Hello! This is Jill again… Happy Birthday to my Mom & Dad! I hope you both had wonderful birthdays and I am so glad I got to spend your special day with you!

I hope everyone is doing well. I am finally back in London from my month long trip to Italy. If you read the last update, you will remember that while I was writing it my dad was on his way to London. He arrived safely, but with no sleep. Once he got back to our place he conked out for about four hours. If you have never made such a long trip like this, you just can’t imagine how exhausting it is – especially for those of us that can’t get comfortable on a plane!

The next day we all took a trip to Southampton and Bournemouth. Both cities are on the southern coast of England – about a 1 ½ hour train ride from London. The Mayflower and Titanic both sailed out of Southampton, so that was a neat place to visit. We spent most of our time walking around the High Street in the center of town - most of Southampton’s port is industrial. We had met a young couple in a Southampton Starbucks and they really encouraged us to make a visit to Bournemouth…so we did. The train ride from Southampton was only about 20 minutes. It was a nice coastal town with an arcade on the pier, speed boat rides, and a boardwalk along the beach. The park and flowers along the streets were absolutely beautiful.

My dad had to start off his day with a coffee at his favorite café up the hill from our house. I think a coffee in the morning makes him smarter…what do you think daddy? When it is warm, they open all the doors on the front and slide them down so they can bring out all the tables and chairs onto the sidewalk. As the days passed, it got cooler and cooler so we had to start moving farther and farther inside the café. When he first arrived, I was wearing short sleeves and shorts, and by the end of the week I was wearing pants and a jacket. England wouldn’t be the same without its weather – at least it gives everyone something to talk about. My dad thought it felt like fall and I thought some days felt like winter – and let me remind you, this was August!

Sunday, August 6th was my dad’s birthday. I made reservations at one of our local pubs in Richmond, The White Horse, which serves the best Sunday Roast. I think my dad really enjoyed it! After lunch, we had some fun swinging in the playground by the pub before heading out to the largest Sunday market in London – Camden Market. Later on, we went down to Leicester Square and sat outside in the square and had a drink. My dad ordered a wonderful iced tea. Let me remind you how hard it is to find iced tea in Britain…almost impossible (usually only hot tea)! After the tea, we walked through Piccadilly Circus and then on to Bodean’s BBQ restaurant where we had some outstanding ribs! I hope my dad had a birthday never to forget!

My dad also got to go inside and tour Buckingham Palace. He is our only visitor that has been able to do this, and he really enjoyed it! During the tour, he met a very nice Polish woman who is an English Professor at a University in Poland. Buck House is only open a few weeks out of the year while the Queen is staying in Scotland at another one of her residences (Holyrood Palace). It is definitely something not to be missed if you are ever here while it’s open to the public.

My dad and I spent one morning walking in Richmond Park. He was finally able to see all the deer that I have been talking about over the past three years. We saw at least 100 deer that morning. And it wouldn’t have been a normal trip to London if my dad didn’t buy a pair of shoes at Aldo! Thanks for my first pair of Aldo’s!

We also took a trip to Windsor and Eton Riverside – about a 30 minute train ride from Richmond. We walked around Windsor Castle and the small village surrounding the castle grounds. That night we met Brad down at Stein’s German Restaurant & Beer Garden on the river in Richmond. I think this might have been one of my dad’s favorite meals since he arrived in London. We ordered a HUGE platter of sausage, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and a bowl of pan fried potatoes. I will have to agree…it was excellent! The following day we went to Portobello Market – the best market in London! It tried to rain a few times, but all in all it was a nice day out.

Liverpool, England:
While in England, we also took a trip to Liverpool (Home of the Beatles). We took Virgin Trains from London and arrived in Liverpool 3 ½ hours later. We had lunch at the Pump House and toured the Beatles Story Museum in the Albert Docks before getting on the Magical Mystery tour bus. This is an awesome tour! Brad and I had already done this before and I was excited to get to do it again. We were able to see ALL the Beatles landmarks - their houses, schools, and we even walked down Penny Lane. The tour guide was outstanding - very knowledgeable and funny!

It was very cold there that day! It felt like December, but Liverpool is always pretty cold all year round. It sure was a change for my dad since it was about 100 degrees when he left Mobile. We made a stop at The Cavern Club where the Beatles often played, and we also managed to find a Nando’s restaurant for dinner before catching the train back to London.

I guess you all know about the terror plot that was stopped in London a few weeks ago. This happened at the worse possible time - right before my dad and I had a flight to France and Brad was to fly home for his Fantasy Football weekend. Many flights were canceled for days and days, and the airports were a total mess!!! At the last minute, Brad canceled his trip to the States. But my dad and I already had plans to go to France and Italy, so we had to go on with it.

French Riviera (Nice, Monaco & Cannes):
My dad and I woke up early Sunday morning to get to Gatwick Airport for our flight to Nice, France. Little did we know what was in store for us that day! I had checked the EasyJet Airlines website before we left, and it said that they would be running a complete flight schedule. I checked again before we left our flat to make sure our flight was on schedule, and it was. The website also said for all passengers to arrive three hours before departure for an early check-in. After all of the problems that had happened earlier in the week, we were still very optimistic that our flight was going to take off without a hitch.

We arrived at the airport about 3 hours before our scheduled departure. You would not believe the people in Gatwick!!! It was so packed – not an empty space in sight. When we finally got to the EasyJet check-in counter, we were informed that check-in would not start until 2 ½ hours before the flight. What a mess – we were like sardines in a can. Two and a half hours before departure there was no open counter to check us in. Five minutes later, nothing - ten minutes later my dad overheard someone saying their flight was canceled, so he decided to go ask what the problem was. The lady at the counter tells him that our flight was CANCELED!!! What?!? We just couldn’t believe what we were hearing – but it was the 13th… We were then told to go to the EasyJet help desk to find out what other options we had. As it turns out, we didn’t have any options! EasyJet couldn’t help AT ALL – what they call their help desk was pointless! They had no other flights we could get on and their only suggestion was for us to go upstairs to the Internet Café and look for other flights on our own. We couldn’t believe it! My dad and I had no idea what to do. We had a full week and a half of holiday scheduled, and we had to find a way to get to France before our trip got too far off schedule.

If you had seen the airport, you would have known that another flight was not even an option. We went upstairs to the Internet café hoping to book the Eurostar train to Paris, but the Eurostar website would not even display. I pulled up the Eurorail site, but it would not let me book any train journeys for a departure on the same day. In the mean time, my dad had been on the phone on hold with Eurorail. We finally got through and booked the Eurostar leaving out at about 2pm that day.

We didn’t have much time to get from the airport to our train in London Waterloo, so we started moving right away. Once we got to Waterloo, the Eurostar terminal was mass chaos!!! I guess everyone had the same idea after their flights were canceled. After we waited in a long line to get the tickets, the man behind the counter proceeds to tell us that he has no record of our reservations. After a few minutes of panic, he seemed to find the reservation – thank goodness! We had just a few minutes before we had to go through security and board the train, so we bought a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts to help us get through the rest of the day. We needed all the help we could get!

Once we arrived in Paris, we had to find the quickest and best way to get to Nice (or anywhere close in the south of France). We went to the ticket counter to find out our options, and it turns out that we only had one option - take a sleeper train from Paris to Nice that left at 9pm and took 10 ½ hours. We booked it! We did meet a couple of nice blokes (guys) in the Paris train station - Sam was from Tallahassee and Mickey was from Argentina. We had a nice chat as we tried to keep our mind off of the night that was ahead of us.

Eventually it was time to board what we called the “troop train.” If you would have seen this train, you would have thought that you were a service man in the Second World War. There were many compartments (called berths) throughout the train, and in each berth there were six bunk beds (three high on each side). There were no places for luggage, no bedding, and no pillows. The toilet was a short walk down the hall. If you looked down the toilet, there was a big hole and you could see right down to the track!

Believe it or not, the night started to get better and better. Our roommates were a family from Poole, England – believe me, it could have been A LOT worse. They were very friendly and we felt pleased to be paired with them. It turns out that they had missed our same flight out of London and taken the same train – and we ended up on the same overnight sleeper in the same berth! WOW!

The two kids got the two top bunks, the mom and dad got the two middle bunks, and my dad and I got the two lower bunks. We had to put our luggage on the bunks so we had no room to stretch out. And the bunks might as well been made out of bricks – they were SO hard!

We were about 45 minutes late leaving, and we finally found out it was because we were waiting on the lady to distribute our bedding, pillows and bottled water! Not knowing we were going to be given all of this, we had already pulled out clothes from our suitcases to cover up with and roll up for a pillow.

Well, 10 ½ hours later, we arrive in Nice, France. I actually slept ok, but my dad didn’t get much sleep at all! I did have a hip ache the rest of the day…I think it was because I slept on bricks the whole night. The sleeper “troop train” was definitely an experience, but not necessarily one I have to do again!!! I think my dad would agree.

We were now ready to get back on schedule. We took a taxi straight to the hotel so we could shower, brush our teeth, etc. After we cleaned up, we picked up our Leon rental car and headed straight for Monaco. It was a beautiful ride along the coast – just as I remember from the first time Brad and I were there. Once in Monaco, we had a nice lunch with a great view overlooking the Mediterranean Sea with many huge yachts. Huge is an understatement… We saw one yacht that was so big it had a helicopter on the top deck.

You can’t experience Monaco with out going to the Monte Carlo Casino (most famous casino in the world) – so we did. We also sat outside of the casino at a café and had a wonderful chocolate ice cream sundae as we watched all the people and cars pass by. The money in that town is just over flowing!

We had a great day in Monaco and my dad even walked away up 21 Euros. We took the car back to the hotel in Nice and walked down the Promenade. It was a nice 30-minute walk along the beach to the Old Town village of Nice. It was well worth the walk though! We had a great dinner – I think it was the best sea bass my dad has ever had!

The next day, we drove west towards Cannes. We drove for about two hours along the coast through many small towns - one of our favorite towns was Antibes. Once we got into Cannes it was very tricky finding a parking space. We had a steak lunch (not quite sure what kind of meat it was) and we had just enough time to walk around the town and beachfront before heading back to Nice to catch our train to Milan that night.

Italy (Milan, Venice, Florence, Pisa & Rome):
The train ride from Nice to Milan was beautiful! I recommend this train trip to everyone. The train follows the Mediterranean Sea the whole way until about an hour before reaching Milan. We had a lot of fun on this train journey. We met a couple of girls and a guy from Italy. They didn’t speak English much at all. The guy knew the most, so he was able to translate some. But he was still hard to understand. One of the girls was so helpful – she wrote out a big list of things to see and visit in Milan.

Once we arrived in Milan the guy helped us get a taxi to our hotel, but when he left, the driver told us it was going to be 30 - 35 Euros. What? The hotel was only about 5 or 10 minutes away! We decided to take the Metro for two Euros. When we got down to the Metro, the guy and two girls were down there buying tickets. We told them how much it was going to be for the taxi and they couldn’t believe it either. The next thing I know they are handing over their Metro tickets and showing us the way. We tried to pay them back, but they would have none of that. That was a great trip and we enjoyed meeting such nice people!

Our only schedule in Milan was to shop! What a fun day this was going to be… We got up the next morning and set out for something we could spend money on. My dad found two nice shirts and I found some awesome designer shoes that my dad bought for me! They are awesome! Thank you Daddy! I am looking forward to wearing them. We had a really good pizza before heading to the train station to catch our train for Venice that night.

Milan to Venice was about a 3 ½ hour train ride. On this train journey we met people from Australia, Canada, and New York City. It was pretty late when we got to Venice, but we were starving. We took the water taxi to our hotel. What an awesome hotel! We were right in the middle of everything. The only bad part was that we had to get our luggage over all of the steps of the Rialto Bridge. Whew! That was rough! When we got to the hotel, they informed us that there was no elevator and that we were on the fourth floor. O dear! This was something we had to prepare for… Maybe we would have energy for this task once we got some food into our system. The guy in the hotel sent us to a restaurant around the corner from the hotel. He told us to tell the owner that one of his friends sent us. Restaurant Paradiso was wonderful!!! The olive bread was out of this world. My dad had wonderful spaghetti with clams, and I had the crab ravioli. They even brought Venetian cookies after the meal on the house.

The next day we took a private taxi boat to the island of Murano where we toured the glass factory. At the beginning of the tour, we watched a demonstration of the glass master making and blowing the glass. In just a few minutes, he had made a beautiful horse that stood up on his hind legs and tail – this was amazing! My dad bought one for both of us. After walking around Murano, we took a boat to Burano. Burano is an island where lace is made. We walked around all the colorful houses, had a good pizza, and bought some lace towels and handkerchiefs. That night we had another outstanding meal suggested by the hotel staff again (sea bass).

We spent most of the next day shopping and walking around Venice. It is very easy to get lost in all the alleyways around St. Mark’s Square. We also took a gondola ride that afternoon before returning back to the restaurant where we ate the first night. The next morning we had to get up very early to make our 8am train to Florence. That meant we had to schedule some extra time to get our luggage down four flights of steps and over the Rialto Bridge again.

The next morning we were off to Florence. It took us about three hours to get there. Once we got checked in our hotel, we started off for the leather market. It was really a large market! The rest of the day we walked around the city. We saw a family staring down at something off of a bridge – it was some kind of large rat! My dad started talking to the lady and it turns out that she is from Biloxi, Mississippi. What a small world! That night we had another awesome dinner at Nanamuta (a fabulous Tuscan restaurant).

The next day we took a day trip to Pisa where my dad tried to straighten up the leaning tower… We also rented a double bike that was covered with a canopy. We had never seen anything like it. We rented one and rode around the town for a while. It was a lot of fun, but very hard work! My dad didn’t seem to think it was as hard to get it moving as I did – I must have been in the tough seat! After we had a great hotdog with grilled onions, we caught a train back to Florence to get our luggage and get on another train to Rome.

Florence to Rome only takes about one and a half hours, so this was a nice short trip. We didn’t get to Rome until late Sunday night, and the Metro was down due to track work. We decided to take a bus to get as close as we could to our hotel, and then walk the rest of the way. We found Sam and Mickey at the bus stop (these were the two guys we met in Paris before boarding the sleeper “troop train”). We started catching up on our travels while waiting for the bus. Once the driver opened the doors, we all piled in the bus…about 100 people at once. My dad was validating his ticket when a guy tried to pickpocket him. Sam put his hand on my dad’s pocket trapping the guy’s hand. It just so happens that my dad didn’t have anything it that pocket so there was nothing for the pickpocket guy to get. When he pulled his hand out of my dad’s pocket, he made his way to the back of the bus and sat down. This is unbelievable! I just want to know what in the world they think they are doing! Italy is a big breeding ground for pickpockets, so you pretty much have to watch your every move…what a shame! Once we got out of the bus, we walked and walked and walked before we finally made it to our hotel at about 12:30am.

Over the next few days we went to St. Peters, toured the Vatican and Sistine Chapel, went inside the Colosseum, saw the Trevi Fountain, checked out the Pantheon, and took an open-top bus tour around the city. I wonder how much money we spent on the flavored ice drinks around Italy – it was probably a small fortune. I think my dad was pretty knackered (tired) by the end of his trip, and so was I. We probably walked over 100 miles since he arrived in London three weeks ago.

My dad flew out of Rome to go home, and within 45 minutes my mom and Mike flew into Rome. I hated to see my dad go, but I was happy to see my mom arrive!

Once my mom and Mike got their luggage, we took a taxi back to the hotel. It worked out great because we stayed in the same hotel as the one my dad and I had stayed in - I didn’t have to pack and bring everything with me to the airport. They were so exhausted - it was about 5am their time and they had not gotten any sleep. They decided to take a nap, and this didn’t bother me a bit considering I had not had that much sleep since I left London (and especially not the night before because we had to get up so early to get to the airport).

When we finally woke up that afternoon, we were all craving an Old Bridge gelato. On the way back from the airport we had passed Old Bridge and the driver told us that this was the best gelato in Rome! Gelato is basically a light homemade ice cream. We all got a cup with three flavors. Coconut was the best with the cherry and caramel in a close race for second. As we ate our gelato, we walked around Vatican City. My mom and Mike visited St. Peter’s while I waited outside. We walked around Rome the rest of the evening, then went to a restaurant across from our hotel - Casanova. We had an incredible platter of prosciutto (ham) and mozzarella with pizza bread.

My mom and Mike had planned to wake up bright and early the next morning so they could get in line for the Vatican Museum (there is always an extremely long line to get in - sometimes it takes hours). Well, this didn’t happen. My mom was so exhausted she wasn’t able to roll out of bed until almost 11am. We decided to go ahead and visit the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon. That night we had dinner in the Trastevere district. This area comes alive at night and has many restaurants, a market, street vendors, and street performers.

I got to sleep in the next day while they went and toured the Vatican and Sistine Chapel. We met up later at Old Bridge Gelato…Yum! That afternoon we rode the open-top bus for a tour throughout Roma. It was nice to take these tours because it allowed us to get off of our feet for a good few hours. We rode it for the entire tour - and then some more to get us back to the area around the Spanish Steps. This is where all the great shops are… We shopped around a little before heading back to another restaurant around our hotel for dinner.

We had one full day left in Rome and guess what my mom was ready to do? Shop! Her birthday was coming up so she set out for a few presents… She sure did find some. She got two purses and a pair of sunglasses! That lucky cat! I have to admit, it sure was nice having a glass of champagne in Fendi.

The next morning we were off to Florence. We only had one day in Florence so we had to see as much as we could see at a fast pace. The good thing is that Florence is not very big, so it can easily be done. We walked through town and over the Ponte Vecchio Bridge to the other side of the city. A guy in our hotel told us to visit Piazza de Michelangelo. The piazza is on the top of a hill where there are beautiful views over the city of Florence. It was definitely a hike to the top, but well worth the visit once we got up there and saw the view. We sat down at a café up there to relax and had an ice drink and a gelato. Not quite as good as Old Bridge, but nice to have something cold after the walk to get up there.

We started heading down the hill and right when we got to the bottom, a shower came so we huddled under an arched monument and waited for the storm to blow over. Once it passed, my mom and I headed for the shops while Mike went to visit a church and a museum. We met back up at the hotel later that afternoon to regroup before dinner. We had reservations that night at Nanamuta – this was the Tuscan restaurant I went to with my dad. Delicious! My mom didn’t like the long walk to the restaurant, but I think she thought it was worth it after she enjoyed the wonderful meal!

The next morning we were off to Venice! I absolutely love Venice and I was for sure my mom was going to like it as much as I do. It just so happened that we were staying in the same hotel that my dad and I stayed in the week before - this was great because I loved the hotel, but you know what this meant… I had to lug my luggage over the Rialto Bridge again! Luckily, there was a porter to handle our luggage this time (good thing since we were staying on the 4th floor again). This was all like deja vu!

We took a private water taxi to Murano, the island with the Glass Factory. We saw a demonstration from the glass master and took a tour of the factory before heading back to Venice. We got off of the boat at St. Mark’s Square and walked around all of the shops. That night we went to Restaurant Paradiso. I think the waiters are starting to wonder if I live in these cities… This is my third time to eat at this restaurant in about two weeks. It sure is good though – I’m craving their crab ravioli and spaghetti with clams right now!

Tuesday, August 29th was my mom’s birthday. We were still in Venice so that was an awesome place to be on her birthday. The main thing she wanted to do on her birthday was walk around the island and shop…so that is what we did - with no complaints from me! I know you probably won’t believe it, but she managed to find another purse. It just so happened that I got a nice surprise on her birthday too - she bought me a very nice wallet!!! I love it! Thank you Mama! That night we had a great dinner; my mom and I split a large filleted sea bass – it was out of this world!

So let me remind you… All in all, she got four purses, a pair of sunglasses, and many other things. She sure did rack up with gifts along with spending a great birthday in Italy! I was glad to be able to spend this day with her and I hope she had an awesome day!

I had a wonderful time in Italy with my parents! The weather was outstanding – we couldn’t have asked for anything better. I am just very thankful that we all made it back home safe after all the fun travels we had!!!

Look out for the next update in a few weeks. Brad met me in Italy after my mom and Mike left, and he is going to write about our trip (Pompeii, Mount Vesuvius, Sorrento, Capri, Positano, Tuscany, and Lake Como). This concludes my month of living in Italy.

Other Stuff:
I think this will be the first year in over 12 years that Brad and I will not be able to make it to any Alabama football games. We have been able to listen to them over the internet though. Roll Tide!

As you can imagine, Brad is just thrilled that football season has started. Fantasy Football is a big thing in our flat. He was able to buy the NFL football pass on opening weekend over the internet from Yahoo. It is only available to certain countries (not the USA) and he was able to flip between all of the games. The only downside is that the screen was pretty small, but it was better than nothing. We did stay up to watch the Manning Bowl (1:15am our time) – I was hoping the Giants were going to pull it off!

Don’t forget to check out all of our updated pictures of Southampton/Bournemouth, my dad’s Europe trip and my mom’s Italy trip! We love you and miss you all! Take care and God bless!