We're 3/4 through our European vacation (updated pictures). We started out in Frankfurt for one night to see Holly's youngest sister, then on to Rome to meet her other sister (who's living in Barcelona). We've been their mom joined us en route in Toronto, so it's really been a family vacation.
Rome is lovely, but dirty and overrun with tourists. Still, the sights are incredible, and photos and postcards don't even begin to show the soul of the city if you haven't seen it first hand. We spent 9 days in Rome, and after a couple of days getting settled and over some minor jet lag, we hit the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Circo Massimus (where the Chariots used to run). The Colosseum and the Forum (along with Palatine Hill) were truly breathtaking. Circo Massimus is now just a flat field with litter and gravel, and was truly disappointing.
From Rome, we took a day trip to Florence. If Rome is overcrowded, Florence is bursting at the seams. Some people had told me that if we went to Florence, we would never want to leave; we couldn't get out of there fast enough, in fact. We did see Michaelangelo's David, which was awe inspiring, and made the trip somewhat worthwhile, but the rest of the city is such a dung-heap that we just wanted to leave afterwards, and were happy to do so.
Back in Rome, we spent a day at Vatican City. The sights there are, again, just incredible, and we got there early enough that the crowds weren't too bad, but they were getting unpleasant towards the end. We went to the top of St. Peter's cathedral to look out over Rome. After the elevator, we had to walk up 300+ stairs to reach the top. Oliver did around 250 by himself, and was so proud! The view from the top was awesome, but there were too many people for the tiny space so it wasn't worth staying up too long.
From Rome, we went to Barcelona, where we are now. We're staying in Holly's sister's flat, which is fantastic. We're just a short walk from the Metro, and the city is just beautiful (especially contrasted with Rome). We'd love to come back here to spend more time. We've been to the old city, to La Sangria Familia (unbelievable), and done some walking in some of the most pleasant areas. Today, the girls went shopping and Oliver and I went down to the waterfront to wander and look at the boats. That's a guaranteed good day in my books, and I wasn't disappointed. There were some tall ships in the harbor, and O just loved looking at them. We're back home now, O's having a nap, and I'm trying to come to terms with the whirlwind vacation this has been so far. We've only a couple more days before the long haul home, and I can't say I'm looking forward to leaving, flying, or returning to work next week.
