We had a 10am flight from Stockholm > ORD which got us into Chi-town approx 12pm. Surprisingly very smooth entry back into the states. Customs, passport checks, getting our bags, etc all took us only about 15 minutes. Ger was there to pick us up30 minutes later. Thank you Ger! We came home to beautiful Chicago drizzly weather but it felt great to be home. One of the first things we noticed on the drive home was that as much as we love America, people really cant drive here. No one knows what the left lane is for and people are just generally clueless, unsafe and disorderly on the roads. No we've not turned into one of those "everything is better in europe" snobs, as in fact very LITTLE is better, but we need to face it: people do drive better. We loved every minute of our trip and would/wouldn't do it again in a heartbeat. It was a love/hate trip--basically when you are somewhere for more than a month, you are living there. You encounter ups and downs (computer crashing with all our pictures, car broken into, etc) but you love every minute of it at the same time. We do come home much more patriotic however. You do get a bit tired of the "American bashing" and you find yourself wondering why there is such ignorance and dislike towards americans, considering what we've done for the world in the last 100 years. People obviously have short-term memory and think of us as the oil-hungry bullies. What you have to do to get through the day is remember that more Europeans actually like and appreciate us than don't like us. For every 1 anti-american, you'll find 3 who appreciate tourists and appreciate america. Scotland, Sweden, etc you'll find some of the nicest people. Even in Italy, if they know you, they'll bend over backwards for you. It's amazing how meaningful it is to you when a random lady on the streets of London says to me "I really love your country". I think/hope that the people we've met in Europe enjoyed meeting us and that we were good representatives of America. We loved every friend we've made on this trip. I hope that everyone reading this can get a chance to go back to any of these countries and keep reminding them that Americans are good people. Just try to learn a little of their language, don't use the term "Americanized" (yes this is just my personal opinion), don't be loud and obnoxious and importantly, ask about their culture and history......they love to talk about it and they love knowing that Americans are there not for the baguettes, pasta, tapas and museums but also to learn about the people and the history. We will be posting some final lists and pictures soon. We are definitely here for advice and tips should you ever find yourself in Europe or going to Europe soon. We'll end with a picture of what we missed most about home. This is what we came home to (after she and her tail settle down a bit).

It is our final day and although we are really missing home at this point, we are so glad we went out of our way to fly through Stockholm, as we've never seen it. Great city. We hate to use the term "Americanized" because it implies that everyone wants to be "just like us" but I can say that Stockholm is probably the most similar to an American city in terms of the people, the feel, etc. Nearly everyone speaks English and you aren't consistently stared at as in many other areas further south in Europe. We are really glad we came here because it seals the deal of another Sweden trip. We've spent 3 days in Sweden in total: 2 in Gothenburg and 1 in Stockholm and we cant describe how pleasantly surprised we are. We have to come back. In our one day in Stockholm, Kristy shopped, we took a great night walking tour of Stockholm (keep in mind it doesnt get dark till 11), we found some good meatballs and potatoes, we hit the Absolut Ice Bar and just walked around the city. The Ice Bar was as cool as it was touristy. Worth going to. You absolutely feel like tourist going there but its worth it--a lot of fun. Picture below. We are looking forward to home but coming to this city last seems to be perfect. We love it and will absolutely be back.

So we are back in Gothenburg again, 3 months after our arrival here. We were anxious to see whether we really loved it, or just loved it because it was the first european city we saw. Turns out we LOVE it. It is a great town. Perfect mid-sized town with much to do and many fun shops, restaurants/bars, etc. It's very pretty as well. After a mishap with our parking brake (wouldnt release, which was phenomenal) and the repair man had to travel out to get it fixed.....We got the Volvo all washed up for the trip back to the states (we will have it in 6 weeks) and pretty much just took it easy and walked around town. It stays light until 11pm now, and we hear that in July, it stays light until midnight! Very cool. We really love this city and would place it in our top 5 for sure. We will have to return to just see Sweden as we really loved it here. Tomorrow is Stockholm, then home. In preparation for the return home, our current top 5 things we miss about home: 5) Peanut Butter 4) Mexican food 3) Showers in which you actually have room to move and/or bend down to wash your feet 2) Being able to walk down the street without being stared at 1) Buehrle.

Woke up early and walked back to the Prague Castle.  Very different during the day - mobs of people everywhere!  We tried to latch on to a group, but there were too many going on.  Bypassed going inside the Castle as the lines were ridiculous and started our walk to the old town square.  On the way the road we were supposed to take was under construction (story of our trip - but really why is everything under construction?!?!)  and it took us a good 30 minutes to get back on track.  Made it to old square and lucked out by finding a free tour - it turned out to be a fantastic 3 hour tour!  Afterwards we did some more walking around on our own and visited the new Communism Museum - which was great except I was so tired I was falling asleep in the movie area....  Made it back to our Couch Surfing friends house - fairly tired from all the walking.  They were so nice and cooked us a typical Czech meal - potato dumplings, pork and cabbage.  Was really good!  Have an early day tomorrow with a lot of driving involved - making the trek to Denmark.  Only 3 more days to go - can't believe it?!

Today we did a walking tour of Munich that was narrated by none other than me.  Munich is a very walkable town and it has a lot of charm.  Because it was Sunday, most everything was closed, but we did make it to the famous Hofbrauhaus for beer and food.  The Germans really like their pork.  After about 5 hours in the city we started our 3.5 hour drive to Prague.  On the way we stopped in Pilsen and went to the Pilzner Urquell brewery.  Had some beer there (the Czechs as well as Germans really like their beer!) and ate at the restaurant.  On to our destination of Prague.  We stayed 2 nights with couch surfing friends - had a great time!  They live 10 minute walk from the Prague Castle, so they took us up there the first night which was unreal - everything lit up, great view of the city, and non-touristy at 10pm!  Tomorrow is a busy day with lots of exploring Prague to do....

We are done with our cruise.... So sad, although I'm sure Mark is glad to be back on land!!!  Was fairly easy transition, though forgot we had to pay for our car parking and didn't have the cash, in a port area one would think credit card machines would be more common... We walked around Cittivecchia for about 30 minutes looking for an ATM that can be translated to English - 2nd one the charm! Then on to start our 9 hour trek to Munich.  Drove through the Italian Alps and Austria - so gorgeous!  Also drove on Autoban which really excited Mark.  People fly on those roads!  Painlessly checking into our B&B for night and decided to head out to beer garden - can't come to Munich without doing that!  Ended up walking to a beer garden called Augustinerkeller and it was all we thought it would be and more - it was awesome!  Think Oktoberfect in Huntington Beach times 10 - Imagine being here for Oktoberfest!  So cool!  Tomorrow we are going to try to fit in as much sight seeing as we can as we are leaving for Prague to meet a new couch surfing friend.  Will check in from Prague.

First time to Africa (ok, so it's about as "African" as Morocco, but it's still Africa). They are very specific about passports, immigration, etc here so we needed to do a bunch of work with our passports and personal information before we set foot here. Kristy needed to wear a skirt and I had to wear longer shorts , etc. We did a lot in 7 or so hours. Saw the main market and were absolutely mobbed by people. I dont think they are used to Americans in Tunisia. Stuff here was very cheap but nothing we really wanted that badly either. Prettier than we thought. Probably wont be back--just a box to check. Tomorrow we cruise for a day then hit Rome to begin our final leg up to Sweden again, and home.

Made it to island of Menorca, town of Mahon.  We had a short day today, so Mark and I woke up early to make most of day.  We met our New York friends, Josh and Chelsea and decided to go hiking.  Ended up being a beautiful day and had a nice hike in a Park area.  Lots of cool beaches, walking around, found a cool old tower and saw some naked people just hanging out on a rock at one of the beaches.  Afterwards took a cab back to Mahon and walked around the town.  Cute town with a lot of shops, restaurants.  Our boat was leaving at 2 so made it back around 1:30 and spend rest of day at pool on boat.  Determined to come back to Chicago with a tan!  We are at sea for 22 hours tonight, hopefully no one gets sick...  Tomorrow we'll be in Africa for our last stop on cruise.  (AS AN ASIDE BY MARK, THOSE ARE BOXERS, NOT SHORTS OR A BATHING SUIT. PLEASE DONT THINK MY TASTE IN CLOTHING IS THAT BAD--JUST FORGOT MY BATHING SUIT)

Sete is a small fisherman town close to Marseille.  To be honest, not too much to do in this town and since it was Sunday everything was closed.  We went to a flea market that was more like a garage sale.  Also did a boat tour.  Mainly just stayed on boat and hung out by the pool, getting ready for Barcelona tomorrow!

We're back in Barcelona, so excited!  Mark and I walked around the first day and went to Park Guell - another one of Gaudi's designs.  Very cool, interesting park.  We walked around our old neighborhood, Barcelonetta, and made sure to get a reservation for later that night at our favorite bar.  Ended up going out that night - 10 of us, and had a blast.  It was the last night on cruise for our Toronto friend's Matt and Cheri, so we had to send them out the right way and ended up staying up until 5am (the bonus of spending the night at a port!).  The next day I went to Picasso museum and walked around Barri Gothic and bought some fun souvenirs.  Have to say Barcelona is still one of our favorite cities from this trip! 

Took it relatively easy today in Marseilles. We took a "Petite Train" around Marseilles for a tour. Actually surprised by how large it is--its the second largest city in France. After this, we caught a boat to 2 of the most popular Harbor Islands. If and Frioul. If had a famous fort that was turned into a prison which is now famous for the prison that The Count of Monte Cristo was imprisoned. Frioul was a very pleasant surprise. Absolutely beautiful and wide-open. We only saw one other couple hiking around the area. Apparently however, it's seagull mating season and they were getting pretty pissed at us. Circling, making noises and getting so close to us that we ended up taking the hint and changing our path. Aside from them, this island is BEAUTIFUL and we were so pleasantly surprised. We have attached a picture below. Next stop is Sete, France.

Last day in Cannes and it rained for most of the day and (shocker!) there was a train strike.  I was planning on taking a train to Grasse to make some perfume (this city is known for perfume) and because of the train strike, I was unable to do it.  Otherwise had a great time in Cannes.  Went out last night for a few over-priced drinks with some of our new friends on the cruise.  We didn't do a beach movie screening because of time and they are old movies that are being shown.....  Unfortunately we did not see any stars - bummer.  Our friend Chelsea dragged her husband along for 4 hours and saw quite a few:  Sean Penn, Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria, Danny Glover, Cate Blanchett and more.  Rumor has it that Brad and Angelina were on a yacht next to us - pimped out of course!  Tonight we are on our way to Marseilles where we'll dock tomorrow and enjoy the city - hope weather is great.  Here is a pict from fireworks that went crazy last night - great view from our balcony.

We woke up this morning in the beautiful French Riviera.  It's the first day of Cannes Film Festival and the big white tents took center attention.  We booked it to the train station to start our day off at Monte Carlo.  It took us about 1 hr on train to get there and they were set up for Grand Prix race.  We're not sure if they keep the seats and fences, etc up all year round, but was very cool to see the race track.  We walked around the city a bit, Mark surprisingly didn't have itch to gamble and then we got back on train and headed for Nice.  I went straight to the rocky beach to lay out - was exhausted today.....  And Mark headed out on mission to find socca (some kind of chickpea bread which he said is overrated) and to walk around town.  Afterwards trained it back to Cannes and could tell it is in full effect today!  Red carpet packed, people yelling, was fun!  Haven't seen anyone famous yet, although have seen a lot of pimped out yachts.  We'll check in with famous people sighting later.  I'm determined to go to outdoor screenings that are open to public - as it's very tight security around here and unless we have a invitation ticket to the Festival we can't get in.  

We got off the boat at Livorno and trained it about an hour to Florence.  From there we walked around the city with our Rick Steve's Renaissance Walk podcasts - total tourists but that is ok by us.  We didn't have chance to go into Uffizi or Academia Museums as we only had a day and from what we hear you have to get tickets ahead of time or stand in a really brutal line.  Florence has so much history and it's just a really pretty place to walk around - no need to go to museums there is art everywhere - especially statues.  The duomo was gorgeous - reminded us a lot of Orvieto duomo - really decorative.  Otherwise had a great time and good shopping at the open markets as well.  Tomorrow we'll be docked at Cannes for 3 days. 

Today we docked at Portofino - such a cute colorful town.  A lot of money here!  We walked through the downtown and immediately caught a bus to the Santa Margherita Train Station along with our other new friends that had the same idea as us - to book it to Cinque Terre to spend as much of our time there as we can.  From bus, caught a train to Cornegila and hiked first up 350 something stairs to reach the town, then up further along the trail to Vernazzo which took us about 1 1/2 hours.  Then from Vernazzo to Montorosso, another hard 1.5 hrs, then trained it back and made our way back to the ship, exhausted. Tonight a little hot tub and a nice dinner then rest for Florence tomorrow.

Our 2 week cruise started yesterday out of Civitavecchia (Rome) Port.  First off was a nightmare finding parking and the pier that our boat was on.  Took us about 1 - 1.5 hrs (almost had Amsterdam driving flashback).  After we figured everything out was nice to get on the boat, find our room and move in for the next 2 weeks.  The staff is very nice as well as other guests and bonus is everyone speaks english!  We were greeted by champagne and a great buffet!  The boat left at 5pm - about 4 hours later Mark was in bed sea sick - he even left dinner early which does prove he wasn't feeling well...  Good news is we woke up early and the boat was docked so sea sickness was on hold.  We woke up to a beautiful view of Corsia - We weren't sure what to expect and it's unlike any place we've seen.  Tall granite and limestone "walls" that are not man made surround the island.  We docked in Bonifacio which is south east part of island.  Took at boat tour to the west side, looked as some islands (Sardinia is only 5 miles away!) and saw some very cool grottos.  Afterward we walked around the small town with our new friends Laney and Josh - we are very few of the under 40 club on the cruise.  Tomorrow heading to Livorno where we will go hiking in Cinque Terre. 

Today we went to Hadrian's Villa and Tivoli Gardens.  Was HOT today - loving the weather (although not great when outside visiting a ruins site where there is minimal shade.  First stop was Hadrian's villa, this place is huge!  Probably about the size of Grant Park - not too shabby for a retirement house.  Took a lot longer to walk through then we though it would as was so large - but very interesting to see.  Crazy thing is this villa had 3 baths!  The Romans loved their baths!  Afterwards we drove a few miles up a crazy road to Tivoli Gardens (Villa d'Este).  This place was a lot smaller than we thought - but was beautiful!  It's a huge villa (in the hill town Tivoli) that was owed by a cardinal in the 16th century.  The most visited area of the villa is the gardens which have over 500 fountains and a few grottos.  If I could build a garden - this is what it would look like!  Amazing views from the garden as well - we are starting to take the views for granted since we are used to them now... Tomorrow we are fired up - leaving from Rome port for our 2 week cruise.  Can't wait to be pampered! 

What can you really say. Rome is awesome. Today we did more of the Roman Empire theme and tomorrow we do more of the Vatican theme. Today: Pantheon, a few Piazzas, Roman Forum, Augustus's House, Palatine Hill, Coliseum, etc. Our take was that you could honestly spend a whole day at the forum. So cool. Make sure to bring a map or something that explains everything. Very lacking in that area. We had the help of a Rick Steve's podcast with us but still were left wondering what was what. Coliseum was cool, but honestly smaller than we expected. I guess coming from America we see stadiums this big in the suburbs. You could easily spend an entire week just in Rome and for any history buff or Roman Empire freak (which I'm unfortunately becoming) you could spend 2-3 days alone at the Pantheon, Temples, Coliseum, Forum, etc. People are very nice here and Rome is a surprisingly well laid out and walkable city. Rome is just awesome.

Vatican. St. Peter's Basilica, St. Peter's Square, Vatican Museum-Sistine Chapel, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, more Piazzas. Saw Pope Benedict! Video to prove it. Very cool. St. Peters was the coolest church of all time-blows away Notre Dame by our calculation. Spanish steps were just so-so. Crowded and under construction but less impressive than we expected. Trevi was cooler than expected but again, total zoo so go early in the morning or in January or something. Sistine was cool but same theme--be prepared to be rubbing up against lots of tourists. Many who smell pretty bad and/or not realize you are there while they are taking pictures, etc. (Can you tell we've been in Europe for 2.5 months?) Yes tourists are really starting to wear on us. Vatican is extremely cool though and it was very cool to see Pope Benedict. We also stopped at Pope John Paul's tomb. Kristy took a drink from the water fountain at St Peters which we figure is holy water and we expect that by tomorrow she'll be feeding the poor, walking on water and curing cancer. We'll keep everyone posted on that but if you run into her when we get back to America and she just seems more holy, you'll know why.