**It was a bus tour, and the theme song was "Soak up the Sun" by Sherryl Crow. I made some friends on the tour, and now I theoretically have friends in Vancouver, Toronto, and South Africa.
I saw a lot of the things that someone who is traveling in Europe for the first time ought to have seen. The tour took us to London across the English Channel from the town of Dover, then through Belgium to Amsterdam, then the Rhine Valley, then Munich, then Lucerne Switzerland, then Venice, then Rome, then Florence, then Paris, then back to London.
I remember seeing Big Ben (it's big) , Westminster Abbey (it's big), the London Eye (also big), the red light district in Amsterdam (the funniest thing is seeing men get turned away), skinny houses (I like the houses in Amsterdam), houseboats (toilets flush into the canals...ewwwwww....), coffee shops (they don't sell the starbucks kind), Anne Frank's House (awesome!), Marienplatz (cool...but you see it once, you don't really need to see it again), the Swarovski crystal museum (don't get the crystal owl because security will think it's a grenade...so says my grandma), drinking Nestle hot chocolate in Switzerland (so lame), seeing the Effiel Tower (it was twinkling...guys, if you propose to your future wife, do it in front of the Effiel Tower, no need to go up...), the Mona Lisa (it's small), the Venus DeMilo (eh), David (awesome, gotta see the real thing!), St. Mark's Square in Venice (lots of pigeons), smelling the Venice canals on the gondola ride (what is it with Europe and nasty canals?), drinking vodka adn redbull from a toothpaste tube (strange, but yummy), the Vatican (it's really big), the Lion of Lucrene (it's sooooo cool!), the musee dorsay (more manageable than the Louvre, and really cool), Notre Dame (no hunchback when I went), the roman ruins (it looked old), the colesium (this was very old), the Trevi Fountain (lots of tourists there!),
the Pantheon (another old thing), and walking down the Champs Elliese and shopping at Sephora (the stuff is definitely cheaper in the US).
**Bus vs. Paris - There is an intersection in Paris where 12 streets come into a round about, and that seems to lead to chaos. The outer circle is for people who need to exit. Typically you are screwed if you want to go into the inner most circle, and if you want to come out of the inner most circle. However, when you are on a tour bus, it doesn't seem to matter. The bus entered this intersection, and I think we cut off about 20 other cars, all smaller than us, to reach the inside of the circle. It was awesome! We went along the inside, and gawked from the side of the window to see the traffic. Then, when the driver felt like it, he cut off an additional 20 cars to get to the right street. I suppose if I were to drive this traffic circle in Paris, I'd want a big bus too.
**On the last night in London, we all went to see Chicago in London. It was really well done. And then, I flew back to San Diego, where I stayed with the SD guys the first night. They decided to rent "Chicago", the movie, and I don't remember seeing much more than the opening credits, because I fell asleep in front of the tv on the floor. I guess I was jetlagged, and I have no idea what the movie version of Chicago is like. They said it was good...so I'll take their word for it
** Bus tours are ok if you want to do a lot in very little time, but I don't think it is the best way to travel Europe. Plus, they are expensive. With driver and tour guide tips, plus souvenirs, museum entrance fees, etc., my trip ended up costing me a lot more than I had initially budgeted. I suppose it was worth it, but at the same time, it was a lot of money.
