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Originally Posted by linz06  Thanks so much for the information!!!
We will be doing the Tower of London (although on our own.. the price listed on the Cosmos website is MORE THAN DOUBLE what it costs to just show up and buy your own ticket there, or to buy online before going to skip lines). I also really want to see Hampton Court which will be an extra excursion on our own. I'd also like to take a little trip to stonehenge! I have a good friend who moved to London a year ago and she is packing our itinerary full of things to do while we're there and I'm sure she'll be available to show us around so we'll probably go that route. We're going to be in London an extra day before the trip starts and will be staying with her that night anyway 
I think I would skip the diamond factory thing in Amsterdam as well if it's all about buying diamonds. I've already been hinting at Scott about buying me a diamond for over a year and nothing seems to work  LOL! I've heard Amsterdam is beautiful, and my London friend has already told us we need to go eat at this pancake house with over 200 kinds of pancakes while we're there  So we might do some exploring on our own.
I told Scott that you liked the Rhine cruise so that will probably be something we'll do
After your last post I looked up Mt. Pilatus and we discussed it and we might do that one instead
I absolutely want to go on a gondola in Venice! Did you have to have a bunch of people there with you? Was it crowded?
Scott has already seen everything in Rome but I really want to go to the Vatican! And because I want to go, he'll probably go with me
I really want to go to Monte Carlo too! I already have a dress picked out for that!
We are definitely going to the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe and I'd like to go to Notre Dame... and I definitely want to see Versailles as well! I've also told Scott we're going to the cabaret show.. like you said, it's expensive, but it's Paris
We booked our flights separately. We found some really cheap flights online and had our travel agent book them. She told us that if we booked the flights through Cosmos they wouldn't have been as cheap, so we trusted her lol. Plus, our return flight is about 9 days after the Cosmos tour ends because we will be doing some backpacking |
That's great to have a friend in London to help plan stuff and get you around! I know the excursions cost a lot more through the company, they are trying to make a profit after all. We had never been to Europe, and didn't have any connections. I would have been lost trying to get around.
Wow, I wish I had known about that pancake restaurant in Amsterdam, that sounds yummy!
I'm not sure if your tour guide will operate the way ours did. We could sign up for things as went. So if you have bad weather, then you may not want to do the Rhine cruise. I talked to someone who went in June. It rained the entire day of her cruise, and they had to sit inside. We just had a perfect day. If you enjoy scenery and passing by castles, it's slow and leisurely.
The gondola ride was 5 or 6 people each. I think to do one with just two people is really expensive. It was about an hour. It was one of those things I always wanted to do!
You will have to tell me all about Monte Carlo, I'm so jealous!
Our tour went around on a city tour at night, and we also had a local guide that did a half day in the morning. That's when we went to the Arc, Eiffel tower. We stopped both times at Notre Dame. Then we went to Versailles in the afternoon.
I told everyone on the way to the cabaret show, they would be topless. No one believed me, and our tour guide just silently smiled on the way there. Of course they were, it was funny.
If you enjoy coffee/espresso. When you are in Rome, go to Caffe Greco. It's the oldest coffee shop in all of Europe. It's soooo good! It's a charming little place, and it's on the street near the bottom of the Spanish steps. We wanted to buy a bag of coffee from there, but ran out of time. We had hoped to buy online when we got home, but they don't sell online. I've regretted that we didn't get that.
I forgot that you are staying 9 extra days. That's great you found cheap tickets!
Eat macaroons and gelato, yummy!