Andrew's Travel Blog

The Hallway of the Vatican Colosseum Roman Forum Quirinal Palace Trevi Fountain

Our European adventure culminated in Rome.  This was the country with the most dated history and the greatest retention of old monuments.  The colosseum, which has been standing for centuries, was still well maintained.  Just a piece of advice to anyone traveling, do not go to Rome in the middle of July.  It was approximately 95 degrees everyday with high levels of humidity, which is not great weather for exploring a city on foot.  I am a little more adventurous than my family and forced them to take me to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, two things with immense historical impacts in Rome.  The city of Rome was beautiful, however there was a lot of graffiti that really detracted from the beauty of the old city.  It was sad to see such an important place in history tarnished, however the city did a good job maintaining the important monuments and insuring that there was not graffiti on these buildings.  This country also housed family members, an...

Sorrento Sunsets View of the Deck Majestic Bird Morning in Sorrento Capri, Italy

After two days in France, we flew to Italy.  Our first stop was Sorrento, a coastal city.  This, similar to Portsmouth, was a less busy place relative to the big cities, however it still had a very strong cultural presence.  The streets were narrow, a trademark of Italy, and the shops set up on the side of the road sold incredible food.  Italy is known for its pizza and pasta, and Sorrento did not disappoint.  This was the first place that we went to that felt like a vacation instead of a tourist trip.  We stayed at a very nice resort with a pool and a deck on the sea.  The interesting thing about Sorrento is that it was developed on a cliff, so there is very little beach area, so most of the resorts built docks off the base of the cliffs where the visitors could relax and swim in the sea.  Sorrento had some of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen, and it was just a place of genuine joy, everybody seemed full of life.  At this point in...

The Arc de Triomphe Eiffel Tower Notre Dame The Pantheon  The Louvre

After our two week soiree in England, we took the train under the English Channel (also known as the Chunnel) and arrived in Paris.  We were only scheduled to spend two days in France, but that did not stop us from checking every item off of our list.  We first visited the Louvre, which was an incredible feat of architecture and housed many famous pieces of artwork, something that has always been important in the history of France.  Often on the walk people would try to sell us little trinkets that they had made themselves regardless of whether they had a permit to do so.  It was interesting to see how nicely people treated those who built things themselves.  Almost every time I walked by there was somebody buying something, regardless of how overpriced it was, just to support the worker.  These workers were always friendly and never pushy with what they were selling, and it was prevalent that there was passion behind the artwork.  This was the first c...

Tower of London London Eye Tower Bridge Big Ben Buckingham Palace

London proved to be even more impressive than I had initially thought.  The landmarks gave off a sense of history and of culture.  Even time I saw Buckingham Palace or Big Ben or the Tower of London I felt the importance of each one.  Each one telling a different story, holding historic importance to the country.  Buckingham Palace, which I had not know before, was not the castle of the royalty of England until Queen Victoria.  The Tower of London held the crown jewels, which was something that was so impressive to me since there is nothing like that to symbolize royalty in the United States (given that there isn't any royalty).  It gave me insight into how the royalty were treated in England and how much of a role they play in the history of England and why that history is so important.  England was one of the most important and prevalent imperial powers throughout history and their influence spread widely into many countries.  Although this impe...

After the long, draining flight from San Francisco to London, my family and I immediately drove down to southern England to visit our family in Portsmouth.  Portsmouth is a small city at the bottom of the English channel, traditionally used as a naval base/harbor.  We dropped our luggage off at our hotel and set out to explore the city.  We went to the water and walked along the beach, which was very different from beaches in the United States in that the beach itself was made more of pebbles than it was of sand.  After a long walk, we visited our family at the pier.  We had fish and chips, a very fitting first meal in England.  The first thing that caught my attention was the way the people of England interacted with each other and how they interacted with us.  There was a strong sense of community, even among outsiders like us.  There was much more genuine interactions, people were much more generous and understanding than they were back home. ...