A little late, but I thought with Labor Day come and gone I would write a blog summation of our summer. I have been putting it off because there is so much to write about I hardly knew where to begin. I will start with the fact that we did a bowling league. This was my first attempt at an organized sport and our team won pretty much everything! It was a ton of fun! Now, on with the obvious, as outlined below we went on the trip of a lifetime. We spent a few days in London and met up with our friends George and Amanda on our first evening in. We went to dinner at a Spanish restaurant and spent the rest of the evening sightseeing Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, you get the picture. It was so much fun and we were really excited to spend some time with our friends.
The next few days we spent going to Kensington Palace, the Eye of London, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace and really anything we wanted to see. It was an awesome time and London has truly become one of my favorite cities in the world. Chris and I even joke that if we were given the option, we would move there in a heartbeat.
After London we flew to Barcelona. The first thing we found in Barcelona was an amazing tapas bar. I was really surprised by how absolutely modern, clean and beautiful the city was. The biggest highlight had to be the most amazing architecture. The houses, stores and churches were AMAZING!! The best one was the Gaudi Cathedral. A mammoth almost gothic church that has been under construction for over 100 years, and is NOT almost finished. We were absolutely blown away by the design and proportion of this church. Barcelona was amazing and I would love to go back and explore more of Spain some day.
From Barcelona we boarded our ship, the Ruby Princess. While on acruise, we have found that one of the most important things is to finda bartender or entertainer that you really like. On this cruise it was Jillian in the casino bar. Jilly was amazing, hilarious and a riot to be around. I wish the cruise was longer so we could have hung out with her more. Our first stop on the cruise was Monte Carlo. One word to sum up this amazing place is “rich.” The homes, cars, yachts, palaces, churches, casinos, museums, stores, everything screams money. We walked around and were blown away by it all. We went into the church where Princess Grace and Prince Albert were married, and it was just so surreal to be in that spot. The stores were awesome. Bags and shoes and clothes and anything else your heart could ever desire. It was truly awe inspiring.
Our next stop on the itinerary was Florence. I wasn’t sure what to expect while in Florence. I knew it would be old, but nothing ever prepares you for that kind of age. The monuments, churches, homes, alleys, restaurants was literally everything I thought Italy would be.We took a bus ride through the Tuscan countryside and saw sunflowers upon sunflowers. Little fortress like homes on hills. Seriously, it was straight out of a Fairy Tale novel. The main Cathedral was so large that you could not see all of it from any one point in the square. The statues were everything I thought they would be, as was the Ponte Vecchio.
From Florence we went to Pisa where we heard tales of the Pisan’s dislike of the Livornians. Seriously a fun conversation. The only thing to talk about in Pisa was the leaning tower. Let me tell you, it definitely leans all right… I am amazed that thing has not fallen over. The other buildings in the square also lean, it is just not as noticeable. In other words, so cool!
After Florence came Rome… also my birthday… but, alas, the weather gods were not on our side. After much wavering the Captain decided we could not go in. Me, along with about 3000 other people were in tears as this basically is why we all chose this cruise. As everyone else was muttering about a ruined trip, my genius husband came up with a crazy idea that would get me there without taking anything away from the cruise or taking more time for the trip. I will get to that later, but he is my personal hero. This day turned in to a day at sea, and a much needed day of rest, where nothing was done except for book reading and pizza consumption. All in all a pretty pleasant day! :-)
After our unexpected day at sea came Naples. In this port we saw Capri and Sorrento, which are really amazing Italian vacation spots, and the ruins of Pompeii. We walked around the ruins and were really amazed at how well the structures, roads and some wall art stayed so intact. We saw the ash covered bodies and were blown away at how frozen in time everything was. The artifacts were endless and in the two hours that we got to meander around, I think we only saw 10% of the entire place. Pompeii is by far one of the most interesting places on Earth.
After another fun filled, pizza eating, book reading day at sea we went to a Greek Island called Mikonos. Mikonos is Greece like you think it should be. Small Island, white houses, blue doors, beaches and swimming. We made it our point this day to get into the Mediterranean and swim at Paradise beach (which apparently is one of the sexiest beaches in the world but you have to be there at night…oh, well). My Aunt and I had the most amazing pizza we have ever had (it beat out Italy and New York if you were wondering). This was a really relaxing day!
The next day was one that I had been looking forward too. This was our excursion into Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul is one of the most fascinating, historical, old, fun cities I have ever seen. It straddles two continents and feels a world away. We visited the Blue Mosque, the Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar and St.Sophia’s. St. Sophia’s was the most interesting to me because in the time of Constantine it was a cathedral, when the Ottoman Turks took over it became a Mosque, now a museum. What is really cool about it is that there are still a ton of Christian relics on the walls mixed in with theIslamic relics. I found the set up so interesting. The most amazing thing to me about Istanbul was the people. They were so nice and accommodating that it really blew me away. I would go back there in a heartbeat and hope to see it again!
Our next day was in Kusadasi, Turkey. The port of Kusadasi is meant to feed into the historical city of Ephesus. At this point we were so exhausted that we just decided to stay in the resort town and relax a little. We had lunch on the pier, visited the bazaar and walked around. It was neat and another much needed day of rest.
Athens, Greece was another city on our must see list. We spent the day going to the Acropolis, which is out of this world. All I have to say is that the pictures do not do any justice. We also saw some old temples and old Olympic stadiums. We learned the story of the Marathon and really drank in all of the history. This is where the story of Rome picks up again. See, Chris decided that as the last day before our ship docked in Venice for two days was a day at sea, that rather than waste that day, we should fly from Athens to Rome and see it once and for all. So that is exactly what we did! Thank goodness the cruise had internet, otherwise flights and hotel rooms would have been an issue, but it was not at all. We left the cruise and promised to meet up with them two days later in Venice.
We landed in Rome late at night. The Roman airport is like 45 minutes outside of the city in the middle of nowhere. After a couple seedy cab drivers and some (finally!) good directions we reached our hotel. The next morning we got our bearings and made our way to Roma Termini where we hopped on a double-decker bus tour. We saw the Coliseum, Vatican City, the Sistine Chapel, the Trevi Fountain, Circus Maximus, and various tombs, cathedrals, Synagogues and ruins. Honestly, Rome is nothing like I thought it would be and everything I thought it would be. The relics were absolutely amazing, but it was off set by how dirty the city itself was. I was really saddened to see the graffiti, but pleased at how clean the very important areas were kept. I am embarrassed to admit that while in Rome we dined at a truly American restaurant… McDonalds. Let me tell you, in that moment, it was the best hamburger I have ever had! The next morning we hopped on a train, saw the beautiful Italian countryside, and caught up with the ship inVenice. My dream had always been to take a train and backpack through Italy. It amazes me that an almost disaster ended up giving me exactly what I wanted.
Our two days in Venice were an incredible experience. Venice is EXACTLY what I thought it would be, and even more. It was clean, beautiful and full of history. We saw St. Marks Square, the Bridge of Sighs, the Rialto Bridge, Murano and took the quintessential gondola ride through the Grand Canal and many of the side “streets.” The buses, limos, taxis and cars were all boats. It was romantic, beautiful and I would love to go back some day.
From this point we flew home… I was sad to see the trip come to an end but so pleased with how everything turned out. If I never go to Italy, Spain, Turkey, Greece or the UK again, I really feel that I got to see it, and that is an exciting feeling.
Once at home, we settled in and went to Harry Potter (yes, the day we flew home). We saw the movie and went to bed, exhausted and ready for work and Chris’ birthday the next day. I hadn’t been feeling right in a few days and woke up at 3 in the morning. On a whim I took an old pregnancy test and found out that WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!! Well, in all honesty I went to the store and picked up 6 more because I didn’t believe the first one. So I woke Chris up, wished him a happy birthday and told him the news. Needless to say any lingering depression on being home from our vacation was gone gone gone! I went to the doctor and am due in March.
So friends, that in a nutshell is how our summer went. It was everything I hoped it would be and much MUCH more. Looking forward to a fun fall and an amazing winter
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