Life On The Farris Wheel: Vacation Part II

Barcelona- We started the trip off with a bang - 1 ½ days touring Barcelona and all its beautiful, unique architecture. The city prides its self for its architecture with no building being a square. During this whole trip, experiencing buildings built in the 16th century with the details that only a brain surgeon could do, really makes you think about how young and square the city you live in is.

One of Gaudi's famous buildings

Sagrada Famili

1992 Olympic Stadium

Nice, France- What is the likely hood that the annual F1 race will be happening on the day we go to Monte Carlo? About 1 out of 365 chance. Once in France, we hopped onto the train and headed to the playground of the wealthy. We got to be around the F1 race, listen to their jet-like engines race through the city’s streets, and we got to the last gate of security to see The Casino de Monte-Carlo, where James Bond was filmed. Beautiful cars lined the streets of townhomes with the perfect view of the water and even prettier people walked the streets. Most people that came to the F1 race came by water in their fancy yachts with a helicopter pad. It was a beautiful town and I enjoyed walking the winding roads with the most perfect views.

Monte Carlo

The Casino and stadium seating for the race

Us at some Fort in Nice

Florence, Italy- Here we experienced our first Excursion hosed by Celebrity. The port was about a 90 minute bus ride into Florence, so almost everyone on the ship contracted Celebrity for the bus ride. So, as most of you know, there are tons of “more mature” people on cruises (to be politically correct, lets call them Q-tips, since all their heads are white). Ok, so these Q-tips, walk around the ship like its their nursing home-but let me tell you-the second they hear “please line up for the bus” you would mistake them for a marathon runner. It was quite unreal to witness and was even quite comforting to think that one day, I’ll get to do the same. Beside from the Q-tips running us over, Florence was beautiful. We climbed up over 540 stair steps to get to the top of a chrurch’s bell town. The view was amazing, but what was even more amazing, was watching Scott try to fit through the tiny openings in the stairwell. Scott studied in Italy during a summer in college and had already been to Florence, Rome, Naples, and Venice-so he was my personal tour guide, taking me to all the local hang outs and the best gelato shops.

The Duomo

the view after 540 steps

sculpture of Scott's back

Rome, Italy- We took another Excursion with Celebrity- so we could cut all the lines! This was the longest day of the trip! We went to the Colosseum, ate a 3 course Italian lunch, went into the Vatican and toured the church and Sistine Chapel. Pretty much everything in Rome blew me away. Our tour guide was excellent and taught us all about the history. However, this day was a special day in the Vatican-part of the square was blocked and they were getting ready for some big event with the Pope. Therefore, the place seemed even more packed than normal. However, I think what blew my mind almost as much as all the art work, were the massive groups of Chinese tour groups that are about 50 deep. They all follow a tour guide holding a pole and will completely run you over to get to the tour guide-that is unless their umbrella doesn’t knocks you out first. Overall, Rome was one of my favorite stops- I just wish we had more time to visit.

The Colosseum

Beautiful ceiling in The Vatican

The Alter in St. Peters Basilica

Naples, Italy- Ok so when someone says they are going to Naples, what do you think? Rolling hills filled with vineyards and olive trees, big homes with orange tile roofs…wrong. I should clear the air. Naples is the dirtiest city I’ve ever been too- dirtier than New York after New Years Eve. The image that most people think of is more of the outside towns of Naples- the Amalfi Coast. Our plan was to head over to Capri on a water taxi to soak up the sun on the picturesque beaches and then purchase my birthday present from Scott- a pair of bespoke sandals. Unfortunately, the water taxi drivers were on strike because of the price of oil- what a let down. So we walked the street of Naples, ended up in the ‘wrong part of town’.... whoops, so we high tailed it back to port and called it an early day. But everything ended perfect because once we got back to our stateroom, we had rose petals, champagne, and chocolate strawberrys waiting for us- thanks Tiffany (oh and breakfast in bed the next morning)!! To top it off, I even won the minute slot game in the casino!

One of the few pics we took in Naples

Thanks Tiffany (and Scott for the pose)!

Just enough money to pay for drinks that night

Montenegro- On our boat ride into the port I saw this very long road that went all the way to the top of a big hill that over looked the bay. I told Scott, we were going to hike it. He thought I was crazy. After walking around aimlessly we finally foundthe beginning of the road- which is actually an old trail made by monks to get to the top of the hill where a church was. We were told that it will take 45 minutes to get to the top. Of course, Scott saw this as a challenge. So we booked it up the hundreds of stairs to the top in 25 minutes-he thinks this is good training for The Amazing Race (if we ever get on it!) The view was well worth the hike! After, we walked around the old town and went back on the boat and chilled at the pool/pool bar.

view from the room

view after the hike

future Amazing Race winners

Venice, Italy- This stop was by far on the my favorite places! Venice is amazing! We took a water taxi to Murano to check out the glass blowing. Once in Murano we quickly got escorted to a private gallery to check out all the one-of-a-kind pieces. Since I wasn’t able to get the sandals in Capri, Scott and I purchased a gorgeous glass piece which will be shipped to us soon! We even got the artist to sign our names on it! After that, we took a gondola ride around the town and headed back to the boat for dinner. Our boat actually stayed docked in Venice for another day, so we headed out the next morning to walk the bridges and do some shopping. We had breakfast at a little restaurant that overlook Ponte Di Rialto, the oldest and most famous Venetian bridge.

view from the bridge

St. Marks Basilica

our 1st Murano piece

Gondola ride

Breakfast of a champ

Croatia- Another beauty. We took a ride up to the top of a mountain that over looked the Old City and its great wall. Scott is a huge fan of the show The Missing, parts of the show were filmed on the great wall- so that was pretty cool. We also walked around the Old City and found the oldest pharmacy in Europe, and the 3rd oldest in the world. I tried to get a picture of the inside, but a Chinese tour group was in the way. Scott loves the Italian coffee so we enjoyed coffee and a croissant in the Old City.

The Old City and its walls

The old pharamacy (note Chinese tour group)

Everything about the trip was amazing...until the end. A HUGE thank you to everyone that made it so memorable-- The Neidhardt Family for booking the vacay (Cruises-n-more.com), Uncle Mike & Aunt Pat for the special dinner, Tiffany for the special treat, Mrs. Carol for watching Nellie, Momma Sita for taking care of the house and Gigi, our dinner friends- the canadians (who, we just found out is famous http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3RE34Mog7M) and the many Chinese tour groups for blocking most of our pictures.