Most Memorable Moments
 

I was sitting here thinking over all the wonderful moments I have had traveling in Europe.

If I had to pin it down to 5,
here is my list.

1)
The first time I came out of Lucia train station in Venice. My knees buckled and I started to cry.

2)My sister and I going from village to village in the Cinque Terre. We ate and drank and laughed all day.


3)
Seeing Michelangelo's David. You can almost see blood flowing through the promentent veins on his hand.

4)
Stopping at old castle ruins along the Midi in the south of France, the wind was howling as we walked up the ancient road. No one was
there but us. Time stood still.

5)
When we walked into the restroom at a gas station outside of Lyon France to find only holes in the floors. :)

I could go on and on of course with so many happy times spent with family and friends seeing beautiful art and landscapes, eating and drinking all the new foods.

Please share yours and take a trip down memory lane.

Holding my wife's hand and looking at the prettiest blue sky in November in Rome at 78 degress - we wanted to freeze that moment forever!

1) Seeing Vermeer's <i>View of Delft</i> in person. The most beautiful painting in the world, no doubt.

2) Biking along the canal that links between Bruges and Damme. The image of the canal lined by trees is something I'll never forget.

3) Strolling in the streets in Bruges at night with my husband, when the town is deserted and the buildings glow in soft-yellow light. 100x more romantic than walking along the Seine in Paris or listening to music at St Mark's Sq in Venice.

4) My first sight of the entrance to the Alhambra (Gates of Justice) as I approached by the footpath uphill.

5) Sistine Chapel

- Seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time. It was my first trip to Europe, I was with my sister and we kind of stood in the street, spontaneously hugged and both said &quot;we're in Paris!&quot;

- New Year's eve 2007, standing in front of Notre Dame drinking vin chaud with dear friends.

- Seeing Venice rise through the mist as the vaporetto sailed from the bus station down the Grand Canal.

- Standing with my father (now gone) in front of the tree he planted years before at the 77th General Hospital in Blandford Forum, Devon, England.

- Same trip, sitting in the church where my dad's dearly-loved grandfather was baptized in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Oh, I fear I could keep going with this!

Hi D,

The first view of the Grand Canal

A private picnic lunch in the Versailles Gardens with my Lady Wife.

The view of the Munster Valley when coming out of the woods on the D417.

The David.

My first pizza in Paris.

Duck in the Dordogne.

Gewurztraminer in Alsace.

Tarte Flambee

Paintings on the walls of the Dordogne caves.

First view of Notre Dame and the Seine.

Real German beer.

Real Czech beer.

Real Bitters in London.

The dreaming spires of Oxford

My first visit to Tivoli Gardens.

OOPs, more than 5.

((I))

1) Standing in front of &quot;El Enterramiento del Conde de Orgaz&quot; by el Greco in Toledo, Spain, and momentarily forgetting how to breathe.

2) Nearly getting trampled by cows in Huemoz, Switzerland, as they returned to their barns from the pastures.

3) On a cold, foggy day in 2002, visiting the town in the Meuse-Argonne region of France where my grandfather was mustard-gassed and nearly died on Nov. 11, 1918.

4) Drinking an ale in a London pub watching a Jack Russell terrier eating peas off the floor.

5) At the American Cemetery in Normandy, finding the grave of the brother of an elderly acquaintance back in Pennsylvania and taking pictures of it for him. He regretted never visiting his brother's grave but was comforted to have photos, at least.

My first solo trip to France, year after taking a bus tour of Europe. Big decision. Rented a car and drove from Central Paris (how cool is it to navigate Place de la Concorde) to the Loire Valley. Got lost along the way and ended up at Fontainebleau where got a private behind the scenes tour...and then got lost a few more times while touring in the Loire. I just found the whole idea of being on my own in France (wow) and ending up wherever the road led me (when lost) seemed so cool.

Recently went to Istanbul and was standing outside of Blue Mosque when call to prayers was being made. Shivers... In a city with so much history and to hear that...and echoed by other mosques in the city..wow.

1) Receiving communion at the Vatican. Just amazing.

2) David, so sweet wonderful David. All the books I read or pictures I seen didn't do David Justice. I cried. So did my BIL. His was religion movement, Mine was his hands.

3) The leaning tower of Pisa. What was the big deal about this area. Then we went into a church where a woman came in and sang, it echoed and gave me chills.

4) Paris, what can I say? Paris.

5) The Louve. While eating lunch there 3 blue haired French old ladies walked by giving us funny looks, and when I said Bon Jour the smiles on their face matched that of the Mona Lisa. They proceeded to talk all at once to me, and I didn't understand a word, but I knew it was all good.

6)Rome in a word. The whole city.

7) Montecantini, what a beautiful City and I will go back.

1) Waking up in a rented Irish farmhouse to find my parents standing over my bed staring at the kitten I had brought in the night before. Beer had been consumed. And the kitten, that belonged to our hosts, was sleeping on my pillow with me.

2) Opening day of Oktoberfest.

3) New Year's Eve in Amsterdam. Being invited to drink champagne mid-day in a clothes shop (that also had a hairdressing chair in the back), and nearly sleeping through midnight because our mate forgot to wake us up. We barely made it to the party where we were meeting friends, and after using fake names to gain entrance (this was pre-arranged), we just made the countdown.

4) Studying abroad at Pembroke College in Cambridge. Having the opportunity to wake up there everyday was amazing. I felt like I lived in Europe, if only for that short amount of time.

5) Taking my mom to Paris and London for her birthday and Mother's Day in 2007. She's obsessed with Ireland, and I knew if I could expand her focus, she would see why other parts of Europe are equally amazing. It worked.

1- My first trip to Europe in 1967, flying cheap from NY on Islandic Air, walking to the youth hostel in Luxembourg, leaning to rest against a city wall/fort and realizing I was actually touching a 1000 year old structure.
2-running with the bulls in Pamplona (after the age of 50!) OK, running after the bulls.
3-being in Normandy at the anniversary of D day, and seeing all the Thank You Americans in the store windows. Cried at actually having us appreciated instead of hated.
4-Visiting Trinity Church in Manhattan this year and seeing the memorial doves made in honor of the victims...by survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
5-Visiting medieval pilgramage sites such as Mt. St Michele and Rocamadour, and when bristling at the crass T shirt vendors, being reminded by my husband that &quot;thus was it ever&quot;, but 600 years ago they were selling pieces of &quot;the true cross&quot; instead.
6-Visiting a town on the Lot River of France and seeing a plaque on a town square &quot;Place de la Liberation de la Femme&quot; (square of the liberation of women)

My husband and I recently returned from our honeymoon Paris in early January. It snowed while we were there and my understanding is that this is a rare occurence. Knowing this, our stroll through Luxembourg Gardends in the snow was magical.

I will never forget the awe, wonder and look of total amazement on all our faces when we realized that we had filled our rental car with Super Gas instead of Diesel outside of Gubbio.

((H))

great memories everyone.

some have brought tears to my eyes and others have made me laugh.

ira,
I love the way you say
&quot;lady wife&quot;, that is so sweet.

Coming out of Westminster Underground station and catching my first glimpse of Big Ben and St. Stephans Tower then hearing the chimes on the hour. Getting to tour the same tower and see how the clock works-with fab views of London.

Visiting Paris during a freak snowstorm and exiting the Trocadero to see the Eiffel Tower looming in the snowy mist. Incredible. Traveling between London and Paris on the Eurostar and marveling at the engineering. Looking out of my balcony in Paris, watching the fountain and the people.

Everytime I'm in London, I feel at home yet that there is always more to explore.

On my first trip to Europe, I told the taxi driver how much I had always longed to visit London, and how now that I was there, I was very moved. He responded by taking me for a quick tour of the sights before dropping me at Regent's Park. I don't think I'll ever forget the sound of his voice saying, &quot;Piccadilly Circus, luv.&quot;

First trip down the Grand Canal, in a water taxi payed for by mom. Just as magical as everyone says.

Not too long ago, dancing alone at night on the Pont des Arts, while the Eiffel Tower twinkled behind me. DH and my brother were grumpy and walking fast ahead of me on a cold night. I saw the twinkling lights and thought screw them, this is too wonderful to waste. So I put my arms out and twirled about in the dark. They never even knew what they had turned their backs on.

Taking a wooded road outside of Assisi, walking with my brother under the trees, on our way to the fortessa. A kilometer or so down the road, the crowds thinned, and it eventually became just us, and a young Franciscan, reading and walking along the road.

One more: can't decide but I'll go for an easy one. Wondering out on the terrace of the Uffizi on a gorgeous warm March morning, putting my feet up on the railing and calling my mother back home to tell her about the moment.

In no particular order -

1. The Pieta

2. First day Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea - omg - what have we done - we're here for two years!!!!

3. Dinner in a London pub in Soho - Toad in the Hole and great atmosphere.MMmmm

4. Lunch in a small restaurant near the Charles Bridge, Prague with my 3 travel buddies and Naughty Jan came out to play.

5. Getting to all the places on the Revlon Shampoo bottle - London, Paris, Rome, New York. (An ambition I made when I was about 13 years old)

Only 5 oh I could go on!

Maitai, you had my howling. We experienced that same sensation outside of Castellina in Chianti.

Spending an afternoon drinking Weisbier and slamming the glasses down on the table with 800 new friends in the Schrannenscheune in Rothenburg ob der Tauber on June 24, 2006.

The place was packed beyond comprehension, noisy and hot as hell, and the screen was 20 feet wide.

Germany 2 - Sweden 0

I'm all goose pimply again.

maitai and JulieVikmanis,

what does one do when faced with this?

1) Turned away from Ste. Chapelle by just missing the closing time, I decided to follow a long line of people, not knowing where they were going. Turned a corner and there was Notre Dame Cathedral. I was so astonished I walked off the curb.

2) Finally got into Ste. Chapelle. When I walked into the second floor, I stopped dead in my tracks, gasped, and all thoughts in my head just shut up and I was totally absorbed in the glory of those windows. It is so beautiful.

3) Walking out of my Florence apartment very early in the morning after arriving late at night and just wandering around, arriving at the Neptune fountain on the Piazza della Signoria. Walked in a different direction and ended up at the duomo. That early in the morning there was no line to go up to the top of the duomo and so I did.

4) Enjoying the sunset over Florence from the Piazza Michelangelo while a woman played the violin.

5) Michelangelo's David.

Okay, it's more than five, it was not exactly wonderful and not even in Europe, but I'll never forget arriving in my apartment in Cairo. I had gotten a grant to work there for two months. I'll never forget looking out my apartment window and thinking, &quot;I worked really hard to get this grant to go to Cairo. I got it. Oh my God, what have I done? How will I ever survive two months in Cairo!&quot;

1. Visiting the American Cemetery above Omaha Beach, meeting an American survivor of D-Day, and the entire Normandy experience. An overwhelming sense of gratitude at what has been given in the name of freedom.

2. Spending three weeks in Oxford as a &quot;visiting scholar&quot; and pinching ourselves every single day for the privilege of living among the &quot;dreaming spires&quot;.

3. First time in Paris, walking toward the sparkling Eiffel Tower with crepes in hand, oh my!

4. Coming around the bend on the train to Hallstatt and catching our first glimpse of the town and then walking down the trail to the boat &quot;Stephanie&quot; to make our way across the lake and into this lovely town.

5. Falling in love with London: the accents, the buses, the monuments, museums, and palaces. Loved everything there except for the exchange rate (which is now SO much better!).

Sorry, two more:

6. Running on the beach at St. Andrews like in the movie &quot;Chariots of Fire&quot;.

7. Our sons experiencing Duone Castle where &quot;Monty Python&quot; was filmed. Lots of laughter!

Taking my 70+ year old parents to Europe for the first time. Holding my Mom's hand as we walk into Saint Mark's Basilica in Venice, she turns and says (with teary eyes) &quot;I never knew anything this beautiful existed in the world&quot;.

That moment is what it's all about.

dandi2, don't know how Maitai handled it but in our case, the whole issue was made worse by having done it on a Sunday when practically nothing was open. My sister and I left DH with the car on a sunny hill in Chianti after hailing a car who called the local Auto association. We jumped into a nice cool Mercedes with a nice older couple who drove us back to Castellina where we got solace and wine from the lovely Scottish lass who tends the front desk at Squagiallupi hotel there while we waited to get word from DH about how things were going. While enduring much laughter from the guys from the auto club who picked him and the car up and towed it to Siena where they drained the inappropriate gas and replaced it with diesel (I understand that doing things the other way around results in making the car totally inoperable, so it could have been worse)DH finally got the thing going and picked us up in Castellina. Meantime sister was offered a ride to Siena by a nice American who was bored and standing in the same sandwich line as she at a local shop--but didn't take it because we had agreed to meet back at the Squagiallupi (we weren't staying there, just knew of it because friends had).

All of this happened in the morning and by shortly after lunch we had navigated out way back to Siena for afternoon sightseeing. It's amazing how, after you do something really stupid, you can gather your wits and work things out, especially when you can rely on the kindness of strangers.

Very memorable. And pretty instructive. We pay close attention to the rental car agreements and the signs on the gas caps now.

1. The Scottish Highlands
2. The Pieta/ David
3. Evensong at Westminster-
4. Making woopy on a cliff overlooking the sea at sunset in Greece. ( I was 21)
5. Swiss Alps.

Oh, gosh, reading all this makes me want to add and add to the list I gave earlier. Thanks to all for reminding me about things like:

- exiting the tube, heading up the steps next to the Thames and seeing Big Ben.

- The Pieta at St. Peter's

- Dancing alone on a Paris street.

1) we were at the grand marina in sorrento and the kids were playing on the beach and we were watching the fisherman working on their boats. One older fisherman was working on scraping the bottom of his boat and called the kids over (ages 4 and 5 at the time). He gave them little shells that get stuck like barnacles on the bottom of the boats and told them they make them into earrings and call them Santa Lucia eyes.

2) Just 5 weeks ago we were in Prague at the Christmas markets in the old town square. It was night time and the kids (now ages 6 and 8) were watching the blacksmith. He asked if they wanted a turn and called my daughter in first and helped her hammer. Then my son. Then he bent the piece in half and presented us with the tiny horseshoe that the kids had helped him make.

1. Seeing the Last Supper in person. I never imagined it was so big!

2. Seeing the sunset on the Adriatic in Piran. I imagine it was much like Venice was 600 years ago.

3. After a long and tiring driving day,(with an argument or two with DH), seeing the most beautiful rainbow over Bratislava.

4. Seing Mont St. Michel for the first time, after promising myself in high school that one day I'd visit it.

5. Putting the rental car in neutral to push it back at a rest station because we couldn't find out how to use reverse (and, to compound the issue, we did it AGAIN 3 years later!) Of course, the manual was written in German, which we cannot read.

In the same vein as filling your car with gas instead of diesel, one of my most enduring memories is of the time I was doing the laundry at a Paris laundromat and it didn't seem to be sudsing. So I added another box of detergent. HUGE MISTAKE-- the suds starting pouring out of the top of the machine, down the front and onto the floor (think &quot;I Love Lucy&quot;). I grabbed every absorbent piece of paper I could find to mop it all up before someone might arrive and see what the stupid American who can't read French had done!

Viewing the Panama Canal from the bridge of a Navy destroyer.

The first time I saw Paris.

Being at the 50th D-Day anniverary ceremony at Normandie.

Celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary in Brantome, France 2000.

Returning to Norfolk after a seven month around the world cruise that included Korean War operations. We were greeted by tug and fire boats shooting streams of water into the air. And then having the Navy band, friends and relatives waiting for us to tie up at the C &amp; E piers.

OMG, SF... you made me think of something else too!

When my best friend and I were in Berlin, we tried to do laundry at a laundromat. We couldn't read the instructions in German about where to pay or how to operate the machines, nor could we figure out where the soap went, so this nice German man finally took notice of our troubles and helped us out.

We figured everything was fine and we'd head out for a drink and come back for the clothes later. As we were leaving, in runs the man with a stack of English homework. He was hoping we could tutor him! We couldn't say no, so we did it and have laughed about it ever since.

Definitely more than 5, but here goes.

1. Our first bittersweet trip to France. Sad because we were there on 9/11 when our country was attacked, but overwhelmed by the reactions of the French people who hugged us in the street and gave us condolences wherever we went.

2. Two different birthday dinners, 1 at &quot;Al Veluu&quot; overlooking Lake Como. Just one of my best experiences ever. The view was spectacular. And the other at &quot;Le Train Bleu&quot; in Paris--enough said.

3. Sailing into Portofino---WOW!

4. Our first drive around the French Riviera and the hill town of Eze.

5. Paris, Paris, Paris! I've never felt more at home in any other place. Every time we're in the cab and turn that corner on to the street along the Seine, I get chills.

Sorry I have to add 1 more, and of course it takes place in Paris.

6. Dancing on the I'lle St. Louis bridge at midnight to &quot;I Wish You Love&quot; played by &quot;Tim&quot; the sax man from London.

ttt

More:
Getting lost in Normandy near Villers Bocage and finally finding a barkeep with a phonebook where we could find the name of our B&amp;B's proprietor, whom the bartender called to come rescue us.

Picnics of baguette and fromage.

Doing the chicken dance (and regretting it) at a winery in Assmanshausen, Germany.

Visiting the Serbian Orthodox church in present-day Croatia where my husband's grandfather was baptised in the 1800s before he emigrated to the U.S.

1. We arrived in Athens (minus my hb's luggage) totally shellshocked after 30 hours of travelling (Sydney, London, Athens). We unpacked and went for a walk. At one point I lifted my head and there was the Parthenon in all it's glory. I will never forget that first glimpse - it was heart stopping.

2. Emerging from the Paris metro with four close girlfriends (on a long planned trip), to find ourselves in the middle of the 6th and surrounded by that divine French architecture. A dream come true.

3. Strolling through Florence on a summer evening - the light changes and the city is so peaceful compared to the hustle and bustle of the day.

4. Piazza Navone, Rome.

5. Mass at Notre Dame. By very happy circumstance we chanced upon Friday afternoon mass. We sat for a while and enjoyed the beautiful sound of the nuns singing hymns and the responses. It was a very surreal moment.

Lovely post Dandj2, hope it keeps going.

i hope it keeps going too.
i love reading these so much.

I'm sure I can't pin it down to 5, but here goes, in no particular order:

1) Meeting some Spaniards at a winery in Jerez, and finding out that we had friends in common.

2) Showing up at the Olympic Pool in Edinburgh without towels, and a lovely woman offered me hers (for my kids) and just told me to bring it to her whenever we were done.

3) Playing croquet on the lawn at Amboise.

4) Happening to show up in Cambridge on Graduation Day.

5) My kids faces on seeing the yachts in the harbor at Monaco and St. Tropez!

6) Coming out of the train station and seeing the Grand Canal for the first time.

7) On a funny note, looking through the Brandenburg Gate and seeing Starbucks.

There are just so many, I could go on and on. In fact, I think I better start writing these down for posterity!

Walking around Venice at 3:00 AM, having the city completely to ourselves.
Snow at mid-night on New Year’s Eve at San Marco.
Seeing “The Feast at the House of Levi” at the Academie in Venice.
A barman in Venice asking “The usual?”
Feeling like a local.
Seeing the monument to Canova at the Frari in Venice (Yep, I know that some find it tacky. I love it.)