Day 1: On our way... New York, New YorkOur flight left early!! And then we had a 12 hour layover in New York. Plenty of time to leave the Airport and check out the Metropolitan Museum of Art! Lots of cool stuff. Plus, a walk by Central Park, and a brief stop in FAO Schwartz!
Day 2: All Aboard! Barcelona, Spain
After an 8 hour flight, we got to the port around 9:30 or 10:00am. The most interesting/exciting event of the day: The doctor STRONGLY encouraged us to postpone the trip, because traveling while pregnant was "too risky." He wanted a full doctor's report. He kept asking the first day of my last period (which doesn't correspond to the age of the baby as well as it would in most women...) After we said we're willing to take the risk, he let us get on the boat. Whew! (And crazy... I was in better shape physically than the average person on the boat, I would guess, and did more! Plus, I had NO PROBLEMS - - other than some swelling in my feet, but that could just have been from walking 3-5 miles per day!) We tried staying up as long as possible (difficult after two nights of limited sleep!) and then CRASHED, so we were relatively quickly adjusted to the time difference of 6 hours!
Our room (with a balcony) was awesome. We were glad to finally get to bed that night!
Day 3: Out to Sea.... Mediterranean Sea, that is
Probably the most "boring" -especially for go-go-go, do-do-do hubby, but I enjoyed exploring the ship, participating in the Art Auction, and having a drink while playing trivia in one of the bars! Oh - got a hair cut and a pedicure. Awesome.
Day 4: Naples, Italy (Pompeii and a farm in Sorrento!)
The first of our "guided tours." LOTS of mopeds/motorcycles, and nobody wearing helmets (although we found out later that is mostly because the Mafia wants to be able to identify people and know who people are...)
Pompeii was very cool, but we didn't get to explore much! This was one event where having a guided tour did point out some things we wouldn't have noticed on our own - such as the fallice above one of the buildings! We saw Mt Vesuvius in the background, and generally enjoyed exploring! Pompeii has always made me think of my brother. There's also a statue-thing of a woman who died, face down, who was pregnant - so that was neat to see. I was standing by there when someone said something about a pregnant woman, and I thought they were talking about me... Until I looked more closely at the statue! I tried to do a similar pose for Seth to take my picture on a nearby Rock in Pompeii, but didn't get the message across as clearly (plus it was a bit crowded) - - he still got a pretty good picture, just not capturing the essence of the pregnant statue/sculpture person!
Pizza was invented in Naples - so, of course, we had Pizza! Yummy. Mozarella was so much fresher! And speaking of fresh- we left from lunch to go to a farm! They grew apricots, olives, lemons, cherrys, etc, etc. There were a couple of cows, some ducks, and we got to see how olive oil used to be made in the olden days. We also got to watch Maria make fresh mozarella right before our eyes! The best part: After the demonstration, we got to eat some of the local items. YUMMY! I even brought a bottle of extra virgin olive oil home with me!
Once we were done with the "formal" tour part of our trip, we walked from the port to the castle nuovo. This is where a north carolina couple (Donna and Larry) started following us around... at least, that's what I joke about. (From this day, we would see them repeatedly - - like we were taking the trip together, almost! They were definitely our speed, our style...) Anyway, the castle was pretty cool. Turned into an art museum. I was a bit nervous having to check my souvenier bag at the door, but it all turned out okay. Lots of people trying to sell us weird things on the street (like a cell phone). Like new york with all the street vendors, and clearly naples was a bit "shady" of an area to be in!
Day 5: Civitavecchia (nearby Rome, Italy) - including Collisseum, Trevi fountain, and Vatican/Sistine Chapel
This was the port we got to - and nearly couldn't get off the ship because the ship had a hard time trying to clear customs/health - one person on board the ship (3000 passengers, 1500 crew roughly) had "flu-like" systems and was quarrantined! (Later, this passenger was confirmed to have H1N1 - better known as the swine flu!) Anyhow, we all had to fill out paperwork at 6am... and instead of being able to get off around 7am, we had to wait until 10am. Luckily, we stayed docked a bit longer, so we still got to complete our really busy day!
From the port (Civitavecchia), it was about an hour and a half drive (BEAUTIFUL tuscan country) to get to Rome. We then got to walk around the Collisseum (awesome), and then went to the Vatican! Earlier that day, the Pope had an audience (as he does every wednesday), so we saw the chairs still set up. Our tour guide pointed out the window that the pope typically sticks his head out from and waves to people and such! A quick stop for souveniers, and on to the fountain! We also got some gelato at the fountain, where we both tossed a coin in (left hand over right shoulder... or is it the opposite?). I found some much needed socks.
Day 6: Port of Livorno - Florence (city of David) and Pisa, Italy (leaning tower, Uffizi, Accedemia) panoramic view, walk on bridge
Although interesting, not my favorite stop. I promised Seth I'd go back with him one day, though. For this particular tour, I didn't much care for our guide. We were in the Uffizi long enough to see the one famous painting thingy (Birth of Venus), but not long enough to truly appreciate and/or see works of art by even half of the exceptional artists. Think Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles better known as artists (Leonardo - for Da Vinci, Donatello, Michaelangelo, Raphael)..
This city was all about David!!! We saw the real one (AMAZING in person, in my opinion) - and the two fake ones that you are technically "allowed" to take pictures of! We saw the famous square that shows a panoramic view of the city.
Other items of interest we saw: the Duomo (although we didn't get to go in and climb to the top!), and the famous street with vendors and such across it.
I did love Pisa!!! We got there before it got too crowded (and I got the best souveniers from the trip there-- a bib for baby, and a purple leather italian purse for me!) We got a couple of pretty good pictures, also (thanks to Seth's magical camera skills- definitely not thanks to mine!) This was a really clean area, and had some great vendors. You did have to walk a bit from the parking area, but it was a very pretty (lots of flowers, lots of charm), well kept area. Maybe part of that was that we were there pretty early!
Day 7: Villefranche (Nice, Eze, Monaco)
My favorite stop. Best panoramic view! We had to take smaller "shuttle" boats into the dock. In Nice, we stopped at a Market and got a good bit of time to do some exploring. At the flower market/produce area, I got a fresh fig. YUM (I miss texas figs!)
Eze was LOVELY - unlikely anything I'd seen before. Lots of shops, all lined up this mountain. We even went to the garden on the top, where kids were having a "camp" and doing all kinds of interesting things (such as writing notes and tying them to the various plants/trees/shrubs/flowers). Seth was happy that we finally got to climb to the top of something! On our way there, we got a view of the most expensive house in the world (496 million euro, or about 700 million dollars). In the background, there is the cruise ship over the water! There were also a couple of views where in one cove, you could see parts of France, Italy, and Monaco - - three countries at once!
Seth won money at the casino in Monte Carlo! Monaco is very fond of their Princess Grace. Neat views, but everything in this particular area was pricey!! Glad I saw it once.. Unless I'm there again by cruise ship, don't know if I'll ever make it back or not!
Day 8: Marseilles
Why bother? Although the Mediterranean Cup (sailboat race which was going on the day we arrived) was somewhat interesting, this was a relatively "dirty" city. Should have taken my friend M's advice and gone to Aix en Provence instead of trying to stay around Marseilles! I think my dear hubby was at least glad that we didn't do a "formal" tour this day- - mostly because the one we were scheduled for cancelled. Really, though, I think it worked out for the better!
One of the interesting points about this city, though, was one of the most magnificent churches (from the outside) didn't even make the "tourist attraction" list published by our ship! We did take a local cab (cute driver), but otherwise did as much walking here (and more climbing) than just about anywhere... was one of the 3 tough days as a pregnant lady (the other two tough days being #9 in Barcelona, and Rome!)
Day 9: All ashore - Barcelona, Spain - gothic quarter, las ramblas
We got off the cruise ship around 6am, and headed to our hotel (the very nice Tryp Apolo) to store our bags for the day. Then, we began exploring the city on our own! We saw the Columbus statue and famous Gaudi architecture. We ventured through the Gothic quarter. We saw live entertainers on the street Las Ramblas. Seth wore me out!!!! I'd been tired from the trip anyway, but Seth had WAY more energy than me. I took a nap in the hotel for an hour or so while he explored on his own- then we continued seeing the pool used for the Olympics, a wonderful castle on Montjuic, dipped our feat in the Mediterranean Ocean (and truly experienced a European beach)... Lots of metal artwork in Barcelona - my favorite! Even got to use a bit of Spanish, and made good use of the Subway system (including the funicular) and two air cable car things where we got to see panoramic views of the city.
Did I mention the panoramic views? I think we saw them in every city/port we stopped in! I guess that was part of the fun of travelling by cruise ship!
After a brief night's sleep..
Day 10: We travel home
Story of the day was running... literally... to catch every flight. Connections were a bit tight to begin with, coupled with the fact that we had to go through security EVERY TIME! My advice? Don't fly through Belgium! Luckily we (and our bags) made all of the connections. Mine was even hand-picked for extra security screening! We got the dogs, and crashed earlier.
Still adjusting to the time difference to some degree, but overall (in case you can't tell from this VERY BRIEF synopsis of our trip).... it was fabulous.
And although we're back, I would say the "honeymoon" really isn't over. I'm still madly in love with my hubby.
