My European Adventure Summary

My European Adventure Summary
Notice it's called an adventure instead of a trip / vacation because it wasn't simply a relaxation. We experienced everything from getting stuck at the airport overnight to eating at fancy restaurants and visiting some of the world's most famous attractions. Here are the places we visited:

1) Holland – Amsterdam (We went pass security scan and went outside of Schiphol airport for a drink while waiting for transfer)
2) Switzerland – Geneva, Fribourg, Gruyeres, Bern, Interlaken (Bernese Oberland) and Jungfrau (Bernese Alps).
3) Spain – Barcelona, Madrid, Toledo
4) France – Paris, Versailles
5) Germany – Berlin, Potsdam
6) Italy – Venice, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Vatican city, Naples
7) Greece – Athens, Delphi

7 countries (technically 8 because the Vatican is a separate country and a city), 21 cities in 29 days. This required intensive planning and endurance to participate.

Here are my rankings and summary based on my experience:

1. Best/worst experience:
Best experience is probably in Berlin, Germany. Food is cheap, people are nice, free tour, pub crawl, everything seems to be great there. Worst experience: dealing with EasyJet and its greedy staff. I wrote a long rant and sent it to them and published it on several forums online. Nowadays, it’s pretty easy to destroy your name with the internet. I don’t travel to Europe all the times, so if I don’t have a pleasant experience, I’m going to make sure other people know and don’t fall for it. If I’m a terrorist, you know what airline is my target. Yeah, you heard me!

2. Most unexpected
Madrid, Spain. This could easily be listed in the worst experience but I saved that for EasyJet. May 22nd, 2010 Champions League final in Madrid. The street was flooded with Inter Milan and Bayern Munich fans, people picked pocket in metro, pilots decided to go on strike to watch the game, we slept at the airport, hundreds of people were stranded. For more details, see here. I feel sorry for those who rely on public services in Spain during the world cup, especially the championship game. I bet everything was shut down.

3. Most/least expensive
Most expensive is probably Paris and Spain in general. Least expensive is Switzerland. Okay, that’s misleading because I have family in Switzerland so I didn’t have to spend as much money as I did in other places. If you don’t have family, Switzerland can easily be the most expensive place to visit. Greece is very inexpensive also, probably cheaper than some things in America.

4. Most romantic
Forget Paris or Rome, the most romantic city is Venice. The floating city with ferries, the gondola rides, the bridges and small shops, restaurants. I’d put Interlaken and Jungfrau region second and honorable mention goes to Paris.

5. Best museum
Take a guess: Louvre? Vatican Museum? Nope. It’s Borghese Museum in the Borghese Villa. It’s a small museum compared to the others but its quality is the best. The Sistine Chapel inside Vatican Museum is no match for Borghese’s art. The hundreds sculptures inside Louvre can’t be compared to “the Rape of Proserpena” or “Apollo and Daphne” or “the David” – a self portrait by Bernini. Each statue here has pictures and paintings from the wall and the ceiling to describe it. The bad thing is that you have to check in your camera. I had a sneak shot but forgot to turn my flash off and immediately was surrounded by museum staff. They seem to take their job very seriously.

6. Best Sculpture
It’s hard to choose because I’ve seen so many paintings and sculptures throughout my trip. But I’d say the Pieta by Michelangelo inside St. Peter’s Basilica. The incredible details and expressions he put into this master piece is unbelievable.

7. Best attractions
This is the hardest because each place has its own attractions. It’s very hard to rank them from top to bottom. Here is a list of some great attractions: Gruyeres village and castle (Switzerland), Versailles garden (France), free tour in Berlin (Germany), the Vatican, Ancient Rome (Italy), the Acropolis in Athens and Delphi (Greece).

8. Best scenery
Hands down it’s Switzerland, especially Interlaken and Jungfrau region. The waterfall, the mini cable car, the ferry across the turquoise lake with houses on the side of the mountain, the temperature drop and seasonal change within minutes from summer to winter going up the elevation.

9. Best food
Each place has its own style but overall I like tapas in Spain, then ice cream and pastas in Italy, Berlin sausage was awesome too.

10. Best/worst castle
The best castle is probably castle of Gruyeres in Switzerland base on its look. For the inside, the castle of Versailles and/or the Palacio Real in Madrid probably top the list. There are several bad ones worth avoiding: Castle of St Angelo is one of them. The other one is Palazzo Vecchio near the beautiful Vecchio Ponte (bridge). The small castle in Potsdam outside of Berlin.
The best castle garden is definitely the garden of Versailles. It’s beautiful, open space, there’s a lake, bike rental, music inside the bush is very romantic, fountain of Neptune, sculptures, ice cream shops, water dancing at night and so on.

11. Most/least favorite place
Most favorite is probably Berlin just because of the reasons listed above. Least favorite place is definitely Madrid as there’s nothing to see besides the King’s Palace.

These could easily change the next day you ask me. So there you have it, my big, fat, European adventure.