EUROPE LOVE

EURO VACAY / HONEYMOON

Contributed by: Kelly

Our long awaited honeymoon landed us in London, Paris, Berlin, Venice, Florence and Rome.  We enjoyed three blissful weeks of food, fun, sightseeing and culture.  In this blog I will highlight the "must do's" as far as I am concerned:)

London:  We loved the traditional Afternoon Tea at my favourite department store: Harrods.  The store itself is a tourist attraction - absolutely stunning inside.  We also made sure to hit up the British museum, Buckingham Palace and the London Eye. 
Here I am with my buddy Ben:

Paris:  Aside from the beautiful city itself, I made it a mission to eat as many macarons and croissants as possible.  The croissants melted in my mouth and I am still savouring the macarons from  Pierre Herme  located at Gallerie Lafayette.  (All the walking during our trip made up for these guilty pleasures).  We did soak in some culture at the Louvre and Notre Dame Cathedral and got gorgeous views of the city from the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe.  We also took a day trip to Versaille to tour the palace which was one of the most amazing sites I've ever seen in my life! 
Here is a picture of me trying to work of some of those extra calories!:

Berlin:  Berlin was kind of our wild-card.  We did not know what to expect but looking back, it was definitely the most eye-opening and educational part of our trip.  We took a 3 hour walking tour around the city and our tour guide talked about the historical significance and stories associated with each landmark.  It was very evident that WW2 has left a lasting effect on the city and some people of Berlin are still trying to put it behind them. On a personal note, we met my husband Gabe's cousins for the very first time. Our lack of German and their lack of English made for interesting attempts at communicating, so of course we resorted to Chinese (which we all are). That moment certainly made the world seem global and small.
Here we are at Brandenburg Gate:

Venice:  Coffee, Food, Shopping, Gelati. Repeat.  By the time we arrived in Venice, we were church and cathedralled out!   So, we soaked in the magic of the city by lounging in cafes, taste testing a variety of restaurants and scoping out artisan and craftsman's shops.  A definite highlight for me was sipping a cappuccino in Saint Marco's Square while listening to  live music. Here is a picture of the famous grand canal (albeit a little wet!):

Florence:  We happened to be in Florence during Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, so many of the attractions were closed, but we took that in stride and spent our time roaming around the city.  The leather market was fabulous and it reminded us of the Hong Kong & Richmond night markets.  We also discovered their gold market - one city block of nothing but jewellers!  (hey honey, I like that one:)

Rome:  As cliche as it sounds, we were mesmerised by the Trevi Fountain, the Coliseum, and people watching on the Spanish Steps.  We hit it up during the day and night.  Our highlights in Rome included free drinking water to keep us hydrated, the Vatican City and of course our one euro cappuccinos.  We could not believe the artwork at the Sistine Chapel - pictures just don't do it justice.

Here we are in front of the Coliseum.

Tips:  Buy a monopod, or camera stick so that you don't have to ask tonnes of people to take pictures for you:  http://www.dealextreme.com/p/stainless-steel-handheld-monopod-for-digital-camera-42504

Purchase tickets for attractions online in advance.   In most cases, we got to skip the queue.  It saved us a lot of time as some of the lines were up to 1.5 hours long. 

Arrivederci!