Cambridge, UK
The whole city is like a collection of monuments & ancient architecture. And the unusual thing is that they are being used today and are not turned into some kind of a museum. Walks randomly throw names like Newton, Charles Babbage, Fleming, William Harvey, Rayleigh at you. Wonder how it is for a student studying there – knowing that Sir Issac Newton probably sat at this spot and wrote his equations; the pressure of history must be overwhelming.
A trip to Cambridge is not complete if you don’t go punting on the river Cam. Punting, as I learnt in this trip is “An open flatbottom boat with squared ends, used in shallow waters and usually propelled by a long pole.” (Dictionary.com)
It was common to see students refer to their English guides before getting into a store, it seemed amusing then. Later I was doing that at Rome with an English to Italian guide 
London, UK
I have never comprehended a big (modern) city like London being the way it is. They have very well preserved some of the old ways - including architecture, road signs, the squares, carriages etc. Victorian architecture fills the city. I thought American food was bad for my taste, but English food is no better than what I had comprehended. Mashed potatoes, No offence but come on, that is not real food!
Paris, France
Aah, Paris is one place I definitely wouldn’t mind spending a couple of years in. I was mostly a tourist during my time there though one day I spent as a traveler to get a feel for the place. It was common to see porn magazines in all kinds of shops. Tobacco shops, chocolate shops, places I would go to buy water, make calls etc! Men & women pay a lot of attention to grooming themselves. Initially I thought may be women in Europe are more beautiful than the women in States, then I realized women are a lot more feminine in their sense of dressing. Longer hair, hair curled or crimped usually, skirts & dresses and things like that.
One weird thing I saw was the Catacombs of Paris. It is the sort of thing that I could never have imagined, Plastination is shocking enough. Human skulls and bones stacked up artistically. Who would have thought of associating skeletons with aesthetics! Apparently when they ran out of space in graveyards, during the black plague they exhumed the bodies and dumped them in this big abandoned quarry in Paris. Today this is a tourist spot! We were not allowed to use flash while photoghraphing the bones, and it was quite dark in there, so the photos do not really show what we saw. However, wikipedia and other websites have some good photos. On exit, they checked our bags to ensure we hadn't hijacked any remains!
The city seemed clean and the trains, stations looked well maintained. But the underground always stank of pis and I wondered how in a crowded station and a nice terminal people would pee. May be it was the lack of ventilation or something, all the subways smelled of pis. I remember asking a lady owning a souvenier shop if there was a toilet somewhere and she said "No, not in this area. If you are asking for a man he can do it anywhere here (she moved her hands gesturing all around) ..."
The ads in the stations read "You have a great resume, but do you speak english". My impression from my conversations with many of the local people is that they think speaking English is cool, I don’t think they know how cool they are, the way they are. Then again, that is the case in most places, huh.
I had often read about French cafes in novels as a kid and I was excited about visiting some of them myself to enjoy eating & sipping a drink the way they did in the books. I got over that fantasy after trying a couple of them. I'll be happy to be proven wrong, may be I always tried the wrong dishes - but 5 days of trying different things and not finding anything satisfying ... I can conclude, I don’t enjoy French food.
Rome, Italy
My first impression after I took a bus from the airport to the main railway terminal and stepped out of the bus was “This is so much like India, I already feel good”.
I could smell pis all over (no, that is not why I felt happy. And here the smell was at every intersection on the roads), the buildings around, roads, people – all so similar to our railway stations. The feeling reinforced when the lady at the breakfast place near my hotel gave me a huge hug from the 2nd day. Its like we were friends for a long time! Oh, people were so warm & friendly. And Italian sounds so cool, they taught me more Italian in those 6 days than I taught them any English. I enjoyed being greeted with signora di buona sera ☺
I saw some of the ancient remains that are preserved from before Christ was born. Forum around which Rome was developed was excavated & preserved, it shows the (remains of) palaces, secret passages, spa facilities etc from the times of Caeser & Augustus. Also the colloseum next to it which they say is only 20% of what it used to be. Its over 2000 years old and the changing shape of the stone steps prove that people have been using them for several years now. The movie gladiator is no exaggeration, the colloseum is huge & can seat upto 50,000 spectators at a time. It is built with multiple exits designed such that within 10 min a person seated anywhere can exit the colloseum. Today, only one such exit exists.
The Vatican, I had expected to be surprised – and I was ☺. Sistine Chapel with its rich paintings on the ceiling, St. Peters Basilica – sheer size of it is daunting. I can imagine how powerful this would have been. No photography is allowed in the main chapel, so I do not have any pictures.
The subway system is not as good as Paris & London, there are more signs of vandalism and often bigger crowds. Also the looks easily change from glance to stares. The men are not as subtle as the Brits or French with respect to looking at women.
And finally the food, it is great! Yes, see I told you it’s a little like back home ☺
I was using an eyewitness travel book as my reference guide and they recommened eating at this little hostel called Fraternity Domus run by a group of friendly nuns. Finidng the place was difficult, but the food was worth all the trouble and more. They served a first course of pasta (you could choose between 2) with a choice of wine. The 2nd course was roasted beef and chicken with some cooked vegetables in sauce. The most delicious meat I had after leaving India. I told myself I could eat no more when a 3rd course of salad followed concluding with a final course of fruits (plums & peaches). I had to go back for lunch the next day. The other people there were all local folk and greeted us in Italian. If you go there make sure you call and book in advance and you are there at the right time. There is only a 15 min window. Thankyou guide book for recommending this place!
And now, I am back in US. Unlike how it had seemed when I came from India the first time – it seems a lot cheaper now (London & France are expensive!), more conservative and there are other smaller things that I see different. However, out of all the places I have been to people in the States have a better civic sense. Some may argue that it is the result of stricter enforcement of law – I do not know.
It is funny how little of the world actually speak english, but how much importance the language is given in many countries.
I have uploaded photos from my travel on Flickr, the sad thing is that most of those photos need to be viewed in full screen mode to see the grandeur of the places but flickr doesn’t let you do that in a slideshow. To see it in original size, click the image, click the zoom icon above the pic and then click the original size option, painful - I know! Until I find a better option, you can follow these links - Cambridge, London, Paris & Rome.
Updated: Fixed some typos & links. Added Cambridge link.