Trip Highlights!

Where to begin? I finally decided I need to get something down in writing before too much time passes back in real life and I start to forget some of the finer details.
WARNING: this post may turn to a long and drawn out recollection of my vacation. Being that this blog is somewhat my "journal", this may bore some readers to tears.

Our trip began with a 2-night stay in Barcelona. We arrived early Friday morning (very early morning our time) and proceeded to crash for a nap upon our arrival at the hotel. Bad idea. It took us a good 2 days to get adjusted to the local time. Before I get into the details, I have to mention that I actually had some down time to read on our trip. I finished the two books that I have noted on the right. Both great reads, check them out!

Adventures in Barcelona: Day 1 we took a good walk around the pier, where we saw local musicians jamming out and beautiful sailboats and yachts. This walk took us back to the local beach where we enjoyed a beach-side cocktail before finding a yummy restaurant to order seafood paella. Day 2 took us over to Camp Nou, home of Futbol Club Barcelona. Brian is a big Euro soccer fan so a trip to Barcelona would not have been complete for him without seeing Camp Nou. We did the audio tour and the history of soccer in Barcelona and the club was quite interesting. Barcelona was very easy to get around via metro, so after our tour of Camp Nou, we headed on the metro over to Montjuic. We took many pictures from the top of Montjuic, the views were amazing. Everything in Barcelona is so lush and green and the architecture is fabulous. After Montjuic, we headed to Las Ramblas, the famous street in Barcelona, full of street vendors, performers and delicious foods (it was getting close to dinner time which is around 10pm in Barcelona). We found two wonderful tapas restaurants, where we sampled the food in drinks a little in both. Brian had never had tapas before, so I introduced him to the idea of sampling a little of this and a little of that. Sangria was in order after a day full of sight-seeing! Day 3, it was time to board our ship!

On to the ship, the Norwegian Gem. We enjoyed the free-style cruising, which basically means there are no set dining times as in the traditional cruising style. This ship had a wide variety of restaurants, including Mexican, Japanese tepanyaki, Asian, french bistro, upscale steak restaurant, Italian, two main dining rooms, buffet, pool-side grill and an all-night diner. Needless to say, we both packed on a few pounds over the week...even with all the miles we walked! Brian's mom and Mike got the on-board anniversary package for us, which included a bottle of champagne in our room, chocolate covered strawberries, on-ship room credit, free bottle of wine at dinner one night and a gift certificate to the spa. One of my best memories from this trip will always be the couple's mud bath we had in the spa. Brian was a little unsure of it initially but he sure did like the way his skin felt afterwards, not to mention that it was quite romantic.

Port 1: Valletta, Malta

We gave ourselves the walking tour of Valletta, taking in the architecture and views from the inclining streets. It was very, very hot in Malta the day we were there so after several hours of walking, we headed back to the ship to enjoy the pool. Our walking tour took us through the Botanical gardens, which were beautiful. We saw the big fort but did not go inside.

Port 2: Naples (Napoli)

Wow! What a busy city. We kind of felt like we were in a game of frogger trying to cross the streets, where vespas rule and traffic laws, what traffic laws?? Our first order of business in Naples was getting to the train station, we were headed to the ruins of Pompeii. I never took much interest in history, which is really a shame when I visit places like Pompeii. Nonetheless, I was absolutely amazed at how progressive and advanced the population was way back in the day. The ruins are quite impressive, with intricately detailed tile work, structures that have withstood the test of time (and volcano eruptions!). Mt. Vesuvius looms majestically in the backdrop of Pompeii, and a trip to Naples would not be complete without seeing the ruins. We rounded out our visit in Naples with a stop at a local restaurant for some real Italian food. The owner took great care of us and we enjoyed the best pasta dishes ever. Follow that up with some gellato and we were good to go!

Port 3: Civitavecchia (port city for Roma)
Rome, this was the stop we were most looking forward to. Of course, as a cruise destination, one really only has enough time to get a taste but we liked what we saw and look forward to returning one of these days for a more extensive visit. We took the train from Civitavecchia into Rome, then used the metro to hop around to the sights we most wanted to see. This included visiting the Colosseum first. The line was crazy long to buy tickets inside, but we got in with an English-speaking tour group which whizzed us right past the long line and inside the Colosseum. Massive, amazing, impressive, wow! All thoughts that came to mind while touring the sight. After the Colosseum, we headed over to Trevi Fountain, then the Spanish Steps. Last stop was St. Peter's Square, to see St. Peter's Basilica, the square fountains and roam around the Vatican grounds. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to tour the insides of these buildings, we'll have to save that for our next visit. Oh yeah, this tour ended with a gelato stop, this was a recurring theme in Italy.

Port 4: Livorno (port city to Pisa and Florence)
I must admit, by port 4, we were a bit worn out. We slept in this day and got off the ship just to take a short bus/train combo over to Pisa. We'd come all this way and didn't want to leave without seeing the famous leaning tower. Thank goodness, because we got there just in time for Brian to keep it from toppling over. *Whew* Close call.

Port 5: Villefranche
Beautiful French village, built up the hillside. We used this day for the beach, where Brian quite enjoyed the scenery (tops optional). We browsed the village a bit, stopped for a pastry and then headed back to the ship. This was our 2nd favorite stop after Rome. The town was so clean and colorful. You can also get into Nice and Monaco from here via short train ride but we opted to stay put in Villefranche.

And back to Barcelona we headed. Our flight was early afternoon after disembarkation. Due to prior flight cancellations, we flew to Newark for an overnight stay before heading back to Denver. Newark stay was fun because we got to have dinner with our friends, Dave and Kris. They just got married this spring and we didn't get to go to their island resort wedding due to our big trip we had planned, so it was great to see them!

Pictures have been posted to the right. It was an AMAZING trip! We had many conversations during our travels to discuss other places we'd love to see. May our adventures continue for many years to come!