We spent almost a full month in Europe.   We did a lot of it “like a local” renting Airbnb apartments and using all the local transport I desperately avoid back home (I had an all day bus pass in more than one city…scary!)  But, it was inevitable that we would cave to some complete touristy acts once in while…and while we’ve admitted to a few on the blog already, here are a few that didn’t make it into a story quite yet…

-Put a lock on the Love Bridge (2.0)…we had to do it, even if Paris will cut it off in a few weeks!

-(Almost) Watched the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace…we were on the way there and came across the guards and band practicing at the side of the building.  Front row to a near private show and no waiting?  Hello funny hats!

-Watched the cuckoo clock in the Prague square on the hour…but we waited until later in the day so we weren’t quote as bad as this flock!

-Visited the Romeo and Juliet balcony in Verona…although I drew the line at posing for a photo grabbing the breasts on the Juliet statue like the hoards of middle aged females from every tour group crowding the small square.

-Ride a gondola around the Venetian canals…although sadly our gondolier did not serenade us as we went, so my husband took that honor upon himself…and promptly killed the romantic afternoon with his go-to European song choice “Scotty Doesn’t Know”… [Ed. note: This link is NSFW without headphones – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vyj1C8ogtE – but the song is excellent]

And, in the area of full disclosure, here are a couple cheesy tourist things we didn’t do…but we tried!

-Throw a coin in Trevi Fountain so we would one day return to Rome…sadly, the fountain was closed for restoration.

-Drink champagne at the top of the Eiffel Tower…this one hurts a bit still.  We had our tickets ready and did the pretty Seine River cruise at sunset first…and then the tower was closed due to high winds.  We’re still waiting on that refund…