europe: last barcelona highlights

the trip finally and sadly had to come to an end. a few other barcelona highlights included the market off las ramblas where we tasted many delicious fresh fruit drink. i loved all the colors and so much food.

on our way to church we found lots of great graffiti.
good-bye europe. we hope to visit again soon.

europe: gaudi in barcelona

ben loves everything gaudi and after visiting barcelona i'm now a fan as well. highlights were park guell,

the apartment building with it's wavy exterior and roof,

and of course the outrageous sagrada familia which has been under construction for over a 100 years and should be finished around 2030.

gaudi & ben.

europe: paris churches

our final full day in paris together we visited some famous churches. first stop was notre dame.

we climbed to the top for the view of paris and made friends with the gargoyles.

jon also made some friends with the birds.

next was sainte-chapelle and its beautiful stained glass.

paris was a delight in every way. i can't get enough of that eiffel tower.

now on to barcelona!

europe: versailles & more museums

day two in paris we headed out to versailles to check out the luxury of king louis the xiv - xvi and marie-antoinette. the palace and gardens did not disappoint. was all very over the top.

the gardens were so huge with some encouragement from jon we decided to see them via golf cart.

there were also lots of fun statues to imitate.

that afternoon we visited some additional sights in paris including some lovely flower shops,

napoleon's tomb (big tomb for little man),

rodin scuplture garden where we saw the thinker,

and the musee du lourve to see the mona lisa.

and of course, more eiffel tower.

europe: paris bike ride

onto paris via the chunnel. i pretty much loved everything about paris. we stayed by the eiffel tower and it ended up being a great starting point for many of our activities, including on the first day a bike tour.

we got the history of and saw such sights as the army museum & napoleons tomb, les invalides, the seine,

concorde, tuileres gardens, the lourve,

and course the eiffel tower.

that afternoon we went to see the arc de triomphe and strolled down the champs-elysees.

maybe my favorite stop of the entire trip was to la duree on the champs-elysees where we ate the most delicious macaroons. they were so tasty that we stood outside and ate them all.

that evening ben and i headed up to the highest point in paris to see sacre-coeur basilica and the view. ben really like the gargoyles.

we strolled around montmartre, ate some crepes, and ended at the moulin rouge.

europe: london

we were lucky to be able to recently travel to europe for vacation. i was excited. we started in london, moved onto paris, and ended in barcelona.

we met up with this great group of forrests (mom, katie, aaron, & jon) in london where katie is currently living and working (lucky).

katie was a great tour guide and we had many adventures such as the changing of the guard at buckingham palace, an open top bus tour,

fish & chips at the tower of london,

a river cruise down the thames, the london eye,

the churchill museum & cabinet war rooms, hyde park, classic british phone booths,

delicious indian food, and of course big ben.

thanks to katie for letting us completely take over her fabulous flat with heated floors!