Last month, Paul and I got to take a trip of a lifetime together to Europe for 16 days to celebrate our engagement and his graduation from medical school! Paul had 8 weeks off between graduation and starting residency, and we knew we wanted to do something special with some of this time. Plus, let’s be honest, we may not get to take a honeymoon during his intern year! I’ve always wanted to go to Europe, and we were able to plan the trip to see five of the top cities we wanted to visit: London, Rome, Venice, Paris, and Berlin. They were all so much fun and unique in their own ways! I’m so excited to share some of my favorite photos from the trip, as well as some of the details of things we did! I’ve also had several people ask me for recommendations on where to stay, so I’ll include those as well!

The week of our trip got off to a bit of a rough start. We were scheduled to close on our new home the weekend before, move in, and then leave for Europe 5 days later. But our closing got delayed. The night before we were supposed to leave, Paul and I both caught a stomach bug. By the grace of God, we got a text from the airline that night that there was an issue with the plane we were scheduled to be on, and could reschedule our flight at no additional cost. So we pushed back our departure date by 3 days, giving us just enough time to recover, close on our house, and then fly out 6 hours later.

First Stop: London

Our first stop was London, which I was so excited to see (I’m a huge fan of the Royal Family). We were only there for 2 nights, since we had to cut the beginning of our trip short. But we made the most of it! In the three days we were there, we got to see Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Kensington Palace, the London Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and King’s Cross train station, where Platform 9 3/4 is! We also saw Les Miserables at the Queen’s Theatre, which was soooo good!

We stayed at the Club Quarters Hotel at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and it was very nice! It was very convenient to walk almost everywhere we needed to go.

Next: Rome and Venice, Italy

We stayed 3 nights in Rome and 2 nights in Venice. Italy was by far my favorite part of the trip! We flew in to Rome from London, but then took the train from Rome to Venice. I highly recommend taking the train if you are ever in Italy, the ride through the countryside was absolutely gorgeous!

Rome was packed full of things to do! I’m pretty sure we walked about 10+ miles a day because we were just having so much fun exploring. Not to mention, I had to burn off all the pasta and gelato we were eating because it was SO amazing! We visited the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona, the Roman Forum, the Spanish Steps, the Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Palatine Hill, Piazza del Popolo, and so much more.

Venice was so different from Rome, but so unique! It was so laid back, and being surrounded by water was gorgeous! We took a taxi over to the island of Murano to see the Murano glass being made, and a gondola ride through the canals. Other than that, we honestly just wandered around the shoppes and restaurants! It was a nice little break from being in the larger, high speed cities.

We stayed at the Ruzzini Palace Hotel, and it was gorgeous! Again, super convenient and walking distance from everything.

Off to Paris!

We then flew from Venice to Paris, and stayed there for 4 nights! Paris was very pretty, but it rained a lot while we were there! Because of the rain, we weren’t able to see as much as we had hoped. We went to the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, Arc de Triumph, Champs-Elysees, Place de la Concorde, Champ de Mars, and Disneyland Paris!

I was so excited to go to Disneyland Paris, since I just love Disney! It was so unique. It’s much smaller than Disney World, of course, and has a lot of the same rides, but also has its differences. Believe it or not, Big Thunder Mountain is better at Disneyland Paris than Magic Kingdom! Not to mention, the wait times are so minimal at Disneyland Paris. We literally walked on almost every ride and waited no more than 20 minutes!

Our Final City: Berlin

Our final city we visited was Berlin. One of my dearest friends of 10+ years moved to Berlin last year with her husband, so we got to stay with them and have them as tour guides! Berlin was such a cool city! It was so clean, the food was amazing, and the company was even better. I didn’t take many pictures with my camera while we were there since we were so busy catching up with our sweet friends! We got to see the Reichstag Building, the Brandenburg Gate, Alexanderplatz, the Jewish Memorial, Museum Island, and the East Side Gallery.

All in all, we had such an amazing two weeks together in Europe. If you have the opportunity to visit any of the cities we went to, I highly recommend it! Flights were very affordable and there are so many hotel options. The memories we made on this trip will last a lifetime. And now that we’ve done our Europe trip, we’re dying to plan another trip abroad sometime in the next year or two!

Have a great week everyone!