Our Family Vacation in Europe
By Karthik Palaniappan (11 years old) We had just flown into London Heathrow from Seattle, very excited to start our European vacation. After we checked into our hotel we left for our cruise on the Thames River. We took a subway to Westminster and walked about seven minutes to the docks. We saw the famous Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament with over 2,000 rooms! After 2.5 hours of the cruise with a stop at Greenwich Pier, we went back to the hotel. The next day we went on a tour of royal London. We saw many places like Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and London Eye. At Buckingham Palace, we saw the Guards have their daily inspection and do their daily marching. It was amazing! The next day we started our fifteen day Trafalgar tour. Our tour director’s name was John, and the driver’s name was Vito. Whenever we went to a different city, it took about 8 hours. We went on a ferry from Dover, Britain to Calais, France.
We were told about dragon ladies who expected money to use the public toilets. Here and on the rest of the tour, in most public toilets, there was a dragon lady. In most cities, we had a local tour guide who explained the history behind each city. Our first stop was Amsterdam and was the longest drive of the journey. We took a cruise to explore the city and then walked around the city. There was a huge sidewalk and a special two way bike lanes, since most people in Amsterdam had a bike. Then we went to the hotel and retired for the night. The next morning we left Amsterdam for Köln where we went into a gigantic cathedral.. We then drove past Bonn, a relatively small city on our way to a boat cruise on the Rhine. The cruise was over 11 miles and we saw many palaces on top of mountains, several of them built in the 10th century. We saw many vineyards and also got a glimpse of the Lorolei Rock. After a night’s rest in Rhineland, we drove through the Bavarian region of Germany.We stopped for lunch in Munich. There were a lot of lion sculptures everywhere. We arrived in Innsbruck, Austria in the evening. Innsbruck was a small, quiet place although there many buildings including one with a Golden Roof. After walking through the town and visiting a Savortsky showroom, we had a tour group dinner. The next morning we drove to Salzburg, Austria. We drove past the location where “Sound of Music” was filmed.Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart, had a lovely garden. We arrived late evening in Vienna. This was the first of our two day stay in the remaining cities. Vienna was a beautiful city with a distinctive architecture. Like London, Vienna had its own subway system. The city is organized as zones and the street labels identify the zone. We went on a tour
of the city in the morning including the Opera, Hofburg Stdtpark, Parliament and Imperial Boulevards and then we went to the House of Music where we could conduct our own music. Later we went on a tour of SchonBrunn Palace. I thought this was the cleanest and best maintained palace of the trip, which was no longer used except for tourism. It was amazing! We then had a blast at an amusement park on a mini “London Eye”, bumper cars, and a water ride. The next day we arrived in Venice. Venice is a group of islands where you can travel only by boat or on foot. We went on the famous gondola ride, accompanied by an opera singer and a musician. The gondola weaved in and out of the canals. Later we enjoyed Magic of Venice, a musical performance in St. Mark’s Square, served with ice cream. We fed the birds there. It was fun to walk around old Venice. We then visited St. Mark’s Cathedral. After Venice was Rome. Rome was very dirty, but fascinating. The weather was very hot and humid. In the city, we visited Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon. The next day we saw the huge three floor ruin of the Colloseum where the gladiators battled the wild beasts, the Vatican Museum, and the Sistine Chapel where a new Pope is elected. The Vatican Museum was huge with excellent paintings on the ceiling and walls, many of them by Michelangelo. After Rome was Florence. We had a great city view, where we tool a group photograph. In Florence, we saw the David, a famous sculpture in a museum, carved by Michelangelo. We visited Santa Maria Cathedral, Santa Croce Basilica, and Signoria Square. From hot Italy, we drove to cool Switzerland, driving through the second longest tunnel, the 17 km St. Gotthard tunnel. The sceneries of mountains and lakes were awesome. We stayed in Lucerne, a nice tourist city. In our hotel there was an old fashioned elevator that my brother and I called funny elevator which you have to open a door manually instead of automatic sliding doors. The next day we went to Mt. Pilatus by gondola and cable car to the 7,000 feet tall mountain. On the top it was 35oF so we went inside for hot chocolate. We took many pictures of the breath taking views of the changing landscape. We descended the mountain by a steep, funicular railway. We then visited a farm where they took us on a carriage ride and served us a farm fresh lunch. I heard that in the summer the cows graze on the top of the mountain and in winter in the valley. If a cow will not go up or come down on its own, they have a special lift. Paris was next after Lucerne, the last city of our European vacation. We all had a great time in Paris. When we first got there we went to the world famous Eiffel Tower. It was 1,889 feet tall in memory of the French Revolution! To go up, there are not only stairs, but a double elevator, and half of it could fit about fifty people. We went by an elevator to the second floor and got superb views of Paris. We then went on a night cruise on the river Seine, followed by an illuminated view and narration of the famous buildings and bridges. All bridges in Paris had its own name. We saw hundreds of lighted buildings including the sparkling Eiffel Tower. The next day we visited the Louvre, a large museum that would take more than a day to view the paintings and sculptures. You enter through a glass pyramid. The most famous painting was the Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci, which is really a small picture. We spent about 3 hours at the museum and saw many paintings and sculptures. It was awesome!!! We then visited Versailles Palace, a palace with a beautiful garden. The next morning we left Paris and that concluded our European vacation!
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