First stop, Barcelona. Actually, that's not completely true. We were supposed to fly directly from Dallas to Madrid and then take a short flight to Barcelona. Because of a thunderstorm in Dallas, we were going to miss our connection in Madrid (actually, we'd still have 45 minutes in Madrid, which Jacob and I thought would be plenty of time, but more on that later). We ended up getting routed through Paris, which I was really excited about. I knew that we wouldn't be able to go into the city, of course, but thought there was a good chance we'd see the Eiffel tower from the plane.
The flight from Dallas to Paris is about 9 hours. Jacob and I had the two seats by the window, in a two seat row, so we didn't have to share space with anyone. The flight was not full at all, so there were several three seat rows with no one in them. The flight attendant offered to change us, but I was really hoping that I'd get to see the Eiffel Tower, and in the middle there was no window, so we stayed. After a long night, we landed in Paris to a complete fog cover. I couldn't even see the ground until we hit it (thank goodness for technology!) so I didn't see the Eiffel Tower.
Once we landed in Paris, it became abundantly clear why the airline said we couldn't make our connection in Madrid. Things in European airports move at a MUCH different pace than in American airports. Suffice it to say, neither Jacob or I have much desire to fly into Paris again.
Although getting there was a little rough, it was the only snag in the entire trip.
First stop, Barcelona...
The central square is La Catyluna which is connected to La Rambla. La Rambla is this beautiful open air market of sorts that has all kinds of vendors.
All over the street were these people dressed up in crazy costumes. At first I thought it was because we were there on Halloween, but nope, this is a year round thing.
Mom and Me in front of one of the beautiful buildings in Barcelona...
Next stop, Cannes and Nice, France. This was the central square in Nice. It was beautiful, with several fountains and amazing buildings.
In Genoa, it poured down rain. It was raining so hard, it was hard to see the skyline from the ship. Did we let that stop us? No way! Actually, Dad opted to stay on the ship, but Mom, Jacob, and I ventured out. Unfortunately, we couldn't take the camera because of the rain, but it did let up later and Jacob got some shots from the ship.
The church on the right with the green roof is actually striped with black and white marble. Inside was gorgeous! I was so sad we didn't have the camera with us. It was absolutely amazing.
The Genoa skyline and harbor.
The next port was Pisa. We had a laundry list of things we wanted to do there and none of the ship's excursions fit the bill. Besides that, they were a little pricey. We wanted to see the Leaning Tower, of course, go to a winery in Tuscany (you can't be in Tuscany and not do that!), and then Mom really wanted to go to Florence and see the Statue of David. When we got off the ship, there were some taxi drivers advertising trips to Florence and Pisa. We got the winery thrown in and we were off!
Guiseppe was our driver and really hooked us up. We ended up going through the wine country about 9:30 in the morning, not too many tastings or tours available at that time. Guiseppe got on the phone and we ended up with a private tour of Fattoria San Michele. It was great!
The entrance...
Part of the cellar. This cellar dates back to the 1400's. During WWII, people used it as a bomb shelter.
The wine was amazing, but unfortunately, we couldn't get it home. Then it was on to Florence.
The old bridge, which is now converted to shops.
The first of the two replicas of David. This one is made out of bronze. It was so cold!
The second replica of David, this one out of marble. After seeing these two, and looking at the lines at the museum where the original is, we opted to not see the original. Really, how much different could it be?
On to Pisa! I really enjoyed Pisa much more than I thought I would. I wish we would have had more time to just explore some of the neat little shops and sidewalk cafes.
This is the church and museum on the square with the Leaning Tower.
The Leaning Tower...
And the classic Leaning Tower shot.
That's about halfway through the cruise and we haven't been to Rome yet! I'll post the rest of the trip soon.
