Europe Part I

My mom came to visit us for Mother's Day this year, it was fun to spend some time together before we left on our big trip this year. She was nice enough to stay and watch Ellie for us while we went on a Mediterranean Cruise, thanks again Mom! We took a quick trip to Tahoe while she was here, but mostly laid low before leaving.







You heard me right, we decided to do something we've always wanted to do and go to Spain, France, and Italy. This was several years in the making. The first attempt was over 2 years ago when we bought non-refundable tickets to Barcelona. Joni ended up getting pregnant and had some complications and her doctor told her not to go. It ended up being nothing, but we were pretty dissapointed to say the least, and lost out on our tickets.

We almost didn't make it this time either, it was like it wasn't meant to be. We were all ready to go when we were told the plane landed in Reno "too hard" and the flight was cancelled. Three different phone calls and 3 different people told us there were no flights and absolutely nothing they could do to refund our money or get us there on time. Not only that but the cruise was non-refundable. After several hours on the phone and almost cancelling everything, we tried one more time. A lady in Chicago ended up putting us on a flight that would get us to Barcelona 2 hours after we were supposed to board the ship.

Long story short, we sprinted through the Newark airport and dodged several near misses, travelled from Thursday through Saturday with no sleep and we made it. It was the most stressful trip to get there ever and we were pretty messed up for a couple of days. I don't think we'll ever travel on Friday the 13th again.

One of our most favorite days was Villefranche and Nice France. It was the most beautiful port, pictures don't even do the place justice. It was straight out of a movie, beautiful city on a hill, cobblestone small streets and walkways. We ended up walking a ton this day, including to the very top of a hill to overlook the whole city.



The weather was perfect except for a little rain, but when that came we just ducked into a little cookie shop and ate French pastries until the rain let up. We were planning on spending most of the day at the beach but it was really rocky and the water was freezing.

We walked through a fun farmer's market with some of the biggest and most colorful fruits and vegatables you could imagine. This place was so colorful and unique, and one of our most pleasant surprises of our trip.







Joni fell in love with all of the different kinds of doors, we were walking around on Sunday while the church bells were ringing, it was such a special feeling there.














The first night on the Cruise was formal night. We had a great time on the ship too, there was so much to do and surprisingly very few Americans on the ship. We made sure we stayed active while on the ship playing games, going to shows and even competing in an adult dodge ball tournament. The highlight of that was that Joni's team beat mine to win the gold medal right after I got hit with a dodgeball in my sweet spot. To make matters worse the ref had a microphone and made a comment about me getting hit in the "jugglers" to which the crowd got a good laugh at my expense. Joni's not gonna let me live that one down.

Day 2 was Rome. I've always wanted to go to Rome, it was so cool to feel the history of the place but it also wasn't what I expected. It was a very unique city as well but much more metropolitan than I would have imagined. The wierd thing is that ruins were all over the place, and the Coliseum is right off a very busy main street.



The Vatican was a powerful place. We ate some Gelato's at the Trevi Fountain, and rode the city bus around other parts of town.

We bought a couple of italian soccer sweatshirts as the day started off a bit cold. There is so much history and amazing sculpture to the buildings and fountains in Rome. You would literally walk around a corner and a famous landmark would be right in front of you. Funny thing was that I recognized most of the places we saw from the movie Angels and Demons...whatever works.

By the end of the Rome day we were pretty tired. The 9 hour time change as well as long travel and tons of walking was wearing us down.

We ended up walking around the Vatican walls and then just laid on the steps in St. Peter's Square because we couldn't move anymore. We took the train back to the ship and crashed early that night.