So, I decided that since I can't possibly move into this year's Europe trip (aka Honeymoon) without finishing up LAST year's Europe trip. Our last day of the trip was spent in Barcelona and we had a great day. We decided to do a bus tour that took us all around the city to some of the most amazing cites. Our first stop that morning was to Park Guell. This park was designed by Gaudi, a famous architect who has many wonderful displays in the city of Barcelona. It was one of my favorite places throughout the entire trip. I almost wish we had found this place on our own so we could have spent a lot more time exploring it and taking it all in. Here are a few pics:
There are tunnel-like pathways below and a gravel walkway above.
Patrick posing near a tree growing up through the pathway.
Again, columns below, and a walkway above.
Patrick and I posing with a view of Barcelona in the background.
Us posing with one of Gaudi's most famous statues.
The next stop on our tour was the famous La Sagrada Familia. This is another one of Gaudi's designs and it is absolutely one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Construction on this church began in 1882, and it will not be complete until sometime in the next 10-20...almost 100 years after Gaudi's death! It's simply amazing. Again, here are a few pics:
The outside of the church...
These are sculpted into the side of the church, and are very high.
I love the 3 kings...
The ceiling inside the church.
Spiral stairway, again, inside the church.
I love the stain-glass windows.
This is also on the outside the of church...fun fact, every row and column of the numbers sums up to 33...the age Jesus was when he died.
This is near the alter at the church.
That afternoon, the tour took us to an area of Barcelona called El Poble. Looks like we failed to get pics there, but it was a small village that mirrored other areas of Spain...very cute and fun.
That evening, it was our last night in Spain...we spent the evening walking around the streets and taking it all in. We had a yummy dinner and we sat on a sidewalk and had some sangria. It was a lovely evening and a great way to end a wonderful trip.
Okay, I know, I know...it's been so long since I've done a Europe post that you forgot I even went there this past summer...well, I promised some people (Mom, I'm talking to you) that I would finish the trip blog posts, so here is the second to last day:
Early on Saturday morning, we hopped off the cruise ship and made our way to our hotel in Barcelona. We were staying at the Hotel Colon, and if you are traveling to Barcelona, I highly recommend it. It was clean, the employees were nice, and it was in a great central location. After turning in our luggage, we quickly made our way to La Rambla, the central street in Barcelona with tons of street vendors. It is extremely touristy, but also very cool. Upon arriving at Placa de Catalunya, there were tons of protestors camped out:
We had no idea what they were protesting about...The only information we could get from the locals was that they were unhappy with the way the government was being ran?????
Patrick kept asking me if could read these signs, and when I couldn't he asked me how many years I took Spanish ...I'm so sorry Mrs. Lanigan!
Anyway, we decided to make our way down La Rambla and we quickly came to La Boqueria, Europe's oldest mid-city food market. We spent lots of time here because it was just so cool! I loved all of the people and all of the colors. It would be so cool to have something like this in many towns in Nashville.
I love all of the cool colors in this pic!
There was fresh seafood everywhere you turned!
Patrick loved all the cured meats.
I was too scared to try any of the crazy food, but I loved looking around!
All that food built up our appetites...for something VERY American...McDonald's!
I actually got in trouble with the employees for taking this picture...I'm such a rebel!
I think the Easy Kiosk should come to America! So cool!
Me, pretty happy to be eating a good ole' McDonald's meal!
About this time, we were finally able to get into our hotel room, so we decided to go rest and unpack a little bit. While there, we found out that those peaceful protestors we had seen earlier in the day had been a little more violent the day before when the police tried to kick them out to clean the plaza...apparently, things got a little ugly! Back to our hotel room...it had a pretty cool view and a pretty cool balcony, so we had to take a few pictures:
That evening, the FC Barcelona soccer team was playing Manchester United in the 2011 Champions League Final, so we decided to head down to the ocean, have some paella and watch the game. Little did we know that soccer was SUCH a big deal to these people! It was absolutely amazing!!!!! Every bar or restaurant that had a TV in it was PACKED and people would be sitting on steps or outside the bar looking in the window just to see some of the game. We took our time walking to dinner and made a few stops along the way.
We stopped at a famous church (no clue what the name of it was), and low and behold, there was a wedding taking place!
I can't believe they still let us in to look around, but there were tons of people there! BTW, don't you love her veil?
Me with my favorite travel buddy!
Relaxing by the sea with some Sangria in my hand!
After dinner we were heading back to our hotel and found out that FC Barcelona won the Super Bowl of Soccer. Let me just say that the entire city went into an uproar! It was so exciting to see, but I have to say, being a tired girl who never really got over her jetlag, I was SOOOOO hoping the people would go to bed and let me do the same. Little did I know that they would party ALL. NIGHT. LONG! It was an amazing thing to see!
Stay tuned for the final day of our wonderful trip across the big pond! Hopefully, I won't wait 5 months again this time!
Our day at sea...what a relaxing day...I honestly had no idea how exhausted I would be on this trip! Maybe it was the jet lag, maybe it was the fact that I was kinda sick for the first 2-3 days, or maybe it was the fact that we didn't stop from the minute we got on the ship until our day at sea, but I was one tired chica by Day 5! Therefore, we were pretty much worthless on this day. It was pretty amazing though!
We slept in until around 11:00, when we finally pulled ourselves out of the room to go grab lunch. I had read that there was a Dodgeball tournament up on the "Lido" deck (haha), so we headed up there to check it out. Let me also state that Patrick is a serious fan of Dodgeball...once he found out he could compete, he pretty much dominated!
There was another family on the ship that we also seemed to be on every excursion with. They were the nicest family and the son reminded me so much of what I imagine Patrick was like at 19!
Here they are with they're medals!
With our friends from New York!
After that, we headed to the pool to work on our tans, but the wind was so high, we had to settle for a little relaxation in the hot tub. It was really nice to just do nothing for the day!
After we had our picture made with Kung Fu Panda, we were off to our final dinner with our tablemates. They were all a really nice group of people, and we had several nice chats during the week.
It was a wonderful cruise and we had such a great time! I was sooooo glad that our vacation wasn't over, yet, and that we still had 2 more days of fun in Barcelona! Stay tuned for more fun times in Europe!
Finally, after what seems like forever, I am back to my Europe posts! I have been so busy blogging about other things that I'm sure some of you (Mom, I'm talking to you) thought I was never going to finish. Well, I'm not going to lie...it may take me awhile, but I promise, I'll eventually finish the entire trip. =)
At 7:00 on Thursday morning, our ship arrived in Civitavecchia...don't ask me to pronouce that...all I know is that it was about an hour long train ride to Rome. After catching a quick bus ride to the train station, we jumped aboard the Roma Express and were on our way:
This little train was too cute, and it was very cozy!
Me, super excited to be heading to another new city!
After getting off the train, we were only a short walk to Vatican City. I am not Catholic, but I have to say there is something so spiritual about being in Vatican City. It is just beautiful and there is such an air of religiousness.
A view of the Vatican
Another View...
The arches we walked through to enter The Vatican from the train station
The 3rd door from the right is the Pope's Office...it looks like he was in that morning!
Since Patrick and I had gotten online the night before and reserved tickets later in the day for the Vatican, we decided to try to fit a few more things into our day. On our way into the city, our tour guide suggested that we should purchase tickets for one of those hop on/hop off buses. I am so glad we took her up on that, because it allowed us to see so much of the city that we wouldn't have been able to see otherwise. We got on the first time right outside The Vatican and started on our journey to see the city.
Patrick, on the bus with the Vatican behind him.
Who knew there was a such thing as a Ferrari Store?
The streets of Rome!
I can't believe how many scooters there were in Europe!
Our first stop along our bus route was my favorite place in all of Rome...the Trevi Fountain! I had never even heard of this place before this trip, but I think it may be one of the top 5 places I've ever been. It was beautiful, peaceful, crowded, and cool. Just wonderful!
View #1 of the Trevi Fountain
Me with My Beau!
View #2 of the Trevi Fountain
Patrick and I spent a LOT of time here!
Legend has it that every person who visits the fountain should throw a coin in to ensure that he/she will one day return to Rome...Well, you better believe Patrick and I were on that...although Patrick (the cynical one) said that the chances of us actually coming back to Rome were pretty slim, I still thought it was a nice dream... =)
After the Trevi Fountain, we decided to walk back to The Vatican to meet up for our tour. Along the way, we saw the most glorious site I had seen in a few days:
Of course because we wanted to make a couple of other quick stops, we didn't hunt it down, but it was very exciting to see a piece of home! We also walked by this during our walk:
Yep, that's right, it's a store that sells priest attire...honestly, I would have thought I would go my whole life without seeing such a store...how interesting!
Our next stop was the Pantheon where we spent a very short amount of time:
Beautiful courtyard surrounding the Pantheon!
Isn't it amazing?
Outdoor dining was such a big deal in Europe!
In case you were wondering, that over the shoulder purse was the best thing I took on this trip!
While we were in Rome, we really started enjoying taking videos of each of the places we visited. At the time I thought this was so funny, but looking back on it, I'm so glad we did this! It really shows the fun we have together and will also help us remember this amazing trip!
By this point, we were really in a hurry to make our Vatican tour appointment. Therefore, instead of eating another nice Italian lunch like we had intended, we had to grab something quickly...HOWEVER, because of this, I was able to drink my first European Fanta:
I had heard how different Fanta tasted in Europe, but I didn't believe it...let me just say, it's AMAZING!
After FINALLY arriving at Vatican City, we began our tour through the Vatican Museum. It was really a beautiful place, but honestly, it took SOOOOO long. As you can see from the following pics, it was gorgeous, but it just took forever!
I will say though that once we finally got to the Sistine Chapel (the most famous chapel in the world), it was definitely worth the wait! It was so beautiful and surreal...we didn't realize it at the time, but apparently you aren't supposed to take pictures. There were soooo many people taking pictures though...and yes, we were 2 of them:
Like many things in Rome, the pictures don't do it justice!
The famous ceiling of the Chapel
The alter of the chapel!
After finishing up at Vatican City, we decided to hop back on the bus and take a relaxing ride to the Colosseum. If the Trevi Fountain was my favorite thing in Rome, then the Colosseum was definitely my 2nd favorite! It was so big! The weirdest thing to me is that you can be walking through this city that's very similar to any large US city (i.e. Chicago, NYC, etc); however, you turn a corner and all of a sudden there's this huge structure that was built almost 2000 years ago! It's so amazing!
First view of the Colosseum
I couldn't believe there were men up that high working!
And another view...
Patrick being silly
And another view...
And a close-up view...
And another view...
As you can see...we were pretty impressed by this stop of the day!
And finally, a couple photo...
And now, for my favorite video of the entire trip...
After seeing everything one can possibly see in Rome in 12 hours, it was time to get back on the ship. Because we knew the next day would be an easy day at sea, we decided to stay out late and live it up that night. Well, we did our best, but SOMEONE may have had a little too much fun too early on and that someone's boyfriend MIGHT have had to take care of her and put her to bed kinda early...I mean, I'm just saying it MIGHT have happened...we still enjoyed the evening though!
Since it was the night of the midnight buffet, I got lots of pics of the food!
Another food pic...
I'm pretty proud of my ship-shaped drink!
Gotta love the one-armed self portrait!
As we were calling it a night, our room attendant had made the best towel animal I have EVER seen!
I mean, who doesn't love monkeys?
Well, that's it from Italy...it was amazing, but now it's time to focus on the next stop...BARCELONA!!!!!
I am a recent newlywed living in Nashville, TN. I work for a CPA firm as a tax manager and in my spare time love to hang out with my husband and our dog, Sweet Zoey. I have a wonderful family and friends, and always have tons of fun in life!
