Welcome to Shannon & Jason's Europe 2007 picture collection.  This was our first trip to Europe and we made it count by taking 24 days to get just a little taste of the region. Of those 24 days we spent 14 on a Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door tour while exploring London and parts of Germany on our own before and after the tour. We had a wonderful time on the tour and highly recommend it as it delivered as promised with its small tour group size (only 26 people), loads of free time to find your own special momements, and one hell of a great tour guide to lead us!

We came home with almost 2,000 photos, although you'll be happy to know that we've narrowed those down to just the top 400 or so to show you here on Tabblo—and yes, your welcome.  We've chopped up the trip by country or city into multiple Tabblos and you should see links to the next city or country at the top and/or bottom of all the pages. We decided to use medium so that in addition to photos we can put a story behind what you are seeing. Hope you enjoy and feel free to share your comments.

Day 1: Wake Up in Orlando (5/18/07)

We are off to the Orlando airport at 4:30pm to catch our 8pm direct flight out to London on Virgin Atlantic. Flight over wasn't too bad however I got no sleep at all and Shannon got very little. I would recommend Virgin Atlantic though—as we were well fed and all the alcoholic drinks were free, plus they had a good movie selection.

Day 2: Arrive in London

As mentioned with little to no sleep we land at London Gatwich airport around 9:30am local time, which according to our internal clocks it was actually 4:30am- flight was about 7.5 hours in total. Dazzed and tired we found our way to the Gatwick Express train to take us to the mob scene that was Victoria Station. From there we took the tube to our hotel (Premier Inn Euston) and dropped our luggage off and set off to explore. After grabbing a quick (not so great) lunch at Hamburger Union we did the typical double-decker bus tour in which we saw some of the famous sites like Big Ben, London Eye, and the London Bridge. We also checked out Piccadilly Circus (London version of Times Square) and explored the Tower of London. Had dinner back in Piccadilly Circus at the Spaghetti House which was okay. After being up for 2 days straight with no change of clothes we headed back to the hotel and we were asleep by 10pm.

Day 3: Wake up in London

After sleeping in we made it to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. It was unreal to see all the pagentry that goes into this daily tradition, not to mention the hoards of people. After that we strolled along the palace gardens on the way to the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. This was one of the best museums we've ever visited. The cabinet war rooms were untouched from the time they were used in WWII until opened as a museum in 1984. The Churchill exhibit was very interactive—we learned a ton and it was fun. After spending too much time there I lead us through a Westminister walk that I followed religiously from our Rick Steves' Best of Europe book. While on the walk we saw the horse retiring ceremony for the Queens horses which wasn't too grand, but we saw a lot of poop so hey it wasn't a total loss.

We then came to Trafalgar Square and visited the National Gallery looking at works of Van Gogh, Monet, and Manet.  We were in a rush for dinner so we ate a Chinese buffet in China Town and it was the worst dining experience of our lives. We then hit a Jack the Ripper walking tour which was fun and informative.  On the way back to hotel we hit a pub for our first London pub experience. They had karaoke going so it was funny to hear all the British accents singing all our American songs.

Day 4 - Wake up in London

Took the tube to St. Paul's Cathedral and walked around outside, found out later how important the church was to the people of London during WWII. We then walked across the Millennium Bridge and over to the Globe Theatre where we took a guided tour. We then walked along the lower Thames and then finally took the tube back to Westminster Abbey church where we did a self-guided audio tour that was wonderful—the history of that place is unreal.  Next we went across the street to watch a House of Commons session that takes place in Parliament.

After Parliament we took the tube to Blackfriars stop and checked out a few of ye ole pubs in the area. Decided to get a couple pints and some dinner at Blackfriars Pub. The pub was awesome and we had one our best meals of the entire trip—we both got pies (think chicken pot pies—but bigger & better). After dinner we did an organized pub walk that went around the lower Thames. Had some great beer and learned a lot about London. We then explored some on our own, took our money shot in front of Big Ben at night and headed back to retire.

Day 5 - Wake up in London

Checked out of hotel and headed to Notting Hill, browsed around and found a cool little market. Took tube back to the British Library which has one of the most extensive historical collections in the world. After browsing some of the treasured relics we had lunch in the cafe before heading off to Victoria Station to make Eurostar journey through the Chunnel and on to Paris.

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This is one page in a 12 page series of our Europe 2007 trip. Links to other pages:

London - Paris - Beaune - Swiss Alps - Austria - Venice - Tuscany - Rome - Munich - Weisbaden

Group Pictures - Favorites & Thoughts

Related Links:

Europe Trip Page - Our Family Site