Rome, Pompeii, and the Vatican

Sorry we're a little late on this one. We didn't have Internet in Rome, so we're uploading everything from there all at once. Rome was a really cool city with LOTS of history. We had a really fun time wandering around the Colosseum and the Roman forum, as well as the Pantheon.

We took a day trip to Pompeii, which is an ancient city by Naples. In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the city and all of the inhabitants in 20 feet of ash. 1700 years later, the city was found and excavated. It's really amazing because everything is still very close to the way it was 2000 years ago!

On our last day, we visited the Vatican. We were amazed at the things that the Church has been able to collect over the ages. The Sistine Chapel was amazing, but different than we were expecting. It was more of a square room than a church, with paintings on all of the walls. It was nonetheless breathtaking to stare up at Michelangelo's masterpiece. We felt sorry for him, because it took him 4 years to do it under force by the Pope. Michelangelo was a sculptor, not a painter, so he hated it. It's definitely amazing, though. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel.

We've uploaded a ton of pictures this time, so be sure to click on the picture below to see all of the pictures and captions.

Europe Stinks (Not Really)

I wrote this on the train ride to Rome, so it's a little late but that's okay.

This is a small collection of the not so glamorous stories of our Europe Vacation. The first story is where the title is derived from.

Czech Your Deodorant
I have briefly mentioned before that the train ride into the Czech Republic from Germany was not a pleasant experience! Well, here's why... After trouble boarding the train and finding a seat we were relieved when we finally got settled in, however short lived. Three stops down the line we pulled into an immensely crowded platform and with one glance it was obvious they had oversold the train; not to just anyone but to a group of middle schoolers. There we sat in a little compartment: Aaron, Meg, and four unshowered rowdy Czech teenage boys. We survived by leaving the window open. But, when it started to rain on Meg and the window was closed, our noses had no escape. We left the boys and stood outside the closed doors of the compartment for the rest of the journey. I wonder what they thought of us.

Close Encounters with G.O.M.s (Grumpy Old Men)
Now just because we can call them men doesn't mean they smell any better than the teenagers.

Encounter #1- Yelling German G.O.M. boarding the train to Czech starts hollering about how we don't know how to board a train, that we were in the way, that we shouldn't be here unless we knew the language. Obviously the G.O.M. was yelling at me because Aaron translated for me later. Aaron understood just fine once he finally looked up to see said G.O.M. jostle me and my luggage out of his smelly way. So, grumpy! He continued to yell at us after the train started to move.
Encounter #2- Upon leaving Prague we were early to board the train (which isn't always possible) and found a place for our luggage and our seats. As we go to sit down, some G.O.M. Biker Butt starts yelling at us to move the luggage so his bike can go where our bags are. Aaron brushed him off because there wasn't any other place for the bags. Then enters G.O.M. Biker Butt's Friend w/bike. They loudly converse between the two of them making gestures at us, and then move our luggage into the aisle blocking all other passengers! We were on our feet, G.O.M.s on one side of the train attendant, A&M on the other! GO TIME! Three more G.O.M.s smooshed onto the train with their bikes. We were out numbered 5 vs 2 at this point, so we ceded defeat. We got permission to put our luggage in two open seats for lack of a better solution and calmly smiled back at the 5 G.O.M. Biker Butts all the way to Vienna. They were a lot nicer after a few beers.
Encounter #3- Same train ride as #2. Austrian G.O.M. wants us to move our luggage so his friends can sit right next to him instead of a row behind. We were armed and ready to battle it out. Enough with G.O.M.s!!! Before anything happened, however, the attendant told the man to move our luggage himself or take the open seats. Yay, for non-yelling train attendants!

Don't let the wrinkles fool ya! She's vicious!
Now in the states we respect and try to be helpful to the elderly and in most cases that effort is returned with kindness. After 3 weeks of being skipped in line, pushed, shoved, poked, prodded and pinched by elderly women I turned to Aaron and said, "If one more elderly women pushes me, I swear I'm pushing back!" Our German friend Annelie heard this story and said, "You're just now figuring out that it's okay to push back?! You Americans are so overly polite."
Well, I've got a new system I use. First I try a loud, "excuse me", then a nudge, and if they aren't moving I just head the direction I need to go and if they choose to stay in that path so be it! Aaron laughed quite hard after watching me in Vienna make my presence known on a crowded bus. "Excuse Me! Excuse Me!" as I lifted my 50 pound luggage and shoved my way off the tightly packed bus. I know, barbaric but I was proud of myself.

So, I can't write any more of these they're too long. But if you'd like to chat some time ask about the Babling American Tourists or Not Such a Delight Turkish Second Hand.

No Internet in Rome

Hi everyone. I just wanted to let you all know that we do not have Internet here at the hotel in Rome, so we will not be able to post while we are here. I am currently using a public computer and I have a line behind me. :) We had a great day today, though! We will be sure to post on Sunday or Monday after we are home again. Ciao!

Last Day in Florence

Wow! Looking back over the blog tonight I'm so glad we did this! It's been a really fun way to document our adventures, and even now I'm not sure I would remember some of the details if I hadn't taken the time to write some of them down. We're going to be totally boring again after this weekend, but we can deal with that when the plane lands.

This morning we had some free time so we started off with a little bartering with the locals for some leather jackets. It was really fun because we were the first customers of the day and they're superstitious about turning down the first sell of the day so we made a good deal. Who knows, we may have gotten ripped off, but we had fun and really like our jackets. Italians are great even if you don't buy something from them you're their new best friend. The owner of the shop we haggled with this morning actually has a brother that lives in Tooele, Utah! Yeah that's right, my hometown! Small world, he was so excited we had a connection. After that we went to the Santa Croce, the church where Galileo, Michelangelo, Danti, Machiavelli and ... are buried. The whole church being a cemetery thing doesn't bug me like it did back in London. Pretty cool. After the church we set off on an excursion to Pisa! It's about an hour bus ride and we rode with some interesting Americans. These people made us hope they weren't the image or majority of how the world views Americans. More to come about them in an upcoming post, "Europe -Stinks-" Anyways, we got off the bus and made a small pilgrimage up to the Field of Miracles where the tower is. It was really amazing and even through the heat did make me a little grumpy, Aaron quickly reminded me to get over it and enjoy the moment.

We're off to Rome tomorrow and that will be our last city. It's very mixed feelings as the end of the trip approaches. Not feeling well made me extremely home sick because it's difficult to take care of little things this far away from home. It has been so amazing here, the honeymoon we never really got, and ending that is very difficult. We'll Live it up these last few days!!!

Florence With Fireworks

It's really late here so I'm just going to get these picture up, sorry, but caption will have to come later. Today is a holiday here only in Florence, St. John The Baptist Day. He the patron saint of Florence. It was frustrating not being able to see some of the places we were scheduled to see or go to the store because of the holiday, but the firework made up for it.

Last Day in Vienna, Arrival in Florence

Our last day in Vienna was a lot of fun. Meg has officially obtained ill status, however, and is struggling to keep up the fast pace, so if it seems like we've slowed down...it's because we have. To finish off Vienna we went to the "House of Music" a place completely dedicated to having fun with sound, understanding sound, making music, and composing music. Aaron had a great time because a lot of the exhibits were focused on signal processing, what he got his emphasis in at school. We then went to check out the city park and caught a quick nap while we were there. Then we went to the Hofburg palace and explored the royal treasury. We then caught the night train to Florence. We totally forgot to take pictures of our cabin. We were in a cabin by ourselves and were pleased to find a modern and clean space. Our luggage took up most of the extra wiggle room, however.

Today we arrived in Florence at 6:30 and couldn't check into the room quite yet. So we walked to the middle of town and visited the Florence Cathedral. Wow! Aaron tried to dissuade Meg since she's sick, but she insisted on climbing the 463 stairs to the top of the dome. It about killed her, but we were glad we did it. What a view! We got back to the bottom and she was so pale that we Aaron insisted we go right back to the hotel. We had to wait another 30 minutes, but we finally got a room. Meg fell right asleep and slept for the next 6 hours! Hopefully taking today off will be enough help her feel good enough to last the rest of the week before we come home.

Vienna Beautiful Vienna

Today was our first day exploring Vienna. We decided to wait until tomorrow to venture into the downtown part of Vienna where all of the soccer fans are spending their time, so we spent most of our day at Schönbrunn Palace, the home of several generations of Habsburg monarchs. The Habsburgs were the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire for about 400 years and finally the rulers of the Astro-Hungarian Empire until World War I. We had a lot of fun seeing the completely restored and furnished inside (unfortunately no pictures allowed) and the immaculate grounds outside. It was beautiful. We kept wondering how many full-time gardeners it would take to keep up the grounds. Definitely a couple hundred. The highlight of the day was when we were at the Gloriette and got to watch a couple of drunk people fall all over themselves. I have a picture of it in the slideshow. I wanted to post the movie I made, but it's too big.

Prague Update

By the way, we've finished captioning the Prague photos.

Vienna Fan Zone

We just got here to Vienna today and wow is it crazy here. For those of you that don't come out much, the European Soccer championships are going on right now and Vienna is one of the host cities. Tonight, Croatia played Turkey here in Vienna in a quarter-final match to see who will play Germany in the semi-final. We decided to brave the crowds and head down to the "Fan Zone", a 1.2 km wide area with huge TVs, lots of beer, and lots of crazy fans. I must say it was a lot of fun! Well, it would have been more fun if we were drinkers. :) We ended up leaving at halftime because we just couldn't stand the smoke any more. We actually wish (or maybe not?) that we had stayed, because the match ended up going into extension time, where Croatia scored with a minute left. Everyone thought it was over until Turkey scored with less than a second left! They ended up doing a shootout to determine the winner and Turkey came away with it. Soccer is so much fun! Well, I'd better get these pictures up before Blogger's "scheduled outage". Enjoy.

Prague

So, I'm going to take Aaron's turn for posting...if this internet connection stays with us, we'll see. Aaron is busy watching Germany and Portugal duke it out in the quarter-finals of the Euro Cup. It's the best game we've seen so far! I'm just looking up whenever Aaron starts freaking out. :) Getting to Prague was super traumatizing for me, because there was a German man that yelled at me, tossed my luggage around, and then continued to yell at me. I wish I would have yelled back in English, but I was so intimidated all thought left me. The train wasn't very nice to start off with, then a huge group of Czech middle schoolers got on the train (they smelled); it was so full you just had to stand in your little space. Then our taxi driver didn't show up at the station so we walked to the hotel, but it was only a kilometer so it wasn't bad at all. The mean man on the train really ruined my morning and put me in a very negative mood. Aaron took me out to see the city and, "I got better." Prague has been great! It's very different then the cities we've visited so far and there is a lot to enjoy in not a lot of time.

Reminder: Click on slide show to see larger photos

Dresden We Love You

We spent the day sightseeing here in Dresden. It was a lot of fun and we had a very enjoyable day together. We took a "hop on hop off" tour so we could get a general idea of the whole area, but knew from the get-go that most of the sights we wanted to see were all in downtown Dresden. This city is really cool because it was planned out from the very beginning of it's settlement. August the Strong was the Elector ruling at the time (side note: we saw August in a portrait at the castle yesterday). He knew exactly how he wanted the city laid out, so all of the industrial buildings are together, residential, etc. We got off the bus on the other side of the Elbe river to go explore some castle grounds, and had fun hiking through the woods between castles. I had to remind myself of how cool it was to be munching on ice cream on the terrace of a castle! We then started exploring the sights of Theaterplatz. We rushed because we really wanted to make sure we got to see the ginormous Castle here, and the Opera House. We headed to the Opera house around 4:15 to find the we had just missed the last tour. So we walked excitedly over to the Castle to a gate that said, "Castle Completely Closed Only On Tuesdays". So, at 4:30 we found ourselves at the end of our list of must sees for the day. We were very bummed, but we found something to occupy our time...shopping. We found a shop that sold authentic Weihnachtspyramide (see picture) so we found a piece in our price range of the nativity. It's beautiful! It will be a very special piece around Christmas time. We then found Aaron a wallet, because there's just something he likes better about European wallets. Wow, this is a lot longer than I thought it would be. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Insert Boring Title Here (Forst, Freiberg, Meißen)

We officially got back on the road again yesterday, leaving our home away from home in Forst and traveling to Dresden. We spent today with a rental car, driving to Meißen and Freiberg, two cities fairly close to Dresden. I spent 7.5 months of my mission in Freiberg, so it was nice to be back for a while, even though it rained the entire time we were there. We ate Döners at my favorite place and had an overall great day! We even bought Meghann a Germany jersey so we could root our team on to victory in the European Championship play tonight. They won! So they'll be moving on to the quarter-finals against Portugal.

Enjoy the pictures, we uploaded a lot of them this time. BTW, there are a bunch of drunk people outside singing "Deutschland! Deutschland!" at the top of their lungs. Very entertaining!

Germany Meg Must Haves

These are the things that I'm scared I'll crave when I get back to the states and I won't have easy access to them like I do here. The first two I'm getting pretty good at keeping on my person at all time. :)

• LEIBNIZ Butter biscuit

• HARIBO- Goldbären Gummy Bears!

• There is always a bakery with a fresh Croissant! I love the flaky goodness...yummy!

• Lastly, Coke. It doesn't taste the same; it's not nearly as carbonated and it's not as sweet. They also still serve it in glass bottles here and I don't know why but I get a simple enjoyment out of that.

• Better not leave Aaron off of this list. At least I get to bring him home with me!
  

Spreewald: Deutschlands Venice

Today we got to ride in a gondola-esque boat in Spreewald. Aaron has talked about Spreewald a lot because he got to go there with some mission companions and they went canoing there. Well Annelie and her Mama took us for a visit today. This area is filled with natural canals that lead to islands and villages. The only way to get around is by boat! One of the villages we visited has been around since 200 A.D.! It was a very relaxing morning and I took a lot of pictures because it's not something you see every day. Mom, there were some of the prettiest gardens! It seemed like anything would grow here, and it makes sense the soil is amazing and there's lots of water. Tonight we went to a ward BBQ (where Aaron's German improved dramatically in just a few hours...so I'm told). It made me laugh every time someone would figure out I didn't understand a single word coming out of their mouths. We're mostly packed for our trip to Dresden tomorrow. We'll go to church (where Aaron will be giving a talk!), have lunch one more time with Annelie's family, and then we're off to Dresden. The point of all this is that we probably won't have time to post tomorrow. So, here's a shout out to our FANTASTIC FATHERS! We're missing you this Father's day and hope that it's a great day. Mommy, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I love you!

Forst: a Place to Rest

We spent a few more hours in Berlin yesterday and then headed to Forst. Forst is where Aaron spent 9 months of his mission serving, and where our good friend Annelie lives. We got here a bit later than we thought. Aaron said he thought the train ride was about an hour...not quite an hour, but we made it. Annelie and her family have been kind enough to let us stay with them while we are here. We went to visit the Icke family last night and had a wonderful time. Aaron was good friends with them while he was here. They have a beautiful family of three giggly girls (Lena, Lucie, Lily) and their youngest baby boy (Elay). I couldn't understand much of the conversation, but I was very comfortable spending time with them. They have a loving home. That and their 5 year old Lily didn't seem to mind that I couldn't understand her because she talked my ear off! So cute!

It's Friday the 13th and we've had some bad luck this morning... First we tried my blow dryer which hasn't worked all trip long with our transformer; so we tried it with Annelie's and the blow dryer exploded! Really big sparks! Now I get a new one when we get home! Yay, for that! Since mine exploded, Annelie let me borrow one with the instructions to not let it turn off while using it. I held the button tight but it turned itself off and I had successfully killed two hair driers in one morning! Then Annelie's brother, Tobias, took us out to see the sights of Forst and to Poland that's really close. Well we made a stop and got back in the car to take off and it wouldn't start. Of course it was raining so walking home wasn't the best of options. We waited awhile and the equivalent of AAA came and jumped the car for us. Really no life changing bad luck, but I don't think I'll be leaving the house again today. Not many pictures, but a few.

Oh! Before I go...Congratulations to my Best Friend Hollie for being so incredible and bringing your 8 pound Miley Coates into this world. I'm so amazed by your courage and I hope all is well with you and your new little one!

Sachsenhausen and a little more Berlin

Today we took a trip out to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp about 20 miles north of Berlin. Although it was a work camp and not an extermination camp like Auschwitz or Dachau, it was still a solemn experience. In the 9 years Sachsenhausen was used, around 250,000 people died from starvation, over-work, or just outright murder. It was the model for all other concentration camps and had a training ground for SS stormtroopers. It's hard to believe that the Holocaust really happened and that Hitler and his Nazi followers really killed millions of people over such a short time, but it really did happen. We were able to see it first hand today and it's appalling.

In the evening, we had a couple more hours to spend in Berlin. We went to the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag (German Parliament building), and the Siegessäule. Being at the Brandenburg Gate was neat because I remember the TV coverage from 1989 when the first parts of the Berlin wall were torn down right in front of the Brandenburg Gate. It's amazing the history, both centuries old and more recent, that has happened here in Berlin.

WARNING: most of the pictures in today's slideshow are from the concentration camp; if you are uncomfortable with the subject, don't look at the pictures.

Berlin Candid Movies

Grüße aus Berlin!

Greetings from Berlin! Our travels continue! Travel days are the hardest for me because there are so many ifs; but luckily for me my Husband is wonderful at getting us around, and keeping me calm. This trip has reminded me once again that I married right for me. Aaron has a way of taking care of me without making me so comfortable that I stop doing things for myself. I guess you could say that he pushes me to try and experience things without too much of his help. He's still such a gentleman, he aways offers his arm when we go down stairs, takes my hand when he can see I'm nervous, and keeps himself between me and the barking German Shepard on the train! Little things but I notice them the most. We left Leipzig in our Diesel VW Golf headed for Wittenberg. Aaron has always wanted to go to Wittenberg because it's where Martin Luther preached and nailed his 95 thesis to the castle/church door, changing religion as we know it, and we believe starting the preliminary work for the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith. We had a little trouble getting there because all of the villages in the area are having sewer installed so many roads were torn up. We ended up taking an hour and a half detour to get there, but we had fun driving through the countryside together and really enjoyed Wittenberg.

After we finished our visit to Luther's hometown, we headed into Berlin. Aaron had a bit too much fun on the Autobahn, but we're still alive. We stopped outside of the city and took a train the rest of the way to keep things simple. We are learning that trains make me dizzy for days on end...so now we've learned to sit forward, and to not get concerned if Meg walks like a drunkard. Being in Berlin has been very engaging. This place has a ton of history and it's moving to see some of it. We are also managing to have lots of fun while we're here. I hope you enjoy the slide show. Missing you! (within reason) Meg

I'm back! (Leipzig and Halle)

What a weird feeling it is to be back in my mission! It seems like it's been forever since I was here, yet it still feels normal to be here. Yesterday and today we were in Leipzig and Halle, my second and first mission cities, respectively. It's definitely a completely different perspective to be here as a tourist instead of a missionary. I noticed things the last couple of days that I didn't see the entire 4 and a half months I spent altogether in the two cities. Meg humored me and let me go to my old apartments and the church in Leipzig, even though driving here in general makes her more than a little nervous.

Our hotel here is very nice... almost bordering on snooty. It made us laugh that someone comes in each night to "prepare the room" for bed. They take off the decorative bedding, turn down the sheets, place mats and slippers on each side of the bed, and leave a breakfast menu with two chocolates. The first night, the guy even bowed to us when he was done. A funny sidenote: He accidentally walked in on Meghann while she was standing in her underwear. She didn't know what to do so she blurted "Come back in 5 minutes!" Luckily, he understands English and left immediately.

Enjoy the photos! Same instructions as usual.

Thinkings of Trip

This is a list of Random tidbits from my vacation thinkings:

• I have a new understanding and appreciation for scenes in Harry Potter. --The diversity of London, its business, the train stations. Also with the Euro Cup Soccer Championships starting it has become very common to have crowds of grown men to start singing at the top of their lungs the silliest things. "We're getting off the TRAM! We're getting off the TRAM!" We were eating in a mall today and I just smiled when their songs reached through the entire building. Everyone sports the colors of their favorite team as well, all of this reminds me of Quidditch.
• My heart has connected with England, and I think it could be my home from a different life to have fallen for one simple place so much!
  
• Aaron's so at home here in Germany...it suits him.
  
• I'm fond of the "She's an American" look I'm constantly getting, with their double takes so they can soak me and my accent in. I don't mind their stares if they don't mind mine!
  
• I finished my book, "Atonement" The whole book had me engulfed and the end made me weep. Mostly because I'm now without an English novel! Why did I think one book would be enough?
  
• Europe is going American, everywhere has signs in English, and all announcements are repeated in English. Not only that, but everywhere we have been we've seen these three franchises, "Burger King, Subway, and Pizza Hut." We ate at the latter this evening.
• Yes, Germans speak English...but I can't understand most of them.
  
• The most surprising...We've lost weight. Aaron has lost 5 pounds and I have lost 1 pound. We fully expected to come back chubbier than when we left, but we're pleasantly surprised!
  

No Internet in Cologne

Our last city was Cologne and we weren't able to use the internet there, sorry for our silence. Cologne was wonderful! Aaron's so excited to be back in Germany and speaking the language once again. I'm going to refer you to the slide show to see what we've been up to. Warning before you start going through it: you'll need about 5-7 minutes, there are a ton of pictures! You'll be seeing lots of Cologne Cathedral; we couldn't help taking pictures of it, every angle felt like something new and interesting. The only thing that we forgot to take pictures of was the Farina perfume museum, where the world's first marketed perfume was created and sold. It was interesting and I sorta' fell in love with the original perfume so Aaron bought me my first souvenir of the trip: a bottle of Eau De Cologne.



It's probably easiest to just click on the slideshow and go through the pictures manually, rather than trying to read the captions and look at the little pictures all in 4 seconds.

Amsterdam Not So Shabby After All

Okay, now that we've had another day here in Amsterdam, we're starting to like it a lot more. Once we got outside of the Red Light District and all of the evilness of this place, we realized that Amsterdam is actually quite a cool city. The city was built on a swamp right next to a river, so there are canals and water everywhere in the city. We took a boat tour today through the canals and had a really good time.

The other thing that drastically improved our perception of the Netherlands was leaving the city in search of the Netherlands temple. We rented a car to make the 30 minute drive to Zoetermeer and man was that an experience! Getting out of Amsterdam through all of the skinny streets and one-ways took forever. I'm so glad we had the GPS, we would still be driving in circles otherwise! Zoetermeer was a quaint little Dutch town that we like immediately. There were traditional old-fashioned windmills, beautiful flowers, and the Temple. Sounds like a good combination to me! We stopped at a cafe for lunch and discovered that English speaking is mostly for the tourists in downtown Amsterdam. The menu was completely in Dutch and only one of the waitresses could speak a little bit of English. I could read the menu well enough to take a stab at what we were ordering, but for the most part, we just pointed to a random item and crossed our fingers! The sandwich I ordered was pretty tasty, but Meg's salad wasn't quite as big a hit. It had smoked bacon and all kinds of other oddities. She didn't even try it... I don't blame her. Take a look at the slideshow for a pic. Luckily my sandwich was big enough for the both of us.

Tomorrow morning we're off to Cologne, Germany. Stay tuned! Don't forget to click on the slideshow for a bigger version.

Love London!!! Amsterdam???

Our last day in London was amazing! The most physically exhausting yet, but so wonderful! We toured the city by foot and bus. London has this crazy, busy rhythm about it! Everyone's rushed and hurried, but it's very organized. Every place you go there are signs, maps, people ready and willing to help. I don't get that vibe so much here in Amsterdam. Sorry I don't really have time to write more details, but a picture is worth a thousand words so enjoy the slide show.




A quick funny: I was going through the security at London Heathrow and had my camelbak water bottle in my back pack. I didn't realize I still had water in it, and the security guy wouldn't let me get back to a restroom to pour it out, or use this trash can to dump it in. I really didn't want to throw away my $15 water bottle. So, he MADE me drink a Liter of water right in the middle of a busy line for all to witness! I was so glad our flight was two hours later and I only had to use the airport restrooms instead of the one on the airplane.

Stonehenge, Bath, and Stratford

Wow, what a day! We just got back from a long day-tour through the countryside of southern England. First stop was Stonehenge. It's one of those places you hear about and you believe it exists, but you don't ever think you will actually find yourself standing in front of it -- at least that's the way it was for me. Those stones are a lot bigger than I had imagined! Add to that knowing that you're gazing at something that was erected over 5000 years ago was just awe-inspiring. We actually lost track of time and had to run back to the bus so it wouldn't leave us!

Next, we were off to Bath. Our Irish tour guide was full of interesting information and wit to keep us entertained along the way. We went through the heart of England country and got to enjoy all of its greenery. Fall here must be amazing! We could tell immediately upon arriving in Bath that we were in for a treat. We didn't have a lot of time, so we didn't get to soak in the full history of the place, but at least we got to see it. Bath is the place the Romans used to come to vacation and relax, due to it's naturally hot underground spring water. The Roman architecture and way-of-life was interesting to see.

The next stop was Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare. To get there, we drove through the Cotswolds, a collection of villages that haven't changed appearance in the last couple hundred years. It's amazing that buildings in the U.S. are lucky to be around more than fifty years, while the birth place of Shakespeare (born in 1564) is still standing with some original tapestries and furniture still inside! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. Bummer. The gardens outside are beautiful as well. Every plant in the garden was mentioned in at least one of his plays.

Well, time for bed... stay tuned for the next installment: downtown London. As usual, click on the slideshow for a bigger view.