More Than A Common Trip

by Ivete dos Santos

At first, our vacation was going to be a car trip from Sarasota to San Francisco. My husband and I had spent a couple of weeks planning this trip when I suddenly asked him why not go to Europe instead. At that moment, he and my children were reluctant, but after a few days the whole family was involved with this idea.

We planned each detail carefully. My husband decided to take a family cruise as well, which was a great idea, because our children would meet other teenagers. The trip was planned, the luggage was packed; Europe, here we go! We began our trip in Prague, a beautiful and colorful city, with a lot of bridges, historical monuments, and my two friends Eliska and Lucie, very good hostesses, who introduced us to some delicious typical Czech food.

After three days in Prague, visiting museums, castles, churches, good restaurants, or just walking around, we took a train to Budapest, an amazing city with its history, good food, well preserved monuments, and nice people. If we had had more time, we would have stayed there for a few more days; however, our River Cruise was waiting for us – a splendid ship, excellent food, nice and efficient crew, wonderful tours, in which the organizers mixed not only cultural, but fun activities as well.
We visited the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, where I saw Dutch soccer team defeat Brazil, while my family was having fun rafting. We went to Vienna, an impressive city, with amazing palaces, monuments and churches. I really loved such a historical city. We visited the beautiful Salzburg, the stage of the story The Sound of Music. We also visited Durnstein, a small but not less important city. We rode a bike from this city to Krems, having The Danube River and the mountains as scenery. After that, we continued our trip to Passau, through the Wachau Valley, one of the most beautiful views I’ve seen in Europe. We finished our cruise in Regersburg. In Munich, we took a train to Venice, Italy, a very impressive and romantic city, with its Canals, San Marco Square, etc. Two days there and with a rented car, we went to Cinqueterre, a harmonic combination between the sea and the hill, with breathtaking views. No museums, no churches, but the sea. Swimming was a refreshing activity in those hot sunny days. Two days there and we went to Tuscany: Florence, Siena, San Giminiano, Cortona (city of the movie Under the Tuscan Sun), Arezzo, which city was set a part of the movie The Life is Beautiful, etc. Each corner had a lot of history and culture, good food, and the unforgettable sunset that followed us amid the roads.

Finally, we went to Rome, an open sky museum city, where, if you liberate your imagination, you can be transported through time and guess what really happened with Julius Cesar and others emperors in those times, the Vatican and its Sistine Chapel, the coins and a wish in the Trevi Fountain…every place worthy of a visit.

Definitely, it was much more than a vacation trip. I am sure that we learned a lot during the month we spent in Europe, and it was a lesson for the rest of our lives.