Holiday Travel Synopsis
Right, so obviously the daily trip posting didn't happen. However, here's a relatively brief synopsis of our trip.
Christmas Eve: left Seattle
Christmas Day: arrived in Amsterdam, spent seven hours tooling around the very quiet city, then caught another plane to Munich. Were welcomed by fabulously crazy in-laws and driven to their home in Roettenbach (near Erlangen). Fell blissfully asleep.
12/26 - 1/3: Hung out in Roettenbach with in-laws. Had holiday dinner. Visited local mall. Went to fancy dinner at one of Peter's old friend's house. Played board & card games with in-laws. Ate many carb-heavy breakfasts. Watched crazy locals set off New Year's fireworks. Smiled politely, but cluelessly at all the German being spoken around me. On 1/3, took bullet-train from Nurnberg to Munich and stayed overnight with Peter's aunt, uncle, & cousin.
1/4: Got up insanely early and caught a plane to Rome. Spent the evening tooling around the city. Saw the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona and general city sights. Had spooky night tour of Rome called "Dark Heart of Rome". All death, murder, & mystery. Very cool tour guide.
1/5: Caught the Vatican tour in the morning. Included the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. This was much cooler than I thought it would be, mostly due to how fabulous our tour guide was. Was too tired to do much after this. Took a nap in the afternoon and then went out for dinner in the evening.
1/6: Caught tours of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. Again, the tour guides really improved the experience. Had pizza for lunch, then went shopping along the Via del Corso and the Piazza Navona. Also visited the Spanish Steps before taking the Metro back to the hotel. This was probably our most intense walking day mostly due to the fact that I had built up my calluses and could actually bear walking more than the other days.
1/7: Flew back to Munich and again stayed overnight with Peter's aunt, uncle, & cousin. His parents joined us and we spent the evening showing our photos, having dinner, & playing Flix Mix (a very fun card game).
1/8: Flew from Munich to Amsterdam and again from Amsterdam to Seattle. Got back to Seattle around 3PM after being enroute for about 14 hours. Managed to stay awake until 8PM before crashing, only to wake up at 3AM in the morning. Damn jetlag.
More specifics and maybe some photos to come.