6 days

Day 6 and we are getting very excited. I spent the morning packing and not studying for my final like I should. Oh well.

Top 6 things we like about London:

6: Window Shopping
5: Free Museums
4: Westminster (Westminster Abbey, Parliment, Big Ben, Thames)
3: Trafalgar Square
2: West End Theatre
1: Tower Bridge

Tommorrow:
Top 5 Pieces of Art

7 days

Man the numbers are lying of the calendar!

No further ado:

Top 7 Restaurants in Europe:

7: Hotel Stein Rooftop Cafe (Salzburg, Austria)
6: That Joint in Florence (Florence, Italy)
5: Rice (London, UK)
4: Griechenbeisel (Vienna, Austria)
3: That place in Rome (Rome, Italy)
2: Pizza Express (London, UK)
1: Dristor Kebab (Bucuresti, Romania)

I'm running out of things to say... Don't you hate pants! (Those who understand will laugh, those who don't won't.)

Coming tommorow Top 6 things about London.

8 Days

We have 8 days a week until we come home. (That was a Beatles reference for all of you out there keeping track.) I have one class tomorrow and then an Exam and I am done!

top 8 tourist sights in Europe

8: Trevi Fountain (Rome, Italy)
7: Lake District (Salzburg, Austria)
6: Casa Poporului (Bucuresti, Romania)
5: Ponte Vechio (Florence, Italy)
4: Tower Bridge (London, UK)
3: Westminster Abbey (London, UK)
2: Colosseum (Rome, Italy)
1: Acropolis (Athens, Greece)

Tomorrow top 7 Restaurants in Europe.

9 days

That's right single digits! In honor of single digits we are making a top 9 list of places we want to go that we haven't been. Note to those of you who will call us on the fact that Alayna has been to Paris and I have been to Hawaii we mean places we want to go that we haven't been together.

9: China
8: Goa, India
7: Yellowstone
6: Australia
5: Israel
4: Hawaii
3: Scotland
2: Malaga, Spain
1: Paris, France (the one in Idaho is too boring.)

I finished my last paper today so now I have one exam and I am officially done with my second year of law school. One to go. Alayna says to write something about London so, here's a shocker, its raining!

Back tommorrow with our top 8 tourist sites around europe.

10 days

In homage to our ten remaining days we are planning a series of countdowns, i.e. 10 things today, 9 things tommorrow, etc.
Today the countdown is the top ten places we've visited during the course of our marriage.

Alayna's top 10 ------------ ---Nate's top 10

10: New York, NY USA ------- 10: New York, NY USA
9: Rome, Italy ----------------- 9: Pheonix AZ, USA
8: Barcelona, Spain ----------- 8: Athens, Greece
7: Sibiu, Romania ------------- 7: Vienna, Austria
6: Vienna, Austria ------------- 6: Pismo Beach, CA USA
5: Athens, Greece -------------- 5: Brasov, Romania
4: Pismo Beach, CA USA ----- 4: Florence, Italy
3: Salzburg, Austria ----------- 3: Sibiu, Romania
2: Florence, Italy -------------- 2: Salzburg, Austria
1: London, UK ------------------1: London, UK

Coming Tommorrow: top 9 places we hope to visit soon.

11 days

There are only 11 days to will come home!

Aren't we cute!

Salzburg

Nate and I ended our big trip in Salzburg. I had always wanted to do the Sound of Music tour ever since my parents went to Salzburg when I was little. I also had a friend go there earlier in the year and she recommended it as the best place to go for a relaxing weekend and I agree, although Florence is right up there as well.

The highlight is, of course, the Sound of Music tour. They take you on this huge bus with a funny tour guide who knows WAY too much about this musical. This is a picture of the lake district. It was one of the prettiest sights we have seen on our trip. Nate and I are both sort of reliant on the mountains in Utah for directions so it was really comforting to be back in the mountain air. This is the tunnel in Mirabel Gardens where Maria skips and sings with the Von Trapp kids. After a three week trip this was as close to skipping as I could get but I was belting it out, I can assure you. This is a view of the famous Mirabel Gardens and the Palace in the background. Behind me is the fountain where the kids skip and sing (they do that a lot in this movie). The Fortress of Salzburg can be seen behind us in this picture of the statues in Mirabel Gardens.On our last night Nate and I managed to sneak into a very posh rooftop bar even though we looked terminally scruffy. We snagged a prime table and then sat there all night drinking hot chocolate and eating these really good tomato, basil, and mozzarella sandwiches (the only thing on the menu we could afford). It had a fantastic view of the city. It was a great way to end the trip.

16 days until we get home!!!!!! Happy Birthday to my dear little sister Shelby. I love you!!!!!

Vienna

Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed Nate's posts. We have had a busy couple of weeks trying to get everything in order to move back home! Yea!! I am thinking of posting a countdown except that our "borrowed" internet connection is not always reliable enough for daily posts (We are down to 28 days by the way). We are trying to do something fun or new every day to keep from getting to homesick. Today I went to Kensington High Street and bought a new bag for us bring some of our extra stuff home in and then dragged it home in the pouring rain (it does that here in Soggy London Town). Pretty fun, huh?

We still have a few pictures to post from our last trip so bear with us. On our next leg we met up with Nancy and Holly in Vienna. Nate and I were so tired by this point that we were so glad to be able to stay in one place for a few nights in a row. Nate and I planned to go to Vienna for a Moot Court competition that Notre Dame was participating in. We spent a week in this really pretty, clean, and friendly city.

The Austrians are real big on Easter and we were in Vienna the week before so we got in on quite a bit of the celebration. My favorite part was the eggs they sell EVERYWHERE. We went to a market where they had literally thousands of hand painted eggs. No more green and purple dye kits in cocoa cups for me. I think I may try my hand at this. These were some of my favorites. One has an entire and accurate globe motif and the other, in honor of Mozart, I assume, has piano keys and notes. Cool, no?

Nate, Nancy, Holly and I went and saw the symphony (Vivaldi and Handel) and the Ballet (Swan Lake). This is us at the Staatsoper where Swan Lake was. It was a really amazing performance and us girls loved it. Nate was ok most of the time but the prince in tights made him a little uncomfortable and he soothed himself by calling him Captain McCroth-Stuff throughout the entire performance. All in all it was a very good night.

This is a picture of Nate standing in front of the balcony where Hitler made the speech that officially annexed Austria as a member of the Third Reich. This is the Hofsburg palace where the Hapsburg family lived (say that ten times fast). The museum claims to have true pieces of Christ's cross and one of the nails as well (believe what you want about authenticity but I thought it was interesting nonetheless).

This is Nate's team (minus one member who was unfortunately indisposed at such an early hour in the morning- the Irish like their beer). Nate and Martha were arguing that morning and the others were there for moral support. They argued against a Finnish team who did well but Nate sort of mopped the floor with them (whoops) and Martha wasn't half bad either. One of the Finnish girls had that really cool color of silver-blond hair that you only find up in those parts of the world; sort of like Fleur Delacour only more silver. Nate's team won that argument but unfortunately did not move on (the rest of Nate's team couldn't measure up to his rhetorical skills).

This is me and Nate by the Blue Danube, or the Damn Danube as Nancy called it- we had a little trouble finding a place to park by it, causing some frustration. We eventually drove down a path that I am still pretty sure is only for pedestrians and got some really good pictures. Nate and I loved the church in the background (the church of St. Francis of Assisi). We had a really good time with a lot of food and a lot of laughter and several near death experiences involving cars. I would highly recommend Vienna to pretty much anyone.