This comprehensive tour encompasses fourteen major sites and follows the Geneva waterfront into the heart the Old Town.  Along the way, you’ll learn how the teachings of John Calvin and John Knox led to Geneva becoming known as the “Protestant Rome”;  find out how the city was once saved by a flying tea kettle; and learn just how the Swiss knife got to be so darn useful.  The tour is capped off with a visit to Geneva’s oldest Cathedral, and it ends in Geneva’s most beautiful park.  This tour is a beautiful walk with plenty of history, characters and interesting facts to keep you entertained from start to finish.

So head for the crossroads of Europe and head to Geneva, Pearl of Switzerland. You have a fabulous guided tour to get you started.

But while old Europe’s well preserved cities are of course quaint, fascinating and eminently historic, I can’t help but think sometimes that everything around me was built by dead guys (A thought that first occurred to me after visiting the Catacombs in Paris).

Perhaps that’s why my favorite monument in all of Europe is the Segrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona. It’s not old. In fact, it’s still growing.

The Temple of the Sacred Family was started way back in 1883. The intent was to built a Cathedral that would represent Christendom, as well as show off Barcelona’s newfound prosperity from the Industrial Revolution. The original architect on the project was fired after a year and replaced by Antoni Gaudi who was just 31 at the time. Despite being color blind and suffering from cripple rhumetism, Gaudi had already become one of Barcelona’s most well known architects. He was the leader of the art movement known as Moderniste, a Spanish offshoot of art Nouveau. Gaudi worked on the Cathedral of the Segrada Familia for 40 years and dedicated the last 16 years of his life soley to the Cathedral. By the end, he even lived inside temple year round to help speed construction and was called “God’s architect” by the Barcelona people. When asked once about the length of construction on the project , Gaudi responded by saying: “It doesn’t matter how long the project takes… My client, is not in a hurry, “

It’s a good thing. Because almost 100 years later, work is still going, funded entirely by private donations. Work is now continued under the direction of Etsruo Sotoo of Japan, with Gaudi no doubt keeping an eye on things buried beneath the central crypt.

Nowhere else can you watch history unfold brick by brick as its spires twist and stretch to the sky like a forest of giant beanstalks (The central tower will eventually reach 170 meters – by far the tallest in the world). Part of the fun is that there is always something going on. The building literally changes before your eyes. The constant movement of cranes, scaffolds and sculptors at work makes the Cathedral feel alive. If you decide to visit, you can also be happy knowing that your admission price goes toward helping to complete the Cathedral – that some day you too can be a dead guy who helped build something great.

I know I feel better.

The benefits are obvious: Less stress, less polution, less money spent on gas, insurance and the like; and of course, a healthy workout along the way.

The Dutch habit does however take some getting used to for first timers. Especially in summer, riding a bike can mean slaloming between tourists – oblivious to the delineations of the “fietspad”, or playing chicken with a mother on her mobile phone as she bikes her three children to school in pedal-powered wheel barrel. Bike theft is also common and the Dutch weather is not exactly conducive to year-round riding.

That said, there is nothing quite like the experience of riding along the Amsterdam canals with the wind in your hair and a song in your heart, or seeing Dutch wonders like a four-story parking garage dedicated only to bikes.

Some would say it even beats walking.

But you didn’t hear that from me.

Amsterdam Accommodations