Home!

We are home! After being awake for about 27 hours, and having to be on airplanes, and in airports, and all that jazz, we are finally home! Look who was super glad to see me:

I’m glad to be home, too!

Disneyland Paris!

Yes, that’s right. Today, we were going to experience Disneyland Paris. I was jazzed. We had to take a 45 minute train ride to get there, but worth it, to see:

We stood in long lines to get in, but once we were in, we did what you normally do, we rode the rides. We rode the Aerosmith Rock ‘n Roller coaster, an Armageddon ride (booooo), we went to Ratatouille land and rode the ride there, and did the RC Racer, which is a really awesome ride only at DP. Naturally, we also rode Tower of Terror, that ride was literally the exact same.

After being in the one side of the park all day, we went to the Disneyland side. Over there, we rode Pirates,

Phantom Manor (their Haunted Mansion), Big Thunder Mtn Railroad, and Crush’s Coaster. It was a heck of a day, and by the end of the day, we were exhausted. Luckily we made it to the train station before we collapsed from exhaustion. I can honestly say it was a great day, but I like California Disneyland a little better. It’s just…cleaner and the employees seem genuinely happy to be there, and stuff like that just makes me smile. The castle, however, was beautiful.

England -> Paris

We were supposed to have a full day in England yesterday, to spend at the British Museum, and anywhere else we fancied. Unfortunately, due to some construction in London, we sat in traffic for 5 hours. It took us 5 hours to go about 11 miles. YUP you read that right. So we had about 45 minutes in the museum before we had to leave, we were catching a train through the Chunnel to Paris. We had some traumas getting to the train, but we made, safe and sound. We arrived in Paris at about 10:00, and walked in the dark about a mile to our hotel, which was in the sketchiest place I’ve ever seen. I was scared for our safety, but we made it.

This morning, we went to the Notre Dame first. We actually attended a service there, and it was pretty. I couldn’t understand any of it, since it was in French, and Latin, but that’s all right, they were getting their point across.

After the service, we walked around a bit, and then went to our next destination, the Louvre.

I could have an entire blog dedicated to the paintings I took pictures of in there, but there’s no space or time here, so just to say, I saw the Mona Lisa, and the line to see her was long.

You basically had to shove your way in for a pic. After we wandered the Louvre for like, 4 hours, we went next to the Eiffel Tower.

We waited in a line for about 2 hours, to get up near the top.

The view was pretty great. After wandering around a bit longer, we made the journey back to our hotel, and ate at a place near there called, no joke, Yummy Asian Food. It was really tasty, I was surprised. We only have 1 more day of vacation – and I’m looking forward to it!

England

Today, we went into England! We did all the regular tourist stuff, but the thing that made me the most happy was that I understood everyone! And they all have their delightful English accents, fantastic. The first order of business was to visit a castle – Farleigh Hungerford. We listened to an audio tour while there, that was awesome.

It was a really cool tour, and then we left, on our way to the bustling city. After getting into our hotel, and dropping off our luggage (something that’s fantastic, not having to carry it around with us) we went first to Buckingham Palace.

Sadly, the place wasn’t open to outside tours, not for another week, we just barely missed it! That’s my goal, to get a tour of the inside. After finishing up there, we saw Big Ben, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. It’s just regular tourist photos, so I’ll skip those.

We finished up our London day at the Globe, to see a Shakespeare play! It looks so old, it was so awesome to be there, in a part of history.

We saw As You Like It, which was so fun, but SOOO long. I say that because we were in the standing room only seats. So we stood. For 3+ hours. By the end, my feet hurt, my back hurt, my everything hurt. As soon as it was over, we got out of there, got on the subway, back to where the shuttle to our hotel was supposed to be…but we missed it by 10 minutes. So we had to find a cab…who only accepted cash, then an ATM…it was such trauma, but we finally got to our hotel at 1:30. We were exhausted!

Bath

Today, we left Venice, flew to England, and then drove to Bath. Driving here is crazy weird! Everyone’s on the wrong side!

On the way to Bath, we stopped at Stonehenge.

It was pretty, but kind of boring, if we’re being honest. There’s not much to do except for…look at these rocks. But that’s all right, another thing off the ol’ bucket list. We then got to Bath, where we had dinner at a house that was a few hundred years (I can’t even remember the name, the Sally Something house) and then we returned to our bed & breakfast, where all 4 of us were sharing a room. That wasn’t too bad, but the house is so old there’s no air conditioning in there, so we’re just boiling! Hopefully it cools down this evening.

Venice

Our final day on the cruise, and we are in Venice. We got off the boat, and just like everywhere else, we are immediately blown away by how hot it is. It’s about 98 degrees today, and there’s 95% humidity. Its HOT today. We started just walking around the place, there’s water everywhere, it’s nice.

We made our way across the whole place, and then to St Mark’s Basilica. It was lovely. We couldn’t go in because of the shorts, but that’s all right. Pants would have been awful.

 

I did enjoy this sign:

“You are in a church. You are not allowed to behave indecently.” AMEN! After shopping a little bit in some shops for fun souvenirs, we landed on masks. They’re a lot of fun.

Now that the cruise is over, I kind of want to come home. We’ve had a blast, and I’ve seen so many things, but I miss home! I miss my house, I miss my Scootaloo, and I miss hearing English where I go.

Final At Sea

Today was our final ‘At Sea’ day. We did have one more than originally planned, but that’s ok. The at sea days are relaxing, you’re not rushing around, trying to get places. But on the days that you stay on the ship, the cruise does a “fancy night” at dinner. We happily obliged, and I wanted to share the pics with you guys.

And then, one with the girls:

And then we got one with our servers for the cruise, Manuel and Predrag. These guys were amazing, they took really good care of us, and I loved them! And they never judged us for the amount of Shirley Temples we drank (which was a lot).

Tomorrow is our last day on the cruise, and I’ll be sad to say goodbye to these guys!

Athens

Yesterday was an ‘At Sea’ day unexpectedly. We were supposed to be in a different part of Turkey, Kusadasi, but the breaking of our propeller forced us to miss it, which was too bad. But then today, we made it to Athens! It was warm right from the get go – we got to the Acropolis at about 9:00, and already, we were dying, and the sweat was flowing. (you’re welcome) But the first thing we saw on our walk up was Baby Darth’s real name! I was so jazzed to see it.

We walked around the Acropolis, getting pics of the Parthenon, and many other things up there.

After wandering around this place for a good long time, we had to make our way back to the ship, so back we went. It was a nice day there, and I was so glad to find water bottles that cost $0.365 (Euros), because I bought as many of those bottles as would fit in my bag. I’m excited for our next stop!

Istanbul

Happy Independence Day! We spent this American holiday in Turkey…Istanbul, specifically, so not a very American place at all. This place is really beautiful, and there are so many mosques.

We got to the port a few hours later than we had been told we would, during the night, our ship’s propeller stopped working, so we had to slow down to about half speed. Instead of getting to port at 8:00, we got there at about 2:00, and had to be back on board by 7:00. Dang, only a half day. So we made the most of it. First, we went to the Blue Mosque, and since I was in shorts, I had to borrow a dress from them on my way in.

We all also had to borrow head wraps. Husband was the only one that didn’t have to put anything, lucky guy. After the mosque, a local fellow took us to his carpet shop (yes I was nervous he was kidnapping us the whole time) to get a good picture, and boy did we.

They tried to sell us a carpet next but the price they quoted us was so high, we just straight walked out. We then walked around the city, which was sort of difficult because there were some kind of protests going on, and the police was shutting down part of the city. But after we walked around for a while, we made our way to the Grand Bazaar, and that was something. So many things, so many people. We bought some Turkish Delight and a whole bunch of fun spices, and that was neat. Then, it was time to catch a shuttle to the ship – lest we get left behind again. Turkey was really pretty, but this city made me nervous. Maybe it was all the protesters, maybe it was all the police, but I was so grateful to get back on our ship and skedaddle out of there.

Mykonos

Yesterday was an ‘At Sea’ day, so nothing to report. Just much chilling, swimming, eating, etc. Today, we found our way to Mykonos! Really, this is a beautiful place.

We didn’t have too long in this port, just a few hours. We walked into town, and then just explored the whole place, which wasn’t very long. Naturally, we found a gelato place, what luck!

We just walked around, enjoying the view, and the wind that was blowing like, 50 miles an hour and being annoying.

Everything is painted white, and all the doors are painted the same blue. It was lovely.

Naples

Pompeii today! And Canada Day! We dressed to celebrate the occasion, in our red clothes.

Oh yeah, we’re a good looking people. We got to the shore (technically, we stopped in Naples, so that’s why Naples and not Pompeii), and boarded a bus to Pompeii. It was a great place, really cool. I’ll just post a couple of pics.

This second picture is an actual person, found like this. That was so sobering to me – actually seeing a person! Wow. We explored a bit more here, and then went to Vesuvius, the volcano. Mostly it’s just scenery shots up there.

It’s a pretty place, I enjoyed the view. Also, it’s not very close to Pompeii at all, so to think about how far the stuff from this volcano had to go to take out that whole city…man. This whole place was really awesome to take in. On the drive home down the mountain, our bus died. Of course it did! Naturally, as the driver is there, trying to get it started, the 4 of us are praying with all our might, praying we don’t miss the boat, or have any other issues. Finally, after the longest 10 minutes of my life, the bus started! Yahoo! We made it down the mountain and back to the ship with no problems. Hallelujah. Onto our next place!

Rome

Today, we finally got to Rome! We had planned on renting Vespas while we were there, but when we got to the rental place, and the proprietor asked if I had ever driven one, and I (honestly) said yes, they said they wouldn’t rent to us! Rude! But understandable, European drivers are legit nuts. So instead, he rented us bikes instead. Yes, bikes.

Yes, most of the time, we had to walk the bikes, because there were too many tourists to navigate. And it was a million degrees outside, and we had to wear pants to get into the Vatican. Basically, we spent the day just sweating. But! Let’s focus on the fun. We got to the Trevi Fountain.

As it turns out, the Trevi fountain is closed right now, for repairs. So…this is all we got to see. Sad, but that’s all right. Next on the list: the Pantheon.

We unfortunately didn’t have the time budgeted to go inside, but that’s ok. The outside was pretty cool. And our adventures continued on to the Vatican, and St Peter’s Basilica.

We got to go inside, and boy, is that an extravagant and very beautiful. And the cool thing is we got to see the Swiss Guard! They are SUPER serious, despite their ridiculous outfits.

Next, we went to the Bocca della Verita, something I’ve been wanting to see for years! The line was huge, but totally worth it.

And lastly on our Rome list, the Coliseum. My pictures of it weren’t very impressive, so I won’t bother posting it here, but it was huge and pretty. We didn’t have time to go in, because at this point, we had to bust it on back to the ship, it was going to leave the dock at 6:30, and it was 4:30. By the time we got to the train station, it was 5:00, and the next train was leaving at 5:05. It was a 40 minute ride, so we knew we had plenty of time. Unfortunately, the train left like, 15 minutes late. And then, for some reason, (and by the way, if there’s any advice I can give you, it’s DO NOT trust the Italian train system. They are the worst) our train arrived super late. So we arrive at the train station at 6:25, and we still have to get a taxi to the ship. The shuttle we had taken was no longer running, it stopped running at 6:00.

The train stops, and we SRINT off the ship. I grabbed the first taxi driver I see, telling him we need to hustle. He then waits for another couple to come. DUDE, WE HAVE NO TIME TO WASTE LET’S GO. Finally, everyone is in, and he leaves. At this point, my anxiety had been at like, level 1000065465453640 for the last hour, thinking we’re going to miss the boat. We arrived at our ship at 6:35, and to our great luck…blessing…anything, there was one last group that was on an excursion that ended late, so the ship was still there! We got on! As we were on the elevator going up to our rooms, we all had a big group hug that we made it. We had so many freaking close calls and bad things happen this trip, we were just grateful to have made it.

Florence

Technically, our first stop on the cruise ship was Toulon, but there wasn’t anything to do there, nothing to see, and we were exhausted from our travels, so we actually just had a chill day on the boat. We swam, ate, and just had a good time. But the next day, we got to Florence! Excitement. We got off, and headed into the city. We saw the Basilica of Saint Mary, and it was beautiful. We couldn’t get in, because we were wearing shorts, and that was too bad. It’s nice, though, obvs.

There is of course, a dome next door, also lovely.

And we naturally found the Hard Rock café there, and stopped in to get a shirt. (I collect them)

We also found a chocolate/gelato shop we of course ate in, and then made our way back to the ship. A beautiful city, and I was glad we got to visit.

Barcelona

We have had an interesting traveling day yesterday. We were supposed to catch a train out of Monte Carlo, heading to Nice. From Nice we were supposed to link Montpelier, and then from there, to Barcelona. Instead, we missed the train in Monte Carlo (through no fault of our own! We were there, the train pulled up, we were walking toward it (it had pulled forever forward) and as we were walking, it took off! Gah!) We then had to wait 20 more minutes for the next train to arrive. So by the time we got to Nice, we had missed our connection. After getting a new itinerary, we then went to Marseilles, and then back up to Montpelier. Unfortunately when we got to Marseilles, the only remaining train to Montpelier for the day was all booked up. Now, what we did next, I’m not proud of, but we literally had no other options. We asked a guy about getting on the train, and he said it was sold out, we couldn’t get on. So then we went to another guy, and asked him about it, and he waved us on! When we got on, there weren’t really that many seats available, and remember, we technically didn’t have tickets. So we just chilled in some parts of the train that I think we weren’t supposed to be in. And then, when there was about 30 minutes left of the ride, we found a weird empty car that had neither seats nor people. Probably some kind of luggage place? Whatever, we went there. The problem is that at this point, we had been in some kind of room without any AC and Europe is actually in the middle of a wicked heat wave, so it was a billion degrees in there. We were hot, had no water, and hadn’t eaten anything today yet.

We finally made it to Montpelier, and had 15 minutes to wait for our train to Barcelona. The ride was uneventful, and there was luckily a dining car, so we could finally get some water and food. We arrived, and it was late enough to just grab a bite, and get to bed. We don’t have enough time to do anything, anywhere, it seems! Luckily the next day we had a few hours before we got on the cruise ship, so we walked around.

We met up with a foreign exchange student that had lived with my in-laws for a while, and it was nice to have a local show us around:

It was so freaking hot though, we were dying and sweating buckets. Barcelona was beautiful, I would love to come back someday for more time!

And that evening, we boarded our cruise!

Monte Carlo

We took the train into Monte Carlo today. I gotta tell you, while the train travel over here is just amazing, lugging around our luggage is such a pain! It’s heavy, it’s cumbersome, and makes for some slow moving sometimes. But that’s ok, we will prevail. Unfortunately, Bonanza’s suitcase broke today, which makes for some really interesting ways to move it, but that’s also ok, we will prevail! (Almost the trips motto) Monte Carlo is beautiful.

We got here too late to do anything except eat dinner, and we don’t gamble, so we couldn’t do anything else here. The meal was delicious, and then we went to sleep, since it was about midnight when we got out of dinner. It took a couple of hours to eat, sheesh. The next morning we had enough time to look at stuff and then get on a train to Barcelona!

Geneva

We took an overnight train from Vienna to Geneva this morning. Here’s our bedding situation:

My bed is suspended up there, and Adam’s is below me. These are barely wide enough to fit us laying down, and the room is so tiny our luggage barely fits, standing up. The night of sleep wasn’t too awful, but when we went into tunnels, my ears would pop and wake me up. Geneva was pretty nice – we rode a cable car to the top of a mountain:

And then grabbed a meal at a place nearby in Annamasse, France. I met the worlds greatest baker and nicest man, Miguel.

We had a great evening of just casually walking around, looking at the sights, and ended up going to sleep pretty early, to get some sleep after last night’s train sleep.