Prepare for a long post with lots of pics. Dave and I had the opportunity to go on a trip to Europe with my dad, step mom, siblings, and spouses. There were 14 of us and we're all terrible decision makers so by default a cruise was our best option. When asked what my favorite place was, it was very hard to answer so I will just give you the "best" vote per city. Here is the play by play...
We flew into Barcelona, Spain two days before boarding our ship. Barcelona was a fabulous city. A mix of New York and San diego. A lot going on there plus the bonus of ancient architecture and character by the ocean. One of the main attractions in Barcelona is the architecture of Gaudi. There are 2 famous houses right in the sqaure that we were able to see. You can drive up into the hills about 15 minutes and view the famous Park Guell which is an amazing park designed by Gaudi. Here you will find a Mosaic bench that surrounds a huge area of the park. We had a great tour guide that filled us in with all of history and details of how the park came about. The third place that we went was the Sagrada Familia. This church was started by Gaudi over 100 years ago. He died before finishing it, but had the plans for the whole design. It has been worked on since and they just finished the inside of it. This church is the most amazing architecture I have ever seen.
BARCELONA VOTES:
MOST ASTONISHING CHURCH
MOST FAST PACED "FUN"
GOOD SHOPPING
The group in front of one of the Gaudi Houses
Park Guell
Sagrada Familia
Inside of Sagrada Familia...Gaudi used nature in his design often. The inside of the church is meant to look like a rainforest. It was light and awesome compared to so many of the dark cathedrals.
By the ocean
After two days we boarded the "Voyager of the Seas" cruise ship.
Our first stop was the port Toulon, France. From here we drove up into the hills to a dreamy little cobblestone town that overlooked wine country. It was gorgeous. After that we went and spent the rest of the day at the beach along the French Riviera.
TOULON FRANCE VOTES:
MOST RELAXING
MOST DREAMY
WANT MORE TIME THERE
Castellet
By the beach
Next stop was Florence Italy. Oh Florence. I LOVED Florence. We had a fabulous tour guide and driver in Florence that really opened my eyes to the amazing artists that came from Florence all in one period of time. It truly was incredible. The city is gorgeous and full of history. The David statue is absolutely amazing. It is huge and has detail that you cannot believe until you see it.
VOTE FOR FLORENCE:
MOST ARTISTIC
WANT MORE TIME THERE
During this stop we also got to visit Pisa. I thought this was going to be kind of lame and expected. It was actually very cool. We got to climb the tower, which was creepy. You could feel the lean as you went up the steps. Usually when you see pictures of the tower you just notice the tower. Well...the grounds around the tower are absolutely beautiful as well. There is a huge Baptistry that was also built at the same time as the tower. The grounds remind me of the Mall in Washington DC, but with much older buildings.
PISA VOTE:
MOST SURPRISING
Next stop was Rome, Italy. The thought that these buildings are from the time of Christ is overwhelming. There is so much to see in Rome. We only had one day there. We were literally running through the city to try and see everything. We did pretty good, but could definitely use a few more days there.
ROME VOTES:
MOST HISTORICAL
MOST UNBELIEVABLE
MOST EXTRAVAGANT
Colosseum
Trevi Fountian
Spanish Steps
Vatican - before going through the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's
Next up was a stop in a port near Sicily, Italy. We stopped at a port that the ship usually does not stop at. The city looked cool from far (Cathedrals and architecture on the hills), but it was actually quite a dirty little town. We could have ridden the bus around the bend to a beach, but we stayed in the port city. We walked along the streets and found a small beach to play on. The highlight here was that the beach was covered with broken pieces of tile. We collected loads of cool tiles that we brought home to make some sort of a mosaic.
SICILY VOTES:
BEST TILES
CHEAPEST FOOD AND WATER
NO NEED TO GO BACK
The next day was spent cruising around the boot of Italy. I'm not going to lie...our family was kind of the hit of the ship. We were very involved and had so much fun on the ship. Here are a few pics from on the ship...
SHIP VOTES:
MOST FORCED ENTERTAINMENT
MOST STUCK IN THE 90's
MOST FOOD
MOST CONVENIENT
AWESOME WAY TO TRAVEL
Troys Bday at Johnny Rockets
One of the formal nights
Our last cruise port was near Venice, Italy. When I first got here I thought this was my favorite place. It is predictable (what you see on the movies), but it is seriously so different then anything else. It is awesome. The gondolas are awesome. We stayed in a hotel that was on it's own island so we had to ride a water taxi back and forth was pretty great as well. We spent two days in Venice and although I did love all the little alley ways of shops and great architecture. I even managed to find a "garage" sale. It was the most touristy of all. No bargaining, a lot of people, and taking advantage of tourists.
VENICE VOTES:
MOST UNUSUAL
MOST TOURISTY
FUN SHOPPING
MOST ROMANTIC (if you can tune out the tourism)
The driving of boats there...is unbelievable. I have no idea how they don't crash.
From Venice we took the train and went up to Lake Como. This place is the most gorgeous place I have ever seen. Although there is not constant entertainment and site seeing here, I would love to spend a few more days here relaxing and checking out the gardens.
LAKE COMO VOTES:
MOST PICTURESQUE
MOST CALMING
Dad and Sibs
This is where my trip ended. Dave got to stay 5 extra days where he saw the Swiss Alps, Lucerne, and Paris. His favorite was Switzerland. He said the people were great and the land was amazing. He did not take very many pics, but here are afew...
I know some of the pics are huge...no time to resize...sorry
