Well, what a trip! We had such a great time, and really enjoyed the time away to just be Patrick and Laura and not Mommy and Daddy. It's been a little bit of an adjustment getting back into the parenting role for me, but it was definitely worth it.
So, a recap of our trip. We started the journey roadtripping to Raleigh with the girls so they could spend the time with their Marme and Grandaddy, and the next day we flew overnight from Raleigh to London then from London to Barcelona. We were so lucky be able to use my dad's passes in order to fly Business Class for the long leg of the trip: woo-hoo!
In Barcelona we paid about double what we should have for a ride to the pier to board our ship,
Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas. We have taken two prior cruises on Royal Caribbean's fleet and we just really love their ships.
Our first stop (Sunday) was in Villefranche, France. We took a bus tour through Nice to a tiny village called St. Paul De Vence, which is positioned on top of a hill and surrounded completely by stone walls. Most of the streets inside the village were cobblestones and only wide enough for people to pass. The cars seemed to be allowed only on the outermost streets of the village. We windowshopped and had gelato. It was beautiful - I highly recommend finding this village if you ever head to the area.
The next day (Monday) our ship sailed to Livorno, Italy. We opted for a daytrip to Florence, where we thought we would see museums full of famous art, the statue of Michelangelo's David, and visit a tiny wine shop we found named
Le Volpi y La Uva, in honor of our last name. However, museums are closed on Mondays, so we saw the outside of many museums, a copy of David, and El Duomo, the most famous dome in the world, ever. (at least that's the story according to our guide, hee hee).
We had the best pasta here in Florence, just off the main square. (Our guide must have been a good one, because later we realized they didn't always suggest the best places.) We did visit Le Volpi y La Uva, and enjoyed a glass of Chianti, but we must have committed some major faux pas, because we did not feel welcomed by the owners at all, and felt they were waiting for us to leave (No, we weren't the only Americans there.) Oh well, chalk one up to culture clash. We wandered down the Pont De Vecchio and did a little birthday shopping for my mom. Overall, it was a nice day and we enjoyed the city and the scenic views to and from our ship as well.
The next day (Tuesday) our ship sailed to Civitavecchia, Italy. From here we took a day trip to Rome. Rome was amazing! There were so many things to see our guide wouldn't even let us stop for photos in order to fit in all the things she wanted to show us. We started at Trevi Fountain and threw in a few Euro, wandered down toward the Colosseum, taking in views of several mostly uncovered ruins as well as some newer memorials and monuments, Triumphant Arches, and just so many amazing things to look at I can't write them all in one post.
We stopped for a lunch of pasta, chicken piccata, and tiramisu and continued on to see the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica. Many of you know that neither Patrick nor I are Catholic, and we both had issues with the huge ornate church basically dedicated to St. Peter rather than to God or Jesus. Nevertheless, it was an amazingly beautiful and awesome building.
The fourth day (Wednesday) we docked in Naples, Italy. We were pretty tired from the previous earlybird all day walking tours and decided to take just a morning tour to see the ruins of Pompeii, which were actually extremely interesting, even though we (rather, I) wasn't expecting much more than a bunch of rocks and a big tourist trap. It was amazing to learn about how they lived so long ago. For instance, the rich had inverted, open roofs to catch rain in pools just inside their homes that drained into a well from which they could retrieve water.
They had beautiful trompe l'oeil frescoes on their walls that imitated window views of farms and countrysides, they even had pipes that could bring running water to their homes. The guide we had even credited them with the first fast food restaurants! Our most interesting visit was to the brothel where, due to language translation problems, (Pompeii was a port city back then) they had the menus painted on the wall.
After returning to the ship, we decided we had the energy to take a ferry boat across the bay to Capri, a beautiful island that hosts designer stores and amazing ocean views.
Since it was siesta, we did a bit of window shopping, had lunch, and tasted
Limoncello, the liqueur they are famous for. I didn't like it much, so Patrick got to finish it for me. The pizza was okay, but we expected it to be better since Naples is credited with the invention of it, and was just a ferry ride away. We almost didn't make it back to the ship in time, and actually had to run at full speed to avoid being left in Naples overnight. We had great stories to tell to our table friends that night, however!
Palermo, Sicily was our last stop (Thursday) and happened to be our favorite day on our trip. We took a bus to Selinunte, some amazingly HUGE temple ruins. An example of how big they are is illuminated in the
photo of Patrick sitting on a column capital. We had a bit of time before our next stop, so our guide took us on an impromtu wine tasting where we sampled some Balsamic, some Almond, and some other wine that I can't recall so it obviously wasn't worth remembering. Because it wasn't included in our itinerary, it just seemed like a delightful bonus.
Then we headed to an olive oil factory that makes
Olio Verde, a high-end olive oil you can purchase here in the States at gourmet food stores as well as Whole Foods. After a tour of the Becchina Estate, (sorry we didn't get pics here) we viewed a presentation of the olive oil making process. They had just finished bottling this year's crop the night before. We got to taste their olive oil, as well as the previous year and the year before, in order to understand how olive oil ages and then had a fabulous gourmet lunch. We got back to the ship just before the rain started, and headed out towards Barcelona.
That night, and all the next day (Friday), the sea was extremely windy and rocky, and I was SO GLAD I had been taking my Dramamine. We played in the wind a little and watched the waves crash the side of the ship, as well as the pool splash unaware people as they walked by it. Hee hee!
The next day (Saturday) was Patrick's birthday and we disembarked and headed to London for the night, where we were so beat we just had room service and watched a little Harry Potter and crashed. We were so happy to see the girls again Sunday after our flight. (Thank you Dad for the business class again.) And that was it. We drove back Monday to our day-to-day lives and our little house with the duct tape and plumbing problems. But we have our memories to live off of until our next adventure.
Sunday our friend Tim escorted us to the Magic Kingdom where we played the day away, and we left the park in time to make it to dinner in Downtown Disney at the House of Blues. Great food, and very kid-friendly!
After a quick kids' pirate treasure hunt at the resort, we headed back to Downtown Disney on Wednesday for a lunch treat at TRex and to look at the Legoland sculptures we had eyed earlier in the week. Who knew that they would be closed for renovations! Oh well, it was nice to have an afternoon to do some more outlet shopping and just hang out at the resort and enjoy our place.
Thursday we ventured out to Disney again, this time to the Hollywood studios. We really loved seeing the Beauty and the Beast show, but the rest of the park lacked the interesting activities for the girls. However, while Laney napped in the stroller, Mia got to get out some of her extra energy in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. That was fun!
Friday, our last day there, turned out to also be our warmest day, peaking at about 68 degrees. (Yes, it was historically cold in Florida last week. Seems we took the cold weather down with us, and brought it back here with us upon our return.) We swam in the pools in the morning, and had a fun playdate with our friends The Remleys in the afternoon. We had a big feast at Outback with our friends and then ended the night back at our condo full and sleepy.
