Turkey 4/5/13

 We had an 8 hour layover in Istanbul and so decided that we were going to do a bit of touring. We got a taxi and went to the Blue Mosque first. It is probably one of the prettiest buildings I have ever seen.

Then we walked down the street to the Basilica Cistern. It was amazing, giant pillars and water with huge fish swimming around. The reddish lights and the music kinda gave it a Disneyland ride effect.

There were heads of Medusa at the bottom of these 2 pillars in the Basilica Cistern one was upside down and the other was on its side.

This is the back end of the Aya Sofya, the line to go inside was super long so we didn't go in.

Istanbul was so beautiful and it was very clean I was surprised at how nice everything was. Tulips were everywhere and they had some of the most unusual types I have ever seen.

They are super proud about the 2020 Olympics.

There were so many buildings that looked like giant castles.
The sides of the freeways were meticulously landscaped, I was very impressed with Istanbul!

Florence 4/10/13

Our first stop was the Duomo Cathedral of Santa Maria. It was such a beautiful church, by far one of the brightest insides of any of the churches that we had seen so far.

The statue of David at the Piazza Della Signoria (Not the original David)

Hercules and the Centaur in Piazza Della Signoria

Florence is such a beautiful city with all of its open gardens and green hills, this is a picture in front of the Arno river.

This is at the top of Piazzale Michelangelo (Michelangelo Square)

Another view at Piazzale Michelangelo

My whole purpose in going to Florence was because I wanted to see the David in person. In every museum we went to there were statues and paintings of David slaying Goliath but to me none of them were right. Michelangelo captured to me what would have been the actual stance of David after slaying Goliath. You can see his innocence and the humbleness in his pose. He was truly beautiful and it was well worth the whole trip. (unfotunately you cant take pictures inside the Accademia Gallery)

Chris however took this great picture of the replica of David at the top of the Piazzale Michelangelo.

Gelato is probably the most amazing thing ever. It is truly 100 times better than Ice Cream. We ate it every single day while in Italy and sometimes twice a day. Between that and the pastries in Paris it is no surprise that we both came home carrying some extra weight.

Bidet

Chris is always trying to keep his bum from feeling wet, why would people do it on purpose? :)

Blow Dryer

Yah, so these funky little blow dryers in Europe really don't cut it, the air is lukewarm and there's not a lot of it at that. It took forever to get my hair dried.

Venice Day 2 April 9th 2013

On our second day in Venice we went to St Mark's square. Which is really a neat place with just a huge amount of places to see.

First was St Mark's Basilica (not my favorite, but still neat, the whole inside is decorated with the same gold paint as the pictures on the outside. It just seemed so.... Yuck)

Next was the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) Wow it was sooooo beautiful.

This was in the court yard of Doge's Palace.

The Mouth of Secret Accusation. 

I guess if you suspected someone of being an enemy of the state you would write up a note and put it in the mouth of accusation and then the council would deal with it. Hmmm....

Chris just loved the room after room of armor and weaponry.

Another view of Doge Palace

We had so many favorite things about Venice, one of those being the canal of water around everything and the many bridges crossing it.

You could walk around the streets of Venice and never get bored with the sights. We loved just strolling through the neighborhoods.

Venice Day 1 April 8th 2013

Saint Mary of the Friars Church was one of our first stops. 

Inside the church was a mixture of feelings

Hope and Salvation..............and .................Doom and gloom 

After some licorice...

and some Pizza...

We took a Gondola ride. 

We just couldn't pass up the call of, "Gondola, Gondola, Gondola", that the Gondoliers would call out as you passed by.

I will keep this memory with me forever! It was a dream to be where we were together and to be able to see the things we saw.

Paris Day 2 4/7/13

Our first stop of the second day is Paris was to visit the Louve. We had bought tickets ahead of time and were sure that this would save us a lot of time. What we didn't account for was the "Harding Luck".This is the name in which we give our extremely bad luck in any kind of situation. If we change lanes while driving ours will become the slowest lane, no matter which check out line we choose we will inevitably be waiting longer than any other line, in a movie theater we are always seated in front of the most obnoxious people, etc.  Well our Harding Luck did not disappoint, we got to the Louvre and found out that we were there on a Free day and that our purchased tickets counted for nothing! So we shuffled along inside the Louvre among the other Millions of people. 

We did see some really amazing paintings and the building itself was a masterpiece.

Although being overly crowded the Mona Lisa was really cool to see.

The Venus de Milo was another famous (and nude) sculpture 

that we  were able to check off our list of "Must Sees".

Thought to be Aphrodite.

The Psyche and Cupid sculpted by Antonio Canova

Or next stop was none other that Notre Dame. Wow wow wow. I cant say that enough!

Inside the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

Sculpture of Mary and Jesus in side Notre Dame.

This is the other side of Notre Dame.

"Oh Paris" Day 1 April 6th 2013

Oh Paris! We fell in Love with Thee!

On our first full day in Paris we woke up early and headed out to figure out the Metro. The smooth system they have set up is very handy and we quickly figured out how to get around.

We got off the Metro and had breakfast at a delicious little cafe, we had grilled Panini's and pastries. The food was to die for! We ended up having 2 breakfasts each day because we couldn't get enough.

Mousse, Eclair,Tarte, Meringue,

Our pastry consumption was quite frightening, but who can help themselves when you see this in the window every time you turn around?

After breakfast we walked down to the Arc de Triomphe, It was such an amazing sight. It is in the center of this huge round-a-bout. you have to get to it by these underground walk ways.

(Oops I forgot to mention that it was absolutely freezing in Paris. And so after breakfast we went to a clothing store and bought me an extra long sleeve shirt and a pair of tights to wear under my clothes. And I was still cold! Darn Israel for having such mild winters ;)

The size of the arch, and the carvings on it are truly amazing.

Our first museum in Paris was the Musee d' Orsay, we saw some amazing sculptures and paintings some by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Millet. 

This is a picture of us behind the clock face at the top of the Musee d' Orsay.

Next we skipped over to the Luxembourg Gardens. It was such a cool park and the palace is gigantic. Even though it was winter and all of the trees were bare of leaves it was still a very beautiful place. It must be breathtaking in the summer time.

Not sure how to explain this picture except to say that Chris was completely shocked that there was actually a sculpture of a woman with her clothes ON!

Our evening was spent at the Eiffel Tower, and yes we went all the way to the top.

This is one of the many views from the top (second from the top view point)