Stephanie the Voyager: vacation

I am officially back from Europe!

I had a fabulous time, and saw a lot of cool things. I am attaching my favorite pictures from the trip. It was tough to narrow it down to these pictures as we took over 3000 pictures during the month.

The trip started out with the new non-stop flight from SLC to Paris on Delta (which I highly recommend). The same day that I landed in Paris, I got on another plane and flew to Madrid, Spain. This was the first time I've been to Spain and I loved it. Madrid is a very CLEAN city, and had a lot of historic sites to see. There were a bunch of restaurants that served tapas, Spanish appetizer items, and we tried them all.

Glass House in Madrid, Spain

After Madrid, we bussed over to Barcelona, Spain which was a much funner city. My favorite site in Spain was the Sagrada Familia church. The architect Gaudi designed the church, and it is still being constructed. It is very intricate and HUGE. You will see what I mean by looking at the pictures. Gaudi was responsible for a lot of the architecture in Barcelona that I fell in love with. We had long days in Barcelona as it is known as the city that never sleeps.

Spanish Countryside

Sagrada Familia Church (close-up)

Sagrada Familia Church

Sagrada Familia Church entrance

Park Guell which Gaudi also designed

After Barcelona, we got on another plane and flew to Milan, Italy. We spent a day here and saw the amazing Duomo, an old castle, and shopped! We attempted to see Da Vinci's Last Supper, but were not able to as we didn't make a reservation 2 weeks ahead of time :(

Milan Duomo

Castle in Milan where the royal family use to live

From Milan, we caught a train to Florence, Italy and headed straight to Michelangelo's DAVID. What an amazing sculpture. You turn the corner of the museum and find yourself staring down the hall at this beautiful piece of art. We also saw Florence's Duomo and spent almost a day at the famous Uffizi Gallery. The middle of the days were so hot that we found ourselves planning to be indoors at a museum or would head back to our hotel to get out of the heat.

Since we weren't allowed to take a picture of the "real" David, we took this picture of a cast of David outside the Uffizi Gallery

Florence Duomo

Florence City

Venus de Milo at the Ufizzi Gallery

We then took a train to Venice, Italy. I think Venice was my favorite city overall from this trip. We traveled all around Venice and also to surrounding islands. We saw the famous Murano glasswork and spent a few days at the beach on Lido. Every picture we took here was picture perfect and beautiful. We ended the trip with a gondola ride and winning big at the Casino!

Venice by night

San Marco Square

Gondola Ride

Island of Murano, where famous Murano glass comes from

After Venice, we flew back to Paris and met up with my Mom and Godmother and headed up to Normandy for my friend Priscilla's wedding. Priscilla is French and she married an Englishman, which made it nice for us since they spoke half French and half English at the wedding. What an amazing wedding! Everything was perfect, including the weather. Check out the pictures to see the beautiful bride and groom (Howard) and the amazing festivities.

Arriving in Normandie

Normandie Whitecliffs

Outside Church in Normandie right before Priscilla's wedding

Priscilla and Howard

Priscilla & Howard, Me, Amanda, & Jessica

Priscilla's Wedding Cake

The next part of the trip was spent in London. We did not have enough time to see all the sites we wanted to see, but attempted to. We spend time at Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, the Parliament Building, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, and the theater, we saw Wicked and Les Miserables.

Westminster Abbey

Parliament Building and Big Ben

Parliament building with guard, we also toured the Parliament

London Bridge

London Eye, which we rode and saw the city of London from a birds eye view

Theater in London, not too bad!

We ended the trip in Paris, and had lots of amazing days here. The main sights we saw included the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Musee D'Orsay, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Saint Michelle, Sacre Coeure, Champs Elysees. My favorite part of the trip was the lunch we had on the first level of the Eiffel Tower... the food was amazing!

Arc de Triomphe

Notre Dame Church

Hall of mirrors at Chateau of Versaille

We rented a golf cart at the chateau of Versaille to drive around the gardens since they are so extensive. It was a blast... to say the least.

Gardens at Chateau of Versaille

Saint Michelle Chapel near Notre Dame. Lower level where the peasants worshiped. First church in Paris.

Saint Michelle church top level where the wealthy people worshiped. The stain glass is amazing in this church and what people come to this church to see.