Wrapping Prague and Paris in 9 days

Summary


Day #1: Landed Prague in the afternoon, checked in hostel and explored Old Town Square area, attended the food festival. Night stay at Prague.
Day #2: Attended the walking tour in the morning, climbed the clock tower, after lunch went over to explore the Prague Castle etc. Did the pub crawl at night (crazy!!). Night stay at Prague.
Day #3: Segway tour in the morning, covered the Jewish Quarter in the afternoon. Took the pass in the evening to explore the city. Took flight to Paris in night, spent the night in hotel close to airport. Night stay at Paris.
Day #4: Moved to the apartment at Rue de Cardinal. We took a walk and visited Cathédrale de Notre-Dam; and went to Eiffel Tower, took River Seine tour. Night stay at Paris.

Day #5: Went to Musée du Louvre and spent the day there, late lunch at Gare du Nord, night we went to Arc de Triomphe at night. Night stay at Paris.

Day #6: Started in the morning and went to Montmartre to see the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur and the Place du Tertre. At night we went again to Eiffel Tower. Night stay at Paris.

Day #7: We went to Fontainebleau to visit the castle Chateau De Fontainebleau. Night we spent around the Arc de Triomphe and then Latin Square. Night stay at Paris.
Day #8: Went to Eiffel town in the morning, spent the afternoon there. Lunch at Gare du Nord and night we hanged around Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Night stay at Paris.
Day #9: Went to Notre-Dam in the morning, took the flight back to Scotland in the afternoon. Night stay at Paris.

Detailed Itinerary 

Day #1

We arrived Prague and reached the town center - Old Square area. Our hotel was walking distance, we checked in and started for the busy streets of Prague.

 There was a food festival going on with about 50 shops selling different food items. We had a bite there and went to the old square area. We watched the Astronomical Clock Tower, it really is the most over rated Tourist attraction in the whole Europe.

There were street performers everywhere and the atmosphere was very lively around the old town square. We spent time there at night and booked a walking tour for the next morning. 

Day #2

We attended the free walking tour starting from Old Square. It lasted for 3 hours and we got the orientation of the city, got to know about a bit of history as well. We had a lunch on the go and went to climb the clock tower. There is an elevator for those who need it. The view was worth it. From there we went across the river to the castle. There are basically few different buildings including basilica, monastery and bell tower. We also visited the golden street which is free to enter after 6pm. We enjoyed the city view and sunset from the hill and returned back to old square area. At night we joined the pub crawl, it costed 350Kc pp, they take you to couple of pubs and a night club, serving unlimited drinks at the first one. This one is tough to survive, we were smashed by the time we reached the night club! We made it to the hostel somehow.

 Day #3

We did the segway tour in the morning, managed to get a good price for 2 hours tour after a bargain (yes, it's allowed!). The guide was really good, trip was fun. We stopped close to the castle and had a beer, guide paid for that. It was a real nice place and cheapest beer in the town - 27Kc for a large pint.
We bought the combo ticket for the Jewish Quarter and covered them one after another. It took us whole of rest of the day. In evening we took a travel pass for 3 hours and went around the town in the trams. It was good experience. We had our flight at 9pm, we took the tram and then 107 bus to the airport. We arrived Paris about at 10.30pm and stayed close to the airport that night. We took the free shuttle to the hotel.

Day #4

We checked in our apartment at Rue de Cardinal. We walked till Cathédrale de Notre-Dam, it was just 10 mins walk from our place across the river. We visited it from inside, checked out the street market nearby. We bought Mobilis tickets, it is a one-day ticket that allows unlimited travel on the Metro, RER, bus, RATP. Validity is 24hrs from the first check in time, costs 6.3EUR. After lunch we went to Eiffel tower and took a river Siene cruise for 20EUR each. It lasted about an hour forty minutes. We grabbed a bite on the way, went to Chaillot and reached apartment.

 Day #5

We went to Musée du Louvre to spend the day there. It's not possible to cover the museum in a day but we had our wishlist. It's one place with world's finest art collection in it. Being there itself is an experience let alone the world class paintings and sculptures that are there. We went to Gare du Nord for a late lunch and then came back to Arc de Triomphe at evening. There is a flood of tourists around that area. We took a walk along the world famous Champs Elysees. 

Day #6

This day we went to Montmartre. This area has strong French culture and buildings, artists everywhere. We went over to see the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur, you can look at the whole city while sitting on the stairs. We end up having an expensive lunch with wine over there. The setting is just irresistible. After spending few hours and little fortune of money there we went to see the Place du Tertre. It's called the most artistic cabaret in the world and truly so. At night we went again to Eiffel tower, there is no other place one can rather be !

Day #7

After a wee walk along the river and witnessing few pre wedding photo-shoots, we started for Fontainebleau. It's a small town about an hour from Paris, famous for Chateau De Fontainebleau and INSEAD Business School campus. The castle was quite and beautiful. there is a lake at the back side.
At night we went to Arc de Triomphe and then went to Musee de Louvre for night photographs.

Day #8

This was mainly dedicated to Eiffel tower, we had our tickets for morning 10am. We went up and looked at the view. Benefit of keeping it for the end day is that you know the city and attractions by then and can try to identify them from the top. We spend about 3 hours on the tower including wine at the 2nd floor cafe. It's shockingly huge structure with perfect symmetry. We had a late lunch at Gare du Nord and night we hanged around Avenue des Champs-Élysées.

Day #9

We went to Notre Dam in morning and then took the RES from there to the airport. In the afternoon we flew back to Scotland.

A lesson of history - The Italy trip in 10 days.

Summary

Day 1: Landed in Venice - around 12 noon, stayed in Venice, saw around and stayed in Venice.



Day 2: Visited Venice, island hoping etc to Murano, Burano and Lido, stayed in Venice.

Day 3: We did the walking tour, took train to Florence in the evening and stayed in Florence.

Day 4: We did a walking tour in the morning, visited Davids statue, Duamo in Florence. We took train to Pisa. Then took train to Rome and stayed in Rome.

Day 5: We went to visit Spanish Steps, Pantheon etc. Stayed in Rome

Day 6: We did the walking tour in morning and visited Spanish steps and the area around, stayed in Rome.

Day 7: We saw the Roman Colosseum, Forum and Palantine Hill and other places and we stayed in Rome.

Day 8: We did the walking tour and went to Vatican City and visited St Peter's Basilica, stayed in Rome.

Day 9: We did the walking tour in the morning for Jewish Ghetto area and visited local streets at Trastevere, at night went to Piazza Navona, stayed in Rome.

Day 10: We had flight at 11am, flew back to Scotland.

Detailed Itinerary

Day#1

• We landed in Venice around noon, took the bus to Piazzale Roma and then walked till hotel. It's must to carry a map because it's so easy to get lost in Venice. Luckily we had right directions from our hotel.
• We then went out in town and explored it ourselves. San Marco square was the highlight.
• First we visited Basilica followed by Doges Palace. There is a secret itinerary tour in Doges Palace at 11:35 am; you have to pre book if you want to visit this.
• We hired a gondola for 40min, shared it with another couple and hence costed us £40. It was worth a while with our private chauffeur showing us world's most beautiful city around. 
• After that we went to Rialto Bridge which is the famous bridge due to the story associated. It's a good place for shopping - definitely expensive.
• We had few Galetoes and pizza slices here and there before settling down near canal for few beers from supermarket.

Day#2

• Next day we bought the Veporetta pass for 24 hours, costed us £20 each. We decided to exploit it so started in morning, went to Murano island which is famous for glass work. 
• We had our lunch there and from Murano we went to Burano island. Burano is famous for colorful houses and lace work. It's a great place to take pictures.
• From Burano we went to Torecello island which was recommended by our gondola chauffeur. It was OK-ish with little bit of history.
• After Torecello we went to Lido island which is famous for the sand beach. Lido has lagoon at one side and sea on another. It's quite a big island with lots of places to eat and drink.
• We headed straight to the beach and relaxed for couple of hours, saw the sunset there and started back towards San Marco. They are really just 10mins apart.
• We headed back to Lido after dinner as we wanted to attend the live music show at the beach. There were not many people, but the atmosphere was great. We came back to hotel around 2am.

Day#3

• We had a late break fast at the hotel and headed to attend the free walking tour at 11am around San Marco Square.
• After the walking tour, we headed to Piazza Roma and took a fast train to our next stop - Florence. It costed £45 each and took 1.5hours.

• We reached Florence around 4pm, checked in at the hostel just next to railway station.
• We explored Florence downtown ourselves visiting the Duamo and then walked along the river to see David’s (Michelangelo) statue at Michelangelo Square. 
• We spent couple of hours there to witness the sun set, it was amazing - one of the most recommended things to do in Florence.
• At night we decided to treat ourselves with fancy dinner and bottle of wine. It was great theme restaurant in front of Duamo.

Day#4

• In the morning we had super heavy breakfast and started with the free walking tour organized by the hostel itself.
• It was 2 hour tour, we got to see and know about the highlights of the area including local markets and galeto recommendations.
• Around 12 noon, we took train to Pisa. Pisa was 1 hour journey, costed £7.5 each. From Pisa Centrale, we walked to Pisa Leaning Tower, took about 20mins.

• There stood the stunning Leaning Tower, the Cathedral and the Bapistry all nearby. We took pictures of all. We didn’t climb the top of tower as we had to pre book it. 
• Around 5.30 pm we took the train to Rome (3.5 hours). Stayed in Rome close to Roma Termini station for that night.

Day#5

• In the morning we changed the hotel and moved closer to Spanish Steps. Our hotel was 5 mins walk from Piazza di Spagna.
  
• We did the walking tour in the evening around 5 pm starting from Spenish Steps covering Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and few other places, it lasted about 2 hours.
• We got the basic orientation of the area and explored it further by ourselves during night.

Day#6

• We bought the Roma pass for free transport and entry to first two places of interest for next three days. It costed us £34 each. By the end of day three, we thought we had complete value of the pass.
• We visited Colosseum, it's the single most attractive archaeological site in the whole world.
  
• After Colosseum, we went to Roman Forum and Palantine Hill. We had audio guides from Rick Steve with us which helped us a lot of understand the history of these sites.
•  It was a hot day (38 degrees) and hence we took a break and came back to the hotel to relax for a while.
• We went out for dinner at Pantheon.

Day#7

• In the morning we went on another walking tour covering Colosseum, Capilotine Hill, Emmanuel Monument and Piazza Navona etc.
  
• We went to Galleria Borghese at 1pm, you'll have to make a prior reservation for that. They only allow 350 people inside at a time for a span of 2 hours. The gallery has great art work from different periods.
• We visited Villa Borghese which is a mythological theme park, it was OK-ish. 
• We went around these places again listening the audio guide. We went out to Vatican city at night.

Day#8

• In the morning we went on to do walking tour from Spanish Steps to Vatican city covering all the places on the way.
• Immediately after the tour we queued up for entering St Peter Basilica - The most powerful and biggest church in the world. After about 1 hour queue, we finally entered to this magnificent building. 
  
• We listened our audio guide and spent some quite time inside. We came out around 3 pm and headed back to hotel as it was too hot.
• We had an early dinner and then went to explore the streets of Trevistere. 
• From there we went to Piazza Navona and sat there for a while having beer.

Day#9

• We did another walking tour with couchsurfers. It started from Circo Massimo. 
• It was about the rather less known places and more interesting. We went to Jewish Ghetto and the streets around, Knights of Malta and the orange gardens.
  
• We started around at 10 am and ended at 2 pm near one of the local weekend markets for locals. We had our lunch there itself.
• We hang around in the street of Trevestere after that and changed the hotel back to Termini for the next day early morning flight.

Day#10

• We took the Teta Vision bus for £4 from Termini to Campiano Airport for flight at 11am. These buses go every 30mins from Termini to airports non stop.
• We took the flight for home with heavy heart !! 

Euro trip begins - 1 conti..

Day# 1 was fun. We bought the day pass in 7.5Eur and went around the town extensively. After trying Happy and Laughter truffle, we went to the Heineken  brewery for couple of hours laughing happily !
'I don't know how to behave because other people are not high' was the dialog worth remembering. The night ended at Red Light District, famous but seemingly artificial.


Day# 2 started at Ann Frank House. Good piece of history there. We then started exploring options to leave the place and head towards Brugge. We booked a Euroline bus ticket 30Eur pp for Ams-Brugge and Brussels-Ams. The bus has to start 7am in the morning, to be able to make it we have to wake up at 5.30am . Staying at Karo's place for the night didn't look like a good idea. We moved to another host, Chris. Chris stays about half an hour distance, married to Thai chic and had a beautiful 3yo daughter. We reached there and Chris had this massive collection of books and music CDs. After a bit of chit chat we decided to crash. Chris explained us how to reach the bus station etc.


Day# 3 we were at the bus station before I could open the eyes. I shared half 'Shiva' with the black dude at the station and slept in the super cozy Euroline coach. I remember updating my status for the free wifi in the bus and reaching Brugges then. Heavy snow shower was the prediction and so was the status when we reached there. Brugge was a little pretty town. We did the Bell tower, lunch, tunnels, coffee etc and headed to the train station for Brussels. Reaching Brussels we had our host came to pick us up from the train station. We had a rather (only) unpleasant experience with the Pak begger at the metro station.

Day# 4 started early morning again to see Brussels. We were carrying excellent guidelines from our host Guy and all he had to do was to follow them. Brussels has a bit of history left in it and that's what makes it more interesting.

Euro Trip Begins - 1

After much wait and anticipation, we finally set off for mainland Europe.
Trip# 1: Amsterdam, Brugge and Brussels.
Duration: 4 days (Thursday night to Tuesday morning)

We took an Easy Jet flight from Edinburgh, £70pp return trip. We started Thursday afternoon, drove till Edinburgh airport, parked Lucy at low cost car park (£22 total) and made it to Amsterdam on Thursday night.

We stayed at Karo's B&B, a contact forwarded by fellow couch surfer. Karo was nice, the place was OK. There was a Argentinean chic staying at his place already. Karo briefed us with enough information to visit and see places in Amsterdam.

We started right away, ended up in internet coffee shop, encountered 'Shiva' and lost in the town totally ! After revolving around the town at least couple of times and asking way to about a dozen people, we finally managed to make it to Karo's place at 3am, lost and defeated.