Getting to Know the Art of J-Walking (a.k.a. Ruinous Walking)

Day 06 (April 10th): ATHENS, Greece
Our second day in Greece was much more eventful than our first. We spent the morning exploring the ancient ruins of the Acropolis (the hill-top in the city center where the Parthenon is), the Temple of Zeus Olympia (which is gigantic) and the ancient Greek Agora (the center of the Athenian city life in the B.C.E.). Everything was larger than life and it was awe inspiring to think about how long some of these structures have existed for. After all of the mornings walking, we spent a liesurely afternoon strolling through Athens' marketplace.

Day 07 (April 11th): PATRAS, Greece
This was not a city we had intending on visiting for longer than an hour or so, but in hind-sight we're glad we ended up with a full day here. Patras is Greece's third largest city, and the only major city on the west coast - making it a vital international port, and THE place we needed to be to in order to take a ferry to Italy. The city was beautiful, though, and much more in the quaint style we were expecting Greece to be. It was definitely a welcome break for the tourist infested metropoli that we found in our first days.

Day 08 (April 12th): BARI, Italy
Again, not a city we were planing on staying long in, but the italian train system being was it is, we had to spend the whole day in this little sea-side town before we could catch a train north. Again, though, a welcome surprise. We had a lovely afternoon basking in the southern Italian sunshine and had a delicious pasta lunch in a little side-street cafè. Somehow we foolishly forgot sunscreen though, and we were both a little pink by the day's end.

Day 09 (April 13th): ROME, Italy
Like Athens this was a huge city full of ancient monuments and packed with tourists. Rome was amazing, though, and the Italians seemed to find a unique balance between centuries old architecture and millenia old ruins. (The mix seemed to work a little better here than it did in Greece.) Our morning in the Vatican City was worth the thirty minute wait to get into St. Peter's Bascillica and our two hour wait to see the Sistine Chapel. Rome was the most tourist-ridden city of our trip though, and (maybe because of that) it was easily the dirtiest city either of us has ever seen.

Day 10 (April 14th): VIENNA, Austria
After spending most of a week dodging scooters and being crushed in crowds, the open Alpine sights of Vienna provided a welcome break. We awoke on the train at dwan as we were passing through the Alps and the views we undescribable. We had a relaxing day strolling through the most amazing selection of Gothic churchs and post-modern architecture. We had brautwurst hot dogs - the Austrian way - and took in some street performances (much better than what Bournemouth had to offer).

Day 11 (April 15th): BERLIN, Germany
Today has been above and beyond anything we would have expected from this city. From the ashes of a city completely reduced to rubble sixty years ago, and then divided for the second half of the 20th Century, Berlin has risen to be a beautiful modern city. With as many sites to see as other major Euopean cities, a colourful history, and both a pedestrian and tourist friendly layout and atmosphere, Berlin is definitely Europe's diamond in the rough. (Hopefully Curtis will enjoy the city next year as much as we have today.) The city has wonderfully preserved portions of the wall, updated the Reichstag building with a glass observation sphere, and filled the city center with green spaces.