The end!

Highlights:

Pompeii - The city is so well preserved, you can actually see and feel how the people there lived 2,000 years ago.

Venice - Gondola rides really are very romantic if cliche and touristy.

Monte Carlo Masters - We got to see the World #1, #2 and #4 play on clay.

Granada - The town parties late, the Al Hambra is magnificent and the General Life gardens (pronounced "Henerale Leefay") are serene and beautiful.


Learnings:

Europe is F-ing expensive

There are more churches in old European cities than there are shopping malls in Dubai

Lock your checked in luggage

Sometimes you have to pay for using a toilet, even in Europe

Everyone in Europe drives a manual transmission

Almost everyone drives a hatchback

Almost everyone speaks some English and is eager to use it, even in Paris (this is new)

Italian and Spanish are remarkably similar languages

The French discovered a lot of things

When travel blogging, it is best to write an entry every day, otherwise you forget things

Tour groups are not for us, although maybe we'll like them more when we get older

Paris is not a clean city

The Piano was born in Florence

Dante's Divine Comedy was the first book to be written in Italian

The Catholic church has a long history of corruption and hypocricy

Venice stole the body of a "Saint" to compete with the influence of Rome

Venice used to be a vast empire and its downfall was the discovery of a new trade route when Christopher Columbus landed in America

Prostitution is out in the open in Europe


(I will add to this list as I remember more things)