Our European Vacation

We're baaaaaack! But not for long! I realize I've outdone myself in slackerness this time. What can I say? We were on vacation for two and a half weeks and well, blogging just seems like a waste of time when there are Eiffel towers to climb, wine to be drunk and cheese to be eaten.

Phil and I just spent two fabulous weeks in Europe. We flew into Paris, direct on El Al, where we started our journey. Then we made our way to Southern France and over to Italy with our final destination being Rome. It was incredibly fun, interesting and exhausting all at the same time. I was sick virtually the entire time which wasn't so much fun, but luckily it didn't slow me down too much. We managed to cram in a ton of sightseeing and we virtually collapsed into bed when we arrived home a few days ago. At least there was no jetlag!

There is no possible way I could write about the whole trip and tell you all the fun details, so I'll just give a few highlights. Let's see.....first, I HEART Paris! What a beautiful city! We saw some friends there who helped us to find and indulge in some delicious French cuisine, we saw the fantastic palace at Versailles, wandered through the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, admired the amazing collection of impressionist paintings in the Orsay, and climbed the Eiffel tower on Valentine's Day. Of course we were the only ones with that idea! Um....except, not. Despite the chilling wind and freezing temperatures (at least there was clear sky that day!) we were, needless to say, not the only ones there. Luckily the line moved quite swiftly and we were hoofing it up the steps in no time. Also on the creepier side, we went to the catacombs underneath the city where we walked through aisles and aisles of bones (from literally millions of people) stacked neatly against the walls. Pretty cool in a weird sort of twisted way.....

Next stop.....Avignon. Cute, cute, cute. The only way to possibly describe this town. We stayed in a FANTASTIC hotel, right in the heart of the old walled-in city. In fact, it was voted one of the top 500 hotels in the world. (Thank goodness for off season and free "honeymoon" upgrades!) Here we wandered and explored the cute cobblestone streets and the Palace of the Popes. Also took a day trip from here to Arles, where we got to see where Van Gogh got his inspiration and painted some of his most famous paintings. Like the famous Cafe Terrace at Night. Arles also had some excellent Roman ruins that we got to explore. It was a bitterly cold and windy day, but fun none-the-less to walk in the footsteps of Van Gogh and the thousands of years of history under his footsteps.

Third stop on our Tour-de-France....Aix-en-Provence. A very good friend of mine studied here while in college and now I can see why she loved it so much. France is certainly not short on really cute and interesting towns. Unfortunately I was quite under the weather here and had to spend the better part of a day recuperating. But we did have the most FABULOUS dining experience ever here. Pasta Cozy=My new favorite restaurant!!!! (Yeah, I know....not exactly French food!) Cute decor complete with cheese grater light bulb shades and chandeliers, the friendliest most personable owner EVER (he stopped at every table to chat and poured the wine very liberally) and excellent, excellent food. The signature dish? The Pasta Cozy. They make a creamy pasta dish in the kitchen, then bring it out in its pan to a table in the corner of the dining room, where there's a partially hollowed out wheel of Parmesan. In it they pour some liqueur, and light it on fire while they use a fork to scrape cheese from the sides and stir them together. Then they actually pour in the creamy pasta so they can blend it with the delicious cheesey goodness, then it's plated and brought straight to your table. Mamma Mia! I'm still having dreams about it. Also a highlight in Aix was Saturday morning spent wandering all the food and flower markets in Aix. Puts the Shuk to shame!!!

From Aix we rented a car and drove to Nice (pronounced Niece) for a three night stay. Took a detour on the way there through St. Tropez to see how some of France's rich and famous live. Much better than we do, that's for sure. And from St. Tropez to Nice we drove all along the coast - a really beautiful day of driving. The next day we walked around the old town area of Nice and ventured through the adjacent park which is built on a hill (we got some great views). Took a day trip the next day (we still had the car) to the Medieval village of Eze which offered stunning views of the southern coastline. Also went into Monaco and saw how the really rich and famous live. Let me tell you....there is a lot of money in that country! As there should be since they actually charge you 10 Euros just to walk into the casino. Seriously....they charge you to take your money. Needless to say we weren't about to pay that. So we hung out outside and admired all the fancy cars parked out front instead.

After Nice we boarded a train for our ten hour journey to Rome. Our original plan had been to also go to Cinque Terra in Italy on the way to Rome. But there was just too much to see and do in France, so we decided to cut that out in the interest of not being completely frantic and frazzled. It was a vacation after all. We were already busy enough and one more place just seemed like way too much to cram into the time we had left. So we headed straight to Rome from Nice for our last five nights.

Highlights there included of course Vatican City where we saw St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. I think we managed to walk the entire city in two days as we saw the Colesseum, the Trevi fountain, Pantheon and a zillion other ancient buildings, churches, piazzas, etc. And of course gelato. No trip to Italy would be complete without gelato. Is it sad that I put gelato up there with seeing the Sistine Chapel!?!?!?! Rather disappointing in Rome was the food, however. But we did manage to get a couple good meals except that one of the places ripped us off and wouldn't give our money back. They are getting one nasty Trip Advisor review, let me tell you that.

We arrived home just a few days ago and I have been busy doing about nine zillion loads of laundry since then, and cleaning the apartment, as we had visitors arrive the day after we got back. Yes, that's right, Phil's folks are here to visit and in fact we are going on another trip with them...today (Sunday). We are going to Egypt for a week on what looks like a great trip that Phil's folks have put a ton of effort into planning. Thanks! So we had just enough time to clean the clothes and re-pack, although this time just for a week. We're going to hit Cairo, Luxor and Aswan as well as take a cruise down the Nile. Traveling fools we are.

Oh yeah, and I turned 30 too. Woo-hoo! Hope you can hear the sarcasm in that "woo-hoo". But as I always say....it's better than the alternative! Besides the fact that it was the big 3-0 and I can now hear my biological clock ticking faster with every second, it was another uneventful birthday for me. Many of our friends have already exited Tel Aviv, so it was just a low key sushi dinner with one other couple. Although the day before my birthday Jay and Lynn took Phil and I out to a very nice Birthday dinner at one of our favorite restaurants here. I guess my love of food is no secret to anyone anymore!

I'm sure you were all expecting some pictures but I just didn't have time to sort through the almost 1500 pictures that we took on our trip! I am finishing this blog literally a half hour before we are supposed to leave for the airport for our flight to Cairo. And I would have liked to have posted some more links to all the fabulous places we went and things we saw but again, no time! That's what Google if for anyway. So I promise to get up some pictures from Europe when we get back as well as some of our week in Egypt. Until then!