6 Countries, 16 Days.

Last month my 21 year old niece, Samantha, and I grabbed our backpacks and set off on an adventure that took us to France, England, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. The fantastic train system in Europe quickly became our familiar friend. The feeling of just being a nomad with no set schedule, just a basic outline of where we wanted to go and then rolling with it, was incredibly freeing…. and, I must say, amazingly stress-free! And isn't that really the way to enjoy a trip? The point is to get away from the stress, the strife, and completely absorb your new surroundings with a fresh eye and stay in the moment. Further that, three days in to the trip my phone gets cracked in my bag rendering it useless, which oddly (after the 'oh shit' part) was even more liberating! The other key factor here was laughter. Between the two of us, the laughter and joy we shared on this trip was constant. Absolute key. The older I get, the more I realize how important this simple thing is.

So without going in to a philosophical, therapeutic tailspin, let's get into this photo blog. We both took our photography very seriously on this trip. Quite honestly it was hard not to with (to our eyes at least) a photo op every two feet it seemed! That in and of itself was hard though because it was fucking freezing in pretty much every city we went to, which made it challenging to even stand still at times to frame the right shot…. but we suffer for our art!

I'll start here with Paris, where my niece Samantha had just finished up four months of overseas study in industrial design when I arrived. First order of business was crepes from the street vendor (but do we go with the savory eggs and cheese or the sweet Nutella and fruit?!?! These are difficult decisions!)… then of course amazing coffee, baguettes, pain au chocolat, Laduree macaroons… how much bread and pastries can I eat in a day?….. cheese!… jesus, I then begin to realize so much of this trip was about food! But that would have been a tragedy if it wasn't! Food and just good old fashioned exploring.

Please enjoy, I myself had a lot of fun reliving the experience putting this blog together.

Paris, France.

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First latte of the trip and so beautiful! I mean even look at the spoon for chrissake!

Get used to these shots… we have a shoe obsession (fully admit it, no denial) and tend to take photos of our shoes in many different situations…

Loving the Metro signs, older and newer.

Cold and grey (but beautiful to me!) Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées…

Mmmmm, love.

We all know this one.

Have baguette, will travel.

Freezing night time trip to Sacre Coeur in Montmartre. What a sight up on the hill! And yes, we took the stairs (have to work off those pastries somehow.) We also ended up getting an Irish coffee afterward, and I don't know what they made it with but it was like straight up alcohol. It was coffee colored and hot, which was the only sign of any coffee-like substance being in there, but way too much for me!

Puma and the Louvre.

London, England.

Quick Eurostar trip over (or under) the river Thames to spend a weekend with my friend Katja. Having been to London many times I actually didn't take any photos. It wasn't a conscious effort, I guess I just enjoyed seeing it through Samantha's eyes who had never been there before. So I ended up nicking a couple of her photos!

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Me in the trains station having just departed the Eurostar. It was late, everyone had already left so it was empty and this part of the station was actually really fucking cool! Then they kicked us out too….

Ben of Big, Big Ben, have seen it many times, but I love this shot Samantha took.

The Albert Bridge heading back to our flat in Battersea. Apparently it is illuminated by 4,000 lightbulbs.

Luzern, Switzerland.

I think I took the most photos here. It was all just so beautiful and new to me. It also isn't that big of a city so we could walk around and take a lot of it in. We arrived at night (and the first thing I saw was a huge white swan in the river!) so had no idea what was in store for us when we awoke - which was the most beautiful, majestic snow covered mountains surrounding us. We walked everywhere here, just seeing what we could discover and stumble upon next. Again, freezing out, but we did have a little break as one day the sun came out a little (which, aside from London - ironically - was the only time we saw sun on the whole trip!)

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Quick train switch in Basel, before heading to Luzern.

Yep, shoes in Basel.

The most interestingly designed money, the Swiss Franc. I wanted to keep it but…. well, girlfriend gotta eat!

Speaking of… waffeln!

Yes, please!

Our accommodations were a bit…. 'rustic'. (do I need to clarify that this is meant to be a joke?!)

The Lion Monument: Designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen, it commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris, France. (Thanks Wikipedia! Just trying to be a little informative here too..)

Some beautiful stuff.

More bread…

Museum of Art, such a cool building.

Fun with architecture.

Slabs of chocolate, a dream come true!

Making friends with the locals. Actually they were gearing up for the yearly Mardi Gras type carnival which incorporates all of these crazy masks. So many shop windows were decorated - some quite elaborately and creatively.

The bull is real. And it was in a very random place, so much so we actually thought he was fake.. until he turned his head to look at us (there was a fence!)

Where is the fourth finger?

Vintage Mini on a cobblestone street - yes! (I love Minis by the way.)

OK, so we got a little bird obsessed, but they were so much fun to watch and were not afraid of us at all. Cool little dudes! All so beautiful, but I was really loving the little black ducks with the white bill and the little mohawk. We were sort of tripping out at all of the swans too. I was also marveling at the water - crystal clear. Blew me away, but to put in perspective, I grew up just south of Cleveland, Ohio…. the same Cleveland where the Cuyahoga River once caught fire. Yeah. So water in its original, untainted form is (sadly) a marvel to me.

Clear water!