Family Vacation, Part II: The Amalfi Coast, Italy

For part two of our family vacation, I convinced Mom and Chris to go with me to a place I have long wanted to visit: the Amalfi Coast in Italy. Convincing them wasn't hard to do. I don't think many people would turn down a chance to visit this beautiful area after seeing photos of it. We flew from Paris into Napoli (Naples) and then took about an hour's bus ride to Sorrento, one of the larger towns that make up the area of Italy known as the Amalfi Coast, where we would be staying.

Here's mom and Chris in Sorrento the night we arrived.

Mom at Sunset, Sorrento

The second day of our stay in Italy, we took a ferry to the beautiful Island of Capri. Here's me on the Ferry.

Marina Grande (Big Marina), Capri

Marina Piccola (Small Marina), Capri.

All Chris wanted to do for the whole vacation was sit on the beach. So, when we arrived in Capri, I approaced a taxi driver and with my best VERY rusty Italian, I asked him to take us to the "most beautiful beach in Capri, one without many tourists". He took us here. It was beautiful, so I guess my Italian was successful (eventhough it turned out that he spoke flawless english, along with everyone else on the Amalfi Coast)


One of the biggest attractions in Capri is this cave called the Grotta Azzurra (the Blue Cave). Light refraction causes the water in the cave to appear this bright blue color. It really was amazing looking.

The tiny hole in the side of a cliff you must enter to get to the Grotta Azzurra.

Sorrento and the surrounding area is a huge producer of limoni (lemons). Here's chris with one of the crazy huge lemons the were selling in the market.

The Opera House, Sorrento



Mom, Tasso Square, Sorrento



Mom and I went on a walk from Sorrento to a small village called Pantano. This is an olive grove we found along the way.

The View of Sorrento from Pantano.





On our final day in Italy, we took a Mini-cruise along the Amalfi Coast. Here's me with the famous Fragolini Rocks (i frgolini) in Capri.



Chris at one of the stops on the mini-cruise, Positano

Positano turned out to be my favourite of the villages along the coast.

A beach in Positano.

Thats about it for the Italy leg of our vacation. We flew from Napoli back to London where mom and chris did a few hours of sighseeing before heading back home the next day. It was a great vacation and I thank mom and dad for paying for the vast majority of it!!

Family Vacation, Part 1: Paris

You know how I like my blog titles to have parts to them, and colons.

Anyways, as you may have ascertained if you read our blog, my family (well, everyone except Sara) came out to visit 2 weeks ago. This is really quite the feat considering the fact that Mom lives in Yorktown, Chris lives in Atlanta, and Dad was working in Tanzania at the time. But, we managed to pull ourselves together and all meet up. Everyone flew in the London, and we then immediately took the Eurostar to Paris (because, really, who wants to see London when you can see PARIS).

We checked into our swanky hotel on the Champs Elysee (Bobby and I were excited to be travelling and not staying in hostels) and then hit the town. As always, let’s let the photos tell the stories instead of me rambling on forever.

Here's mom and Chris on every fashionista's favourite street: the Champs-Elysees. Personally, I try to spend as little time there as possible. It is beautiful, but horribly expensive (even for Paris).

Day 1 included a Bateaux Mouches boat tour of London. We found that this was a great way to see most of the major sites (as they are situated along the Seine) and get your bearings in the city.

The Gentiles (+1 Harwig, as Bobby would say) at L'Arc de Triomphe.

For day 2 in Paris, Bobby and I took Mom, Dad and Chris on our favourite thing to do in European cities: a free walking tour. We've found this great company that does them all over Europe. Personally, i've done them in London, Prague and Paris and have always found them to be great!

Me and bobby on the walking tour. At le jardin des tiuleries.

Bobby hanging out on the seine.

After the walking tour, we did something I hadn't done since I was in Paris in high school (and bobby had never done), we went to the Louvre. It was much less crowded and much larger than I remember.

Me with Venus de Milo.

Bobby with Nike, Winged Victory

Mom, Dad, and Chris at the Eiffel Tower

Day 3 in Paris had us visit the city's most famous churches (without bobby, who had to go back to London for work). First was my favourite spot in all of Paris, la Basilique du Sacré-Cœur.

Next, we visited Notre Dame. This is a view from the back with it's famous flying buttresses.

That's about it for the Paris trip. 3 days of whirlwind sightseeing and not as many naps as i'm used to on mine and bobby's vacations. Bobby had already returned to London, dad packed up and headed back to Tanzania for work and Mom, Chris and I headed down to Italy to continue our vacation.....

Saturday: Cycling and Visitors

This Saturday is going to be quite eventful.

First (well, second really), Mike is coming to visit London. He's coming in Saturday afternoon and staying with us for a bit before heading off to the rest of Europe.

Before that, I'm going to be cycling in a race Saturday just outside of London. It's going to be a complete catastrophe I'm sure, but as long as I don't come in last, I will consider it a huge success.

I have a visitor!

Hooray! Dad is in London for the week.

We snagged some dinner and a few pints last night with work people.

I expect that there will be many, many more pints in the near future as well.

My First Visitors

Okay, so they might not really count since they didn't come specifically to see me, but I'll take what I can get.

A few people from work were travelling and had a layover they decided to extend in London. They're only in town for a few days, possibly heading to Paris for part of the time. But in the meantime its nice not to have dinner by myself.

We met up for a little tour around Picadilly Circus and the surrounding area, got some Indian food and then headed back to the hotel.

I'm a very low-key tour guide. Mostly I pick a destination and then decide which direction to start wandering. You can find so many more exciting places that way, and you can avoid tourist traps that might otherwise snare you when sightseeing.

Its also difficult to actually motivate myself to do all of the tourist stuff without other people here. How much fun would visiting Westminster Abbey or the London Eye be if you can't share it with somebody else?

In the meantime I'm staying busy with work, and getting excited to be back in the States for a couple of weeks. There's still a lot to do on both ends (tax advice, moving, packing, signing my lease, etc).