanted to head to beach so we waited for the bus. It was around 2. The first one that came by was full so the driver didn't stop. There was a guy at the bus stop and he said the last one was full too, so should we just keep waiting or walk to an earlier stop and catch it, or catch it on the other dircetion and then it would loop around. We choose option 3, but when it got to he end and was going to loop around the driver made us get off. I was so mad, I asked him if he was going back to port and he mumbled somethign in French but made us get off. Then he looped around so that he was on the other side of the highway , going in the direction we wanted. Thank god he stopped at the first stop. I was furiuos by now. We ran to get back on, and I yelled and he just looked confused. So we took this bus to the beach , but didn't know exactly where to get off. So I thought I knew where we where and we got off. We walked back to the water and NO BEACH! So I look at our map and we got off WAY WAY Way too early. Good one doorknob. I wanted to say screw the beach and go home. But we waited for that same bus again. Finally the bus came and we finally made it to the beach around 4, so it only took 2 hours to get there and Amber was already sunburnt from waiting outside for the bus. oops

The beach was good and the view spectacular. We relaxed for a while then walked down the beach for a good hour or so to the end. By this time we were hungry so we had amazing crepes for dinner.

written by  Trevor and Amber on May 19, 2009 from Marseille, France
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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The day has been mostly travel but we arrived in Montreux and it is absolutly breath taking. Switzerland in general is very beautiful. The Fairmont here is also amazing and they definitly live up to the Fairmont standards. The people are so friendly and the hotel is fantastic. When we arrived we checked in and then walked along the lake front before having a fantastic dinner at the restuarant at the hotel. We then had to check out the amazing pool and fitness facility, very impressive.

In the morning I went down and had a run on the treadmill while looking at the beautiful mountains, we had an awesome breakfast in our room, overlooking the lake and then we checked out.

As we were packing up we noticed the Fairmont staff parking some Porche cars on the lawn, curious we checked it out and found out that there was a porche convention at the hotel. It was pretty cool, got to see some nice cars about 20 of them scattered throughout the property.

We then took the bus to a castle called Chillion, it was a beautiful old castle and really interesting to see how the castle was built and how it evolved and how the people lived. What made the castle so beautiful and unique is that is is located on a little island on lake Geneve. It is one of the only castles with a natural moat, pretty cool. ( I wish we could post pictures) That was all for Montreux which I was really sad to leave but our budget just could not handle it.

written by  Trevor and Amber on May 20, 2009 from Montreux, Switzerland
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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We pre booked this hotel, because things in switZerland are really expensive. The hotel was located near the airport, so we got a map from the tourist place. We had 2 options, amber thought the tourist place say it was a 15 minute walk, so thought that was ok. I really didn't want to get lost, so I thought we should take he bus, but the next bus want for 45 minutes, so we decided to walk. One look around the corner and all we saw was freeway. So we decided to wait for the bus. I looked at the map a bit more and then thought I understood where to go, so we decided to walk.

By the way the place we were staying was in France, just across the border. Anyway we walked for about 30 minutes and came to this huge parkade. The road seemed to end leaving the freeway looking overhead. Walking seemed like a bad decision. Another look at the map and I realiZed we were still on track, but we hadn't covered as much ground as I thought.

Finally we came to a bus stop. It was best to wait. So we caught the bus, the same bus that we could. Have just waited for without walking for 30 minutes. We only stayed on a few stops so the driver let us not pay. We then transfered to get into France and to our hotel.

The hotel was cheap but that is why we booked it BUT it was TERRIBLE. The beds were so uncomfortable and we both slept really crappy.

So we got up early he next day. We walked all the way from France into Switzerland and headed to geneva by bus. We only had half a day so we thouhgt the best way to see the city was by a bus tour. No dice, they didn't start until the afternoon.

So we went and saw some stuff on our own. There was a cool fountin and shot 10 stories into the air. It was from 1890. And a clock made of flowers. A cool theater. And some other stuff I can't remember because I am witing his entry a few days layer.

Then we were off to Paris.

written by  Trevor and Amber on May 22, 2009 from Geneva, Switzerland
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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we got to the hotel we found at that there is some big tennis event happening and we would probably have a hard time finding anything in the whole city. Great. We walked to about 5 nearby hotels when Trevor started panicking as for a brief moment before I calmed him down he thought we would have to sleep on the street. I saw a nearby side street and convinced him to check there before freaking out. The first place had a tiny room but for a small price of 135€ which is about $200 Canadian while Trevor had checked that place I find another one and convinced the lady to let us stay in a single room for 70€ still the most we have paid for a room yet and by far the smallest room. We actually paid less at the fairmont. After checking in we headed to a cute little resturUnt for dinner and then walked to .......... Which was close by and had a great view of the city. There were hundreds of young people hanging out eating and drinking and watching some local performers. We walked through aimetourist shops and walked by the moulin rouge before heading to bed. So far Paris has not disappointed and we have hardly seen anything.

written by  Trevor and Amber on May 23, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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So now in the airport, we had to find mom , so we found an arrivals board, crap her flight was 10 minutes early. Terminal 2 and we were in terminal 3, we did stop too early, so we got onto another transfer train that took us to the right place another 10 minutes. We then dashed to terminal 2A which took another 10 minutes. Finally we found her waiting patiently, looking like she was on the verge of panicking but she had only been waiting 20 minutes or so.

We later rationalized why we thought the flight was at 6 pm. At home i had of an appointment in my calender for 10am, but here the time change is 8 hours (what do you know). So when I adjusted my time zone, it changed all he appointments too.

Thank God I checked that email that morning.

So we came back into Paris, found our room a few blocks away, but definitely more respectable, but couldn't check in quite yet. So we took mom to . . . wait for it . . . a laundry matt! We had laundry to do and it was close. Half way through mom and I checked into the room and I left her so she could have a small nap and went back to amber.

After mom rested a bit, we hit the metro and went to concord square. This is where the guillotine was during the French revolution. There was a huge obelisk with a golden tip. We could see the Arc de Triumph as well and it looked pretty close so we thought we my as well see that too. So we started walking, and we walked and walked and walked and it look like it was getting further away. An hour later, we made it there. As we looked back to concord square, we realized we walked all uphill. We took the metro back to the Louvre to see the pyramids. After grabbing a bite to eat, we jumped on a tour boat on the river seine. It was an hour cruise all the way from Notre Dame cathedral to the Eiffel tower (or tour Eiffel as it is known as here).

Moms eyes had a hard time staying open about half way through. Exhaustion finally caught up with her. I had to keep elbowing her. After the boat tour we finally brought mom back so we all could get some sleep for our next adventure.

written by  Trevor and Amber on May 23, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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