Throughout Europe we were going to Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. We were going to go to Barcelona in Spain but for that we have needed one more week. Only having 2 weeks to do that many countries is definitely not enough time. Many people had told us along the way and before we headed off on the trip that we should do this trip for about 1 year or so. We just say that it’s all fine because it is. Were all old enough, the right ages and it’s just a great experience to see any of the world.

France

We past Belgium along the way through to Paris on the first day. We didn’t reach Paris on the first day but we were rather close. It was a very small drive to our hotel in the outer edge of Paris. The hotel rooms weren’t the best but it was just somewhere to sleep because for 2 days in Paris we were going to be walking our legs off. There were so many things we were going to see in 2 days, there was Eiffel Tower, arc de Triomphe, Le Lourve, the Royal Gardens, Notre- Dame, Palace Vendome, Versailles and a lot more than you may think.

We decided that we should go to the Eiffel Tower that night so we could see all the glittery lights on when it’s dark. When we’d finally walked to the Eiffel Tower it was almost sunset, Mum thought that we should all go up the tower and get sunset shots. It wasn’t too long of a wait in line. When we were waiting we met 2 Australian’s and 1 American, they had only met this morning when they were having breakfast at McDonald’s. It felt good to hear an Australian voice again; you never really recognize how much of an accent we’ve got.

Once we’d walked up the stairs we realized that there was an elevator. At least we knew there was one for the way down. The sunset photos were just gorgeous. The bright orange sun was shining in the background as we stood in the Eiffel Tower. We took the elevators down to the bottom after the sun had gone away. The Goldie coloured lights dazzled in my eyes. We reached the bottom floor and started to walk back under the Eiffel Tower to the train station. Just as we were about to leave the Eiffel Tower… BOOM! These twinkly little star lights came on for about 5 minutes. It was magnificent, such an experience of a life time.

We were all so tired from the walking and the climbing that we all just about fell on our beds and went to sleep when we arrived home. It was also about 12:30 in the morning so we had to get enough rest for tomorrow.

The next day was when we going out to all of the special monuments of the outer edge of Paris; away from all the posh new buildings. We were heading into the past. All of the buildings and monuments looked so old and fragile. As if you touched it, it would break up into tiny little pieces. There was so much to see in so little time. There was plenty of expensive jewellery and clothing shops around like a very famous one called the Cartier. We popped our heads inside to see the beautiful shaped jewellery, we didn’t bother about clothing. To me none of the clothing looked very nice.

We moved on to Royal Gardens and Le Lourve. When we got to the Royal Gardens Mum sat down and had a coffee while we had a slushy each, that day was really hot. After that we walked through the Gardens a bit and looked around. In front of a wide walking trail was the Le Lourve. We were not too sure what the Le Lourve was but it had a cool name so we went to check it out. We mostly just sat by the big fountain like everyone else there did. It was time to move on to the bus stop, the day had ended for us. That day was incredibly hot, tiring and amazing all at the same time.

For the next 2 days we were just driving the car about 7 hours a day. We were heading towards the south east coast of France near the border line of Italy. For the first night we stayed at a little town called Orange. Also for the second night you could say well, at least the night was fun…

The second day we drove once again but this time through some very expensive land. We drove past the beautiful Nice, Monaco and San Tropez; where lots of French famous and rich people live. I preferred San Tropez because it had huge houses on the peaks of lovely little mountains next to the turquoise blue ocean. When we were passing Nice all we saw was the ocean with way to many people sun bathing and swimming; you couldn’t even see the sand!

We arrived at Marseille not that long after San Tropez and Nice. Marseille beach was terribly crowded, just like Nice but a few less people. When we were looking around Marseille for a hotel, every last one we checked was booked out. We absolutely couldn’t believe it. But there was still a place to sleep. We were told that in France lots of people sleep on the beach; my sister thought of sleeping on the beach for an experience. Well it was an experience alright.

Lying on Marseille beach freezing stiff with only one little blanket and three towels between us wasn’t a good idea. After that night we all weren’t that happy with my sister Jayde. There were lots of party’s on in the distance; my dad stayed up most of the night to watch our things sitting next to us. Dad heard a bit more than party’s as well. He heard a big beach tractor a fair way away; he didn’t think it was going to come near us for a while. It was a rather bad thought.

All I saw was bright shining yellow lights flashing in my eyes. The tractor had come very close to us all. The crazy French driver was going to run us over without even noticing. The bucket on the end of the green tractor had gotten in the way of his vision. My Dad jumped up extremely quick grabbing all of our stuff, telling us to get up quickly and screaming at the tractor driver to stop. I reckon he was about 2 meters away from squishing us. So that day had started fairly odd and tiring. But we were all really excited to be crossing the border into Italy and going to Genova in our 4 star hotel that we had booked.

Italy

Genova was another hot spot for rich people. We saw a lot Ferraris and mum almost fainted. The Ferrari is my mum’s favourite car. There were so many mopeds around as well. Every one of them zoomed past the hire car like they were all in a race. We eventually arrived at our hotel but there was a sign on the outside saying go to Genova Grand Hotel for reception. We found a huge 5 star hotel just about 30 metres up the road. My mum asked if we could stay here for a night because our hotel we were going to stay at was being renovated. They told us were welcome to stay and that they’ll bring our suitcases up for us.

I was thrilled to be there because I’d never been in a 5 star hotel before; nor had any of my family. Jayde, Nathan and I had our own room with a big bathroom, a king single bed and a king sized bed. Mum and Dad had the room across the hall. We had been driving a long way and we were all so hungry. We went to have a little look around and got some dinner. All of us went to bed fairly early because we were so tired and we had to get up rather early in the morning to head off to Pisa and Rome.

Pisa

We were off to Rome that morning, except we had a quick detour along the way. After we had our 5 star breakfasts we headed off in the direction to Pisa.

When we arrived at the leaning tower of Pisa we parked the car and went for a little wander. There were lots of market stall’s selling souvenirs for people who came to visit the leaning tower and Cathedral of Pisa. Shortly after looking around we took some photos of us standing next to it. But we had to move on because it was already late morning and we had to be at our hotel by evening.

Rome

1^st day.

Reaching our hotel finally we unpacked our suitcases into our bungalow. For 2 nights we were staying at a big R.V and bungalow park. It looked lovely from when we drove in. There was a swimming pool right next to our bungalow, a small park, bar and restaurant, near-by shops and a free breakfast buffet from 7 till 10 am.

Alost straight away Nathan, Jayde and I ran to the pool. Throughout Europe so far it had been extremely hot weather; at least it wasn’t cold and rainy. We walked through the gates of the pools; we all noticed everyone there was wearing a swimming cap. But what we didn’t think of was that it was compulsory to wear the cap. Jayde jumped in the pool and a man that worked there came over to us and told us politely we have to wear a cap. So we went back and bought five caps so we could all swim.

2^nd day.

To get to Rome you had to take a train, we took the train in after breakfast. Our train line stopped right out the front of the Colosseum; exactly where we wanted to go first. We bought some tickets to go inside the Colosseum. To skip the wait in the massive line we bought fast walk tickets, were you can just walk straight through into the Colosseum with n line wait. It was very old and the walls looked utterly delicate. We got to see where they kept the bears, lions and other nasty animals to attack the prisoners. If the animal didn’t kill the prisoner, the king would choose a gladiator to finish them off. When we left there were many men dressed up in gladiator suits for photos.

Up ahead there was a long uphill trail through a park with demolished old buildings that had been found in the past. We walked on the trail for a while but then went out towards the Trevi Fountain. Along the way to Trevi Fountain we saw lots of historical roman sites and buildings that had been knocked down and found underground.

We got to the Trevi Fountain and took several photos sitting on the ledge. We even got a coin each to through over our shoulder and make a wish. There were so many people crowded over the top of you; we could barely get up the stairs after we took photos. Shortly after finally getting out of that mess we walked around and saw a few signs for a Roman Time Elevator. It was a show that was about how Rome started and was created to be what it is now a day.

Mum and Dad went to the cafe across from the time elevator while we kids went to watch the show. When we went into the theatre we were seated in special seats. The seats moved around like a simulator. Also each seat had a specific head set that spoke English, French, Italian and Dutch; we got three English head sets and then watched the film.

The movie was mostly about when buildings were built and who decided to build them. The majority of buildings built a long time ago are very famous now like the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum and Saint Peters Basilica. Once the movie finished we walked outside to go and find mum and dad. We had to head off to the train station because it was getting late. The next day we were going to Vatican City.

3^rd day

Today was the last day to Rome. We only had 3 days in Rome because we had to keep moving on back to Holland to drop off the hire car; two weeks in Europe isn’t much time at all. Once again but for the last time we took the train out to Rome. We were quite lucky with both of our stops because the train stopped right out the front of the Colosseum and the Vatican. That way we didn’t loose too much energy walking a fair way to get to them places.

There were heaps of people shoving a tour guide brochure in our faces but for only one we stopped. A nice lady was showing us a map of wear her tour guide company takes us and 20 other people. Dad thought it was a good idea to do a tour of Vatican City. In the time we did this tour we learnt a lot of things that we would have never known about. When the lady told the group that Vatican City was actually its own country and not too long ago it had its own currency, I thought that was amazing because it was such a small area of land.

Throughout Vatican City there are three main places to go to. We went to them three; they were Saint Peters Basilica, the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. Firstly we went into Saint Peters Basilica. I thought the outside looked nice but I never knew that the inside would be incredible as it was.

Every wall, pillar and dome were covered in beautiful mosaics, there were statues in almost every corner and a gold pipe organ at the end of one of the long halls. My favourite piece of art in the Saint Peters Basilica was an amazing marble statue made by Michael Angelo of Mary holding Jesus after he was pulled down from the cross after being crucified. We learnt that every painting in Saint Peters Basilica was changed into mosaics to prevent the colours fading on the paintings.

Later on in the day we went to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican Museum was full of very detailed paintings and statues. Many of the paintings meant a special meaning. One of the biggest paintings Michael Angelo painted meant that heaven and hell were battling, heaven was very bright colours up the top and hell was dark and gloomy colours down the bottom. The Sistine Chapel was were the head of the church go into and elect the next pope when the original pope dies. They don’t leave until the next pope is chosen.

After walking through the most incredible buildings I had ever seen we left to the train station. Once we arrived at the train station we said our goodbyes to the wonderful Rome. Being in Rome was absolutely breathtaking. The buildings, paintings even just a huge pillar looked completely out of this world. I was definitely pleased to go but we still had to drive back to Holland in only 4 days.

Venice

After a log and tiring 8 hour drive we eventually arrived in a beautiful town named Mestre; just out of Venice. Our hotel was close by to a big shopping square. Once we’d unpacked everything into our rooms we walked down towards the square and had dinner. Wandering around the square helped us stretch our legs but it was darker by the minute so we went back to the hotel room. Tomorrow was going to be a big day because we were going to Venice and Murano; I couldn’t wait.

It had always been one of my dreams to ride in a gondola but that didn’t happen. We took the water buses around bits of Venice and Murano. They were packed full of people that you could barley move a muscle. Some people fell over and others just got pushed around. Our first stop for the day was Murano; the land of glass.

In Murano we went to a glass making factory. There was a man sitting by a very hot in closed fire making a small glass vase. Shortly after the factory we walked through lots of little markets. It was pretty amazing because the only thing they were selling was glass. But we couldn’t stay in Murano to long. There was still Saint Marks Square in Venice to do.

Saint Marks Square had so many pigeons flying around your head and landing on your arms. My brother Nathan thought it was hilarious. Lots of people were selling colourful masks and souvenirs. We were going to buy a mask but it would break in our suitcases. Around the little creeks were expensive but gorgeous jewellery and clothing shops. Also there were lots of red and black gondolas paddling around through the water alley ways. Later on we just wandered around Mestre and went back to our hotel to have a good rest before we left towards Germany early in the morning.

Holland again

On our way back to Holland we had to pass Switzerland, Austria and Germany. Once again there were more beautiful mountains and we past a few big lakes. In time we reached Germany and stayed for one night. The next morning we drove about 6 hours to get back to Schellinkhout.

When we got to Ome Aries house they weren’t there. We knocked on the door a couple of times. Finally someone answered, it was Sara. Sara had only just got back from India that day. She told us that Ome Arie and Tanta Ria had gone for a bike ride with some friends and wouldn’t be back till later on. So with that we brought our suitcases up the stairs and into our room. After unloading the car we went for a nice walk along the beach then came back and had dinner. By then Ome Arie and Tanta Ria were back.

We had three days in Holland and on the second day it was Nathans birthday. Sara and Tanta Ria had made Nathan a special birthday boy’s chair. It had colourful streamers and balloons hanging off the back. No one else was allowed to sit on his chair. In the afternoon a few people came over to celebrate Nath’s birthday. There was Ester, Patrick and their two girls Madelindae (3) and Annae-Marijne. Also Judith, Julien and their baby boy Martijne came along.

Tanta Ria bought a cake and lots munchies. We all sung happy birthday to Nathan then had a special dinner. After everyone left we all went to bed. Tomorrow we were going to go to one of the biggest fairs in the whole of Holland. It was called Karames.

We went to Karames during the evening because there would be lots of bright lights and the rides would be fun in the dark. Jayde, Nathan, Sara and I went on three rides. They were all so exciting, on one of them we got shot up really high and we could see the whole city. We got home at about 9pm and dad thought we should all go go-carting. I stayed home with Tanta Ria and Ome Arie. I was so tired that I fell asleep on my bed when I was packing my suitcase for tomorrow’s flight to England.