Mooning over honey
The days immediately following the wedding were filled with lots and lots of packing up the Flintstone Trail furniture, unpacking more of my stuff at the condo, trying to find homes for all of the wonderful gifts we received at the wedding and getting ready for our trip to Europe. (There was also some port wine consumed in there...) By the time Thursday came around, we were both psyched for the trip and ready for it to get underway.
Thankfully, there were no major issues with travel during the entire trip. Our only flight delay occurred from Philadelphia to Barcelona by a couple of hours, which we spent in an airport bar hearing about the death of Michael Jackson. The flight was uneventful, although if given the choice, I would not suggest flying US Airways for such a long flight. (Bad food, even worse movie selection.)
Barcelona and Cruise Ship
We eventually made it to Barcelona, bags and all, ready for fun! It took us a bit of time to orient ourselves to the public transit options, but we eventually got our very tired selves to the Hotel Principal in the old section of Barcelona. We spared no time sitting around and immediately headed out for lunch at he plaza, followed by a tour of the Cathedral and the PIcasso Museum. By the end of day one, both of us were so completely exhausted, I think we barely managed to stay up until 9pm before passing out.
The next morning we discovered that, despite being told by Justin ahead of time that we would be in Europe, his bank shut down transactions to his check card, meaning we had approximately 25 Euro to our name that morning. Needless to say, we were pissed. Justin made an international call to get them to straighten it out, but their website lied about Saturday hours, so we spent that weekend attempting to do only things that did not require cash transactions. Grrrr. Thankfully we were still able to check out Sagrada Familia, the famous church originally designed by Gaudi that is still under construction 100+ years later and not set for completion until 2030. It is certainly an overwhelming sight to behold! We followed this up with a visit to La Pedrera, an apartment building also designed by Gaudi that is now used not just for residences but also as a museum dedicated to his work. The most magnificent part of the building, in my opinion, is the rooftop terrace. The roof itself seems to wave up and down while offerring some amazing views of the city. It's certainly not to be missed! That evening we searched out El Xampanet, a local tapas bar recommended by Shannon Burke, and we very pleased with both the food and the 8 Euro bottle of house white wine! I did make the mistake of ordering something "spicy" though and both of us experienced some of the worst pain EVER after that. (20 minutes after and my lips were still on fire. Yikes!) The evening ended with us grabbing some gelato on the walk home and accidentally stumbling upon the end of a gay pride parade. (Penis hats, naked men... you know, the expected.)
The following day, with about 18 Euro left in cash, we called a cab to take us to the port and were lucky enough to have the driver charge us just that amount. (I think he took pity on us rather than screwed us. I have a feeling it was usually a wee bit more pricy.) But with that, we were on the Voyager of the Seas! Our room was fantastic... "large" bathroom (for a ship), a couch, priate balcony... my husband spoiled me big time. *grins*
Our day at sea was spent not relaxing by the pool. Instead, we went to a "Meet and Mingle" event for people who had used Cruise Critic to find out more about the trip in advance. Here we met several vey friendly people (several from Scotland) and enjoyed sampling some Scottish candies while chatting about life. We followed this with an onboard wine tasting where we 'sampled' 6 full glasses of wine. (There's a theme to this honeymoon...) Best. Onboard. Activity. Ever. That night was our first formal night, so we got gussied up before going out for free champagne and dinner, followed by the honeymooners reception. SUCH a long but eventful day! (And so much cake...)
Italy
Our first day in Italy was spent visiting the ruins of Pompeii, followed by lunch in Sorrento. The afternoon ended with a wonderful visit to a farm where they let us sample fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, salami, olives, olive oil, house wine and limoncello. So much food! The following day we did Rome on our own, taking the Matro into the city and visiting the Colleseum, the Forum, the pope's address in St. Peter's Square, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. Holy moly, did we walk a lot or what. My feet hurt just remembering that day! We didn't go into any of the major sites, but considering we had only about 6 hours for sightseeing in Rome, I was pretty pleased with what we managed to see. Our last day in Italy was spent in Tuscany, although we were both very disappointed by this. We had chosen to do a halfday wine tasting excursion in Tuscany, but it just wasn't nearly as pretty as I remember Tuscany being, partcularly just outside of Florence. I suppose we should have tried to go further into the country, but I didn't know. Oh well. Just another excuse to take Justin back there one day!
France
For our first day in France, we visited the palace in Monaco on our own, followed by lunch and a very long walk in Nice down to the beach. We were exhausted by the time we reached the beach, but it was goregous nonethless. There's a definite difference between Italy and France along the Mediterranean. While the water is just as blue in both sites, there is SO much less graffiti on everything in France compared to Italy. On our second day in France (and last day of the cruise) we took a bus ride to Avignon to see the walled city and the Palace of the Popes. That trip was excellent. Everything in that old city was so beautiful, I just wish I hadn't been so wiped from the rest of the week or I might have enjoyed it even more!
Madrid
The following day Justin and I disembarked and made our way to the train station where we got a high speed train bound for Madrid. At its fastest, the train went 300 km/h! Wowzers! Once in Madrid, we decided that we were so tired from the rest of the trip that we were just going to take it easy and relax for our last couple of days. We strolled round the immediate area, never straying more than 15 minutes from the hotel, saw the beautiful palace and gardens, as well as some very nice parks in the area, and enjoyed more tapas, but all the while, focused on just taking it easy with Madrid. I'm really glad we did this because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have enjoyed Madrid much at all if we had forced ourselves to see every single tourist thing possible. As it turns out, I ended up really liking the part of Madrid we did see. (Not to mention, Spanish TV is very amusing, particularly the many shows that try to teach the viewers, young and old, English.)
All in all, we had a lovely honeymoon, full of wine, laughter and lots of hand holding, just the way a honeymoon should be. I couldn't have asked for a better one, but I am really glad to be home now. It's a great feeling. :-)
First day of work tomorrow... bed now!
Thankfully, there were no major issues with travel during the entire trip. Our only flight delay occurred from Philadelphia to Barcelona by a couple of hours, which we spent in an airport bar hearing about the death of Michael Jackson. The flight was uneventful, although if given the choice, I would not suggest flying US Airways for such a long flight. (Bad food, even worse movie selection.)
Barcelona and Cruise Ship
We eventually made it to Barcelona, bags and all, ready for fun! It took us a bit of time to orient ourselves to the public transit options, but we eventually got our very tired selves to the Hotel Principal in the old section of Barcelona. We spared no time sitting around and immediately headed out for lunch at he plaza, followed by a tour of the Cathedral and the PIcasso Museum. By the end of day one, both of us were so completely exhausted, I think we barely managed to stay up until 9pm before passing out.
The next morning we discovered that, despite being told by Justin ahead of time that we would be in Europe, his bank shut down transactions to his check card, meaning we had approximately 25 Euro to our name that morning. Needless to say, we were pissed. Justin made an international call to get them to straighten it out, but their website lied about Saturday hours, so we spent that weekend attempting to do only things that did not require cash transactions. Grrrr. Thankfully we were still able to check out Sagrada Familia, the famous church originally designed by Gaudi that is still under construction 100+ years later and not set for completion until 2030. It is certainly an overwhelming sight to behold! We followed this up with a visit to La Pedrera, an apartment building also designed by Gaudi that is now used not just for residences but also as a museum dedicated to his work. The most magnificent part of the building, in my opinion, is the rooftop terrace. The roof itself seems to wave up and down while offerring some amazing views of the city. It's certainly not to be missed! That evening we searched out El Xampanet, a local tapas bar recommended by Shannon Burke, and we very pleased with both the food and the 8 Euro bottle of house white wine! I did make the mistake of ordering something "spicy" though and both of us experienced some of the worst pain EVER after that. (20 minutes after and my lips were still on fire. Yikes!) The evening ended with us grabbing some gelato on the walk home and accidentally stumbling upon the end of a gay pride parade. (Penis hats, naked men... you know, the expected.)
The following day, with about 18 Euro left in cash, we called a cab to take us to the port and were lucky enough to have the driver charge us just that amount. (I think he took pity on us rather than screwed us. I have a feeling it was usually a wee bit more pricy.) But with that, we were on the Voyager of the Seas! Our room was fantastic... "large" bathroom (for a ship), a couch, priate balcony... my husband spoiled me big time. *grins*
Our day at sea was spent not relaxing by the pool. Instead, we went to a "Meet and Mingle" event for people who had used Cruise Critic to find out more about the trip in advance. Here we met several vey friendly people (several from Scotland) and enjoyed sampling some Scottish candies while chatting about life. We followed this with an onboard wine tasting where we 'sampled' 6 full glasses of wine. (There's a theme to this honeymoon...) Best. Onboard. Activity. Ever. That night was our first formal night, so we got gussied up before going out for free champagne and dinner, followed by the honeymooners reception. SUCH a long but eventful day! (And so much cake...)
Italy
Our first day in Italy was spent visiting the ruins of Pompeii, followed by lunch in Sorrento. The afternoon ended with a wonderful visit to a farm where they let us sample fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, salami, olives, olive oil, house wine and limoncello. So much food! The following day we did Rome on our own, taking the Matro into the city and visiting the Colleseum, the Forum, the pope's address in St. Peter's Square, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. Holy moly, did we walk a lot or what. My feet hurt just remembering that day! We didn't go into any of the major sites, but considering we had only about 6 hours for sightseeing in Rome, I was pretty pleased with what we managed to see. Our last day in Italy was spent in Tuscany, although we were both very disappointed by this. We had chosen to do a halfday wine tasting excursion in Tuscany, but it just wasn't nearly as pretty as I remember Tuscany being, partcularly just outside of Florence. I suppose we should have tried to go further into the country, but I didn't know. Oh well. Just another excuse to take Justin back there one day!
France
For our first day in France, we visited the palace in Monaco on our own, followed by lunch and a very long walk in Nice down to the beach. We were exhausted by the time we reached the beach, but it was goregous nonethless. There's a definite difference between Italy and France along the Mediterranean. While the water is just as blue in both sites, there is SO much less graffiti on everything in France compared to Italy. On our second day in France (and last day of the cruise) we took a bus ride to Avignon to see the walled city and the Palace of the Popes. That trip was excellent. Everything in that old city was so beautiful, I just wish I hadn't been so wiped from the rest of the week or I might have enjoyed it even more!
Madrid
The following day Justin and I disembarked and made our way to the train station where we got a high speed train bound for Madrid. At its fastest, the train went 300 km/h! Wowzers! Once in Madrid, we decided that we were so tired from the rest of the trip that we were just going to take it easy and relax for our last couple of days. We strolled round the immediate area, never straying more than 15 minutes from the hotel, saw the beautiful palace and gardens, as well as some very nice parks in the area, and enjoyed more tapas, but all the while, focused on just taking it easy with Madrid. I'm really glad we did this because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have enjoyed Madrid much at all if we had forced ourselves to see every single tourist thing possible. As it turns out, I ended up really liking the part of Madrid we did see. (Not to mention, Spanish TV is very amusing, particularly the many shows that try to teach the viewers, young and old, English.)
All in all, we had a lovely honeymoon, full of wine, laughter and lots of hand holding, just the way a honeymoon should be. I couldn't have asked for a better one, but I am really glad to be home now. It's a great feeling. :-)
First day of work tomorrow... bed now!