E is for Travels in Europe

Back in the late 90s, Cristi and I lived in Europe for three years, so we took every opportunity to travel all over.  Unfortunately, I won't be sharing any travel planning advice for Europe in this post because it would take much more than a single post to do it justice.  Instead, below is a small sampling from a few of the places we visited to make you jealous enough to add a few things to your bucket list.

We took a whirlwind trip to Italy over the Holidays soon after we arrived in Germany in 1997.  Pisa was our first stop.  I thought the small town looked like something right out of The Godfather.  By the way, it's really hard to take a picture of the tower leaning!
 

Rome was by far my favorite European city and our third stop on the Italy tour.  There's so much to see, so much history.  And the Italian people are incredibly gracious.

The interior of the Roman Coliseum

The Roman Forum.  I loved strolling down the avenue realizing that the ancient Romans trod that same path 2000 years ago!

Venice was our fourth stop on our Italy tour.  Everyone talks about how beautiful and romantic Venice is, but we visited in January, so the entire city was unfortunately a brilliant shade of gray.  Nevertheless, Piazza San Marco was still very impressive.

St Mark's Cathedral

July 1998 saw one of the first adventures I planned for our family -- five countries in seven days.  It was very taxing, and I learned some valuable trip planning lessons (that Cristi reminded me of for years!), but we saw some amazing sites, including the most photographed church in Germany and Mad Ludwig's Neuschwanstein that inspired Disney's Cinderella Castle.

Ramsau Church:  The most photographed church in Germany.  I had a jigsaw puzzle of this church when I was a kid and was determined to see it in person.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Travel in Europe wouldn't be complete without a trip to Paris and the obligatory picture of the Eiffel Tower!

In this picture, I attempted to replicate an artsy picture I saw in a travel book.

And a Disney freak's trip to Paris wouldn't be complete without a picture of Sleeping Beauty's Castle, would it?

I also had the opportunity to tour one of the world's most famous beaches, albeit not for swimming or surfing.

Normandy Beach

American WWII Cemetery at Normandy Beach

My second favorite European city was Prague, and we visited there in June 1999.  Prague has an old-world charm that it preserved through the dark days of communism while holding the capitalistic drive for modernism at bay.

Old Town Square

Our last big European trip, in March of 1999, was to London and Ireland.

Big Ben

Blarney Castle.  Yes, I kissed the stone.