Too many to cull down to a single moment but..

Seeing in 2007 in the square in San Quirico d'Orcia with the locals throwing loud firecrackers down all around us

Staying overnight on the top of the world at Lagazuoi in the dolomites and then skiing down first the next morning

Watching the fog lift to reveal the Baisilca San Francesco

Visiting the parmigianno regianno factory in Parma

Seeing opera at La Scala and La Fenice

I had a very wonderful two trips to Italy in 2007.

Seeing my mothers expression when she saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time. This was her first trip overseas, so it was even more special.

Saying "I do" during our renewal of vows ceremony at the American Church in Paris.

After 20 years, I felt my warranty might be running out, so I picked the one best place to renew. Paris is my wife's favorite city, and she is a glass artist. The American Church in Paris has the only Tiffany windows in Europe; a French national treasure, and the minister was a wonder.

She looked radiant, and I felt blessed. A special moment.

:-)

>What was your single favorite European travel moment for 2007?

My Lady Wife says:
Dinner at Es Zimmer in Salzburg.

I say:
My first taste of Pinot Gris at the Schwendi in Kientzheim. (Compare it to having a glass of milk fresh from the cow.)

We both agree that stepping out onto the balcony of our room (Vanilla) at the Schreier in Lindau was quite a treat.

((I))

PS,

Driving through the woods along the D417 and suddenly coming out into the sun and seeing the Munster valley spread out before us.

Best memories-

The BBC tour and watching a taping of Jonathon Ross.

Touring the Fuller's brewery w/microbrewers from Belgium and the free tasting afterwards. Yum.

Seeing the Yorkshire countryside for the first time on my journey from York. Staying in my little flat in York and the view of Holy Trinity churchyard from the lounge window.

The authentic Italian food at a little restaurant in Cardiff. Seeing the Millenium Centre and waterall..Doctor Who geek here.

Traveling in WT+ after having flown BA coach for many years.

Coleen- would you mind sharing with me the name of that fabulous place you stayed in Montepulciano? And any contact info you have?

THANKS!
Paula
[email protected]

Walking "into" a contrada feast day parade in Siena -- the medieval costumes, the festivity, the crowd singing...

This is such a difficult question! If you'd said "favorite experience" I probably would have said bicycling all around Amsterdam (such fun and such nice scenery), but because you said "moment" I'm going to say that it was sitting at a little covered table at a tiny restaurant in Orvieto, sipping some Orvieto Classico while gazing at the Duomo and watching storm clouds blow over. (And the best part was having Orvieto pretty much to ourselves even though it was in early June - the thunderstorm had kept most of the tourists away, I suppose, but it ended up being a beautiful day after it blew over.)

This a great thread and it makes me want to click on all of your names to read trip reports!
Mine was very simple and only sort of travel related. We moved to the UK this summer. Our first overnight trip away from our new house was up to Edinburgh. It's a pretty fun city and we had a good time. We drove to and from and that was pretty crazy. But, my favorite moment was on the way home, coming around the corner of my street and realizing that I was home, but that home was here! I get to live here! I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. Since then I've been to Paris twice and Rome once -- each time the plane touches down in London I think -- I get to live here!
Now, as I read all of your posts I think -- those are all so close! I can go there too! Thank you.

Being proposed to in the Villa Borghese. I well up when I think about it!

How about one per trip or country? If just one...first evening in Stockholm the weather was lovely when I walked down to the waterfront, got an ice cream cone, and then a band struck up on the bandstand. Watching the beautiful colors of the summer sunset on the buildings, seeing the water, listening to the music, eating an ice cream...I'm sure I was grinning ear to ear. Had to telephone my husband back in the US to tell him what he was missing.

Visiting the Evangelische Kirche in Tagerwilen, Switzerland, the church where my grandparents were married in 1849. We were given the history of the church (started as a convent in 700) and a tour which included the bell tower. We also received a copy of the church registry page with their names on it, and a copy of their civil wedding certificate.

Our trip to England was our first European trip.

It's hard to pick out just one moment, but some highlights were having a pint at The Eagle and Child, J.R.R. Tolkien's favorite pub in Oxford; looking out over the landscape at Conwy Castle in Wales; having a lovely anniversary dinner at The Bell at Skenfrith in Wales; and visiting Jane Austen's house in Chawton.

Lee Ann

Drinking prosecco at an outdoor table facing the Pantheon in Rome.

Mine would have to be while walking the pre-dawn streets of Rome. It was just so amazing watching the sunrise over the city. I was able to come away with this

www.pbase.com/trsw/image/88729210

Tom

Walking home to our hotel in Paris, in April at 1 AM. We are two ladies 65 and 77. It was great weather, great food and lots of local churches to visit leasurly.

We had a wonderful week.

Not really a "moment" but my favorite memory from last years travels was walking around various Spanish cities (Salamanca, Segovia, Toledo, etc) early in the morning and seeing all those little tiny black birds that swoop around church towers and other high places, mostly at dawn and dusk. I've noticed them in many other European locations, but it seemed in Spain there were more of them. Now when I look at my photos and I see tiny black specs it brings me back to the way the air felt and smelled and sounded on those early morning walks.

Being invited to our landlord's apartment upstairs from our rental in Rome - warm enough to sit on her rooftop terrace and watch some fireworks, drinking wine, eating olives and crostini she had prepared.

She grew up in Sicily. We talked about joining her there sometime at her family's villa!

I felt like Sally Field getting the Oscar "YOu like us, you really like us!"

Great pic, Tom.

Love the bird on the statue.

((I))

The "Stroll" begins in ernest about dusk along Paseo de La Concha (a promenade along the beach with gardens). Donostia/San Sebastian is magical with families and lovers all dressed in attractive clothing as if going out to dinner (which they probably were). My destination was the Pinchos trail in the Parte Vieta (old town). It is hard to explain the ambience of the "stroll". Group happiness? I've never been to a place like it.

I can't narrow it to only one, but it is between the following 3 choices.

1/Switzerland - standing outside in the snow on an absolutely perfect day at Jungfraujoch.

2/Santorini, Greece - Hiking up to the top of the volcano and looking out over the beautiful water.

3/Venice, Italy - Sitting up in the front seat on the vaporretto going up the Grand Canal, towards the Piazzale Roma one very early morning (Unfortunately, to catch my transportation to the airport for the flight home :-( )

Yes, it is the time of year to reflect and I have been doing that too. We have been traveling all over Europe for the last 15 months so there is sooooo much to reflect on and hard to narrow it down to one moment.

We did a romantic classical journey this year, focusing primarily on a Hellenic Odyssey, Moorish adventure and Ottoman sweep for my child who is a Homer & Greek Myth lover & dreams of being an archeologist.

I am still absolutely astounded by what we saw & the people we met in places like Knossos, Ephesus,Cappadocia,Parthenon,Pompeii,Santorini,Del phi, Pamukkale, Troy and Pergamum.

We also loved Venice,Prague,Dubrovic,Salzburg,Florence and Umbria, but the most ancient sites still reverberate intensely.

The one-of-kind moment that really blew our minds, that we will never forget, happened just a short flight away from Europe. My 6yo daughter rode in by camel to the Sahara desert and did a violin concert for 50 Berber kids & bought them healthy food as a treat.

http://www.soultravelers3.com/blog/3...6C3A1171F.html

It meant so much to my daughter and these kids, all under 7 who never saw a violin and live with no running water, very simply. They had learned some French songs to sing as she entered. There was so much love,joy and warmth it made me cry.

Ok, it is not techniquely Europe, but Africa ( yet part of our European tour), so I will narrow it down to two other priceless moments.

We spent over 45 days in Croatia and by pure chance, we kept bumping into a very sweet film crew and major star from Japan, all over the country. We became quite fond of each other and they ended up putting my daughter in the film!!

http://www.soultravelers3.com/blog/3...6C3A1171F.html

What are the chances? Sweet readers of our blog in Japan let us know that it aired with my daughter in the opening shot. Small world.

Another more personal highlight was when my husbands father and sister came to visit us in our small Andalucian Spanish village for his 80th birthday.

They are Spaniards who had never been to Spain, so sharing it with three generations was an emotional highlight from visiting Spain's oldest bullring, to our Octogenarian even getting up on an Andalucian horse!

http://www.soultravelers3.com/blog/C...0627C5AAC.html

It has been an incredible year!!

Bastille Day in St. Aubin Sur Mer with our son. French Blue Angels overhead spewing red white and blue vapors. A block long parade of local little girls twirling batons and the entire village watching a pretty decent fireworks display at the local park. We felt French.

Now I know what I'm doing with my afternoon at work (sllloooowwww)... wandering through WTNow's website!

I had to read through my trip report to figure out a single memory. And the winner is:

Arriving in Cinqueterre just before sunset in the off season with no reservations, using a bottle of wine to kill time waiting for the next train to Vernazza, riding PAST Vernazza because we couldn't open the train door, wandering through Vernazza, finally finding a hotel with a room up a thousand steps, and then the best dinner of the trip in the hotel's restaurant.

Okay, not really a moment, but still the best memory.

Here's to 2007 - can't wait to see what 2008 brings!

>My 6yo daughter rode in by camel to the Sahara desert and did a violin concert for 50 Berber kids & bought them healthy food as a treat..... They had learned some French songs to sing as she entered.<

That's a keeper, WT.

((I))

We splurged and spent a week in Paris for our 25th anniversary at our favorite hotel. We had dinner in the restaurant and all the staff stopped by the table over the evening to congratulate us. The other favorite memory of the year is standing in Monet's bedroom looking out at a rain shower in his garden at Giverny. Luckily it was sunny again when we left the house.

Looking out our window in the Albergo del Senato in Rome and feeling like you could touch the Pantheon.

What a great hotel in Rome.

We decided on an "off the beaten path" trip in Germany this year.
There were no single favorite stunning moments; just a series of simple pleasures. Perfect.

Hard to choose for me. But I guess if I had to choose, it would be the moment she noticed I had ordered pigs feet for dinner our first night there, which also happened to be her birthday (the trip was her birthday present). It is our culture's tradition to eat pigs feet in celebration of a loved one's birthday to ensure a long and healthy life, but I had ordered it because I had a strange craving for pigs feet. Clearly we're lapsed in this tradition, since I didn't know about it. My mom was thrilled, and even had a little bit of it.

There is a tie for the close second between the dinner cruise on the Seine and her seeing the Notre Dame.

Paris was our only European trip this year. We'll correct that in 2008, I hope. Exchange rates be darned! :D

PS- there were some great and amazingly awesome moments everyone had in 2007. Hope everyone has more in 2008!

This year one of my favorite travel moments was sitting in the late afternoon sun in Riomaggiore on the Cinque Terre. We were at a cliffside bar/cafe named Bar & Vini drinking local wine and eating chocolate cake with our fingers. The place was empty except for us and there was a gentle breeze and life was good. We let a few of our trains go by before we caught one to go back to Santa Margherita Ligure.

Our family had a wonderful one-week stay in Rome earlier this year. Hard to pick out any one best moment but a few that stand out as special:

Standing with my husband by the illuminated Teatro Marcello the first night we arrived. (We were staying at an apartment I had chosen on Via della Reginella in the ghetto area and had explored the area to the north of the apartment that afternoon. My husband went out for a walk before dinner and came racing back --up several flights of stairs--to announce we were right around the corner from amazing ruins which I had to see right away)

Looking out over the forum from the Farnese Gardens (a beautiful view and especially wonderful to us because we were escaping a Vt. winter and loved the orange trees, flowers, etc)

Watching my son discover and fall in love with the Pantheon and the Piazza della Rotunda. He had been excited about seeing the Forum and Colisseum but had not realized how amazing the Pantheon is.

Sitting by the obelisk in the almost-empty St. Peter's square for about half an hour as dusk turned to night, and watching the lights go on (this was totally unplanned--we were just killing time between our tour of the church and a dinner reservation with friends)

Walking back and forth across the Isola Tiberina from the ghetto to Trastevere in the evenings and listening to the sax player who regularly played there on the Ponte
Fabrico.

Wow, such amazing moments. Great thread Missypie!

I too have had difficulty narrowing it down. But if I had to pick, I would have to say:
While staying in Monterosso in the Cinque Terre, we stumbled upon a demonstration of a local italian woman preparing pasta from scratch. Her expert handling of the flour and eventually the dough was just amazing. You could tell she'd probably done it a million times.

It was one of those unplanned moments, and we weren't even part of the group, but they all welcomed us. Very cool.

H

While on a bike trip through Austria, our favorite moments were when we finally found a place to eat or, after riding around and around and up the hill to the town, we found our hotel for the night.

It was so sweet knowing we'd reached our destination and it was time to relax.

Visiting the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam for the first time. When I walked into the gallery with the Sunflowers and other Arles period canvases, I had to sit down, I felt so giddy.

Second place: Going back to Auvers-sur-Oise.

Special to me this year was the view from the balcony of our hotel in Assissi looking down on St. Francis' Basilica and out on the landscape, and then later, after dinner, sitting on the wall around the fountain in the town center talking with my niece and just enjoying the peace and quiet.

The opera in Budapest.

Omero restaurant in the hills above Florence on a sultry June evening. Second time to Florence for me, first for my wife. A lovely meal combined with enjoyable company in a wonderful locale made for a singularly memorable evening.

The Firenze bug's bitten my wife as hard as it's bitten me.

Ok you guys you have me almost wishing our vacation was in Europe instead of Asia this year. We did have a wonderful time but my heart is in Europe.In 06 we went to Paris,Cyprus & Turkey for my 60th. The highlight was sleeping in a cave hotel in Cappadocia and going on a hot air baloon ride.I am not anearly raiser but this was an incredable day.
Next year back to Europe-Portugal and the year after the Venice area and Budapest-great subject-Chris