Europe was a blast

We managed to both take three weeks off and backpack across England, Italy, and Spain. We started off with a quick stopover in Calgary, landing in London. We spent three days in Birmingham with Bharat Uncle, Naina Aunty, Kavita, and Vikas. From there we went back to London and stayed with Rajeev and Kajal for another three days. Highlights included Stratford upon Avon, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, and London Eye.

We took Ryan Air (crap) to Rome and had an awesome time exploring the Coliseum, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and best of all, Vatican City. From Rome we went to Sorrento and Capri where we saw the Blue Grato. We stayed in scary Naples for a night and took a flight to Florence were the gothic church Doumes and David were there highlights. After Florence, we went to Venice where we visited various glass factories in Murano and got rained in at St. Mark's Basilica. Venice was beautiful, however it had a very “touristy” feeling. From Venice, we took a train to Milan, fashion capital, where we checked out D&G, Armani, Juicy Couture.. then off to Madrid, Spain.

Madrid had a good variety of food - great break from all that Italian food. We discovered Fresca which is like Salad Loop except way better and they have plenty of locations. Madrid highlights included Palacio Real de Madrid and clubbing till 5 am - El Junco was a great Jazz Club. We also took a train to Toledo for a day where we visited one of the oldest cathedrals. From Madrid we went to Costa Del Sol (Malaga). We used this as a hub to visit The Alhambra Palace in Granada and Najera Beach. The Alhambra Palace was one of our favourite places in Spain as it had exquisite Islamic architecture.

Our last stop was Barcelona where we stayed less than ten minutes from Las Ramblas. We checked out almost all of Antoni Gaudi’s modernist architecture, including Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Casa Batilo, and Casa Mila . We spent the last night drinking Sangria and watching a Flamenco dance, ending off clubbing at Las Ramblas. A great story to cap off our last day - we missed our flight out of Barcelona! Ryan Air flies out of rinky dink airports so we spent 130 Euros on an hour long ride by taxi from the main airport only to miss our flight and having to buy brand new tickets. Reshma was not impressed. We took an early morning bus from Luton to Heathrow to catch our flight back home!!

Overall, we had a great time and would be happy to make recommendations to anyone planning a similar itinerary. Hope you Enjoy the pictures…