Italy, Day 4

June 7, Florence. We woke up early so we could wait in line for the Uffizi Gallery to see too many Renaisance paintings, including Botticelli's Birth of Venus (although perhaps more than one would be too many). Then we waited in line an outrageous four hours to see Michealangelo's David. Pictures were not allowed at either location but picture two shows one of the many recreations strewn about the city. We ate some more gelato and left for Sienna.

Pic 1: Lego tiger outside a toy and hobby shop.
Pic 4: Another skyline view of Florence.

Italy, Day 3

June 6, Florence. In Firenze (its actual Italian name) we walked around the city and stopped for a quick lunch outside of one of the churches in the city. I brushed off a couple of crumbs and was immediately swarmed by dozens of hungry pidgons. Then we visited a purfumery that has been doing business for over 800 years, which, as you may imagine, smelled very nice (see picture 2 for the hallway onto the shop). We also toured the Galileo museum and saw various scientific instruments and a few fingers from Galileo's hand. . . We also stepped into Florence's huge cathedral, followed by two servings of Italy's best gelato.

Los Gatos de Europa y un perro

Todos los gatos en Europa dicen miau aunque todos los no viven en Espana. Que interesante.

Italy, Day 2.

June 5, Lucca and Pisa. We spent the day strolling around Lucca's well preserved Renaissance era wall, and then headed to Pisa to see the tower. Then we moved on to Florence to spend the next couple of days.

Pic 1: Tower and cathedral at Pisa.
Pic 2: Mural in Pisa that I liked.
Pic 3: Slightly blurry skyline of Florence, taken from Piazza Michaelangelo.

Italy, Day 1

June 4, Cinque Terre. Pronounced Chink-wey Ter-rey, this is a series of five cities that we visited. There are hiking paths connecting the towns but the two middle ones were closed due to rock falls. We parked at the first city early in the day, explored, and then took the grueling and very hot hike to the next town, where we ate our first Italian pizza. We took the trains between the next towns, and then hiked the "lover's way" to the last one. There are hundreds of locks along the last trail because it is symbolic in italy to place one with your sweetie. Right in the last town, at the end of the day, on an even stair I managed to twist my ankle, but I hobbled back to the car with Loren.

Monaco

June 3. There was plenty to do in Monaco, even though the whole county is less than a square mile in area. We took a picture of the Monte Carlo, saw the cathedral and royal palace, strolled in the gardens, and visited the Jacques Cousteau aquarium (the outside of which, can be seen in picture 3). Then we headed for Italy.

France, Day 3: Nice isn't nice

June 2. We made our way to Nice, France, stopping to see the Gorges du Verdon and driving through France's grand canyon. However we were disapointed when we actually got there since the beaches are really rocky and the entire city is overcrowded- people were double parked along entire streets lined with "No Parking" signs, essentially reducing them to one lane roads. So, we spent the night, but planned on going to Monaco the next morning.

France, Day 2

June 1: Carcassonne, France. Visiting this fortress was just like going to the Renaissance Festival- only real.

France, Day 1

May 31. We crossed into France and took narrow, windy roads through the country side in order to avoid the toll routes. 

Pic 1: Gorge.
Pic 2: A picture of the road through the gorge taken from the car.
Pic 3: Castle named Chateau Peyrepertuse that we saw, but couldnt go in because it was already closed when we got there.

Andorra

May 30. We spent the afternoon in Andorra's capital shopping for groceries and a pair of shoes that would not tear off the backs of my feet (stupid ecco shoes from ebay) so that we could go hiking the rest of the day. I found a hike that was suppose to take us to a gorgeous mountain lake, but after a 4 hour, nearly vertical climb we decided to stay the night in the conveniently located Prat Primer shelter. It was a great hike even though we didnt make it to the lake. The next morning it took us 2 hours to hike back down, and then we drove a picturesque route into France.

Pic 1: A neat melting clock statue taken in Andorra la Vella, Andorra's capital.
Pic 2: Loren ready for the start of the trail to Prat Primer standing next to our brand new Peugeot 207 64.
Pic 3: Prat Primer shelter were we spent the rainy night of May 30th.
Pic 4: After another 30 minute climb I (Loren watched me) made it to this breathtaking (because it was so incredibly steep!) view and listened to the call of a hawk echo through the mountain peaks. It took me nearly the same amount of time to navigate back down to avoid falling down the mountain.

All roads lead to our hotel in Rome

Yay, we made it to our hotel and have internet, blog entries to follow.

No internet

Hello all, we are currently in Florence, Italy having left Pisa yesterday and posting this from an internet cafe. By Italian law there is no free wifi access without an italian phone number, and thus we are unable to make posts and use the internet here without paying. We should be able to put up a bunch of posts as soon as we get to Rome where we have booked a hotel with wifi this weekend. We are good, car is good, Europe is good.

Barcelona, Spain, Days 2 and 3

May 28 and 29. Much of our second day in Barcelona was spent searching for a hotel room for the night since just about all of them were taken by the protesters. We finally reserved one online and spent the rest of the day walking to it and seeing the sights aling the way, which was quite a feat because the hotel was 8 miles away and we had to carry all of our stuff. But we made it there, slept the night, and picked up our car the next day and headed toward Andorra.

Pic 1: Arc de Triompe in Barcelona.
Pic 2:  Gaudi's stunning and unfinished Sagrada Familia, which is remarkably hard to capture a good photo of. They say that this cathedral might be finished by 2017.
Pic 3: The cool, puffy horse statue that we waited at to pick up our car at the Barcelona airport.

On the Ship, Part 2

On the second half of our cruise we sawf fireworks at sea at the Pirates of the Carribean deck party, saw the premiere of the fourth Pirates movie, went to a midnight dessert buffet to get a plate of chocolate covered strawberries, watched Tron (in 3D), Gnomeo and Juliet (in 3 D), and African Cats, saw groups of dolphins swimming with the ship,went to see a show with some Charro person that I had never heard of but Loren tells me was popular at one time, saw a Flamenco show starring the uvnumber one group in Spain, and we played ping pong amongst other things.

Pic 1: The Disney Magic (in the center) has 10 floors but is relatively small in terms of cruise ship sizes.
Pic 2: Loren at our super early, 6:30am breakfast on the last day.

Gibraltar, UK

Wednesday, May 25. Gibraltar was our first visit to the UK on this trip until July. We set off bright and early to make our way to the infamous steps up the rock. We made it to the old city wall and to our first challenge- left or right? Loren says "right;" Heather says "left, of course." So, we walked to the left, clockwise around the rock. In fact we walked clockwise for an hour and a half on the only road on that side of the mountain only to get to a tunnel with no pedestrian walking. So we turned back, had lunch on the ship, then explored the old city and gardens of Gibraltar but didn't have time to make it up the rock to see the view and the tailess monkeys.

Lesson learned: Whenever you find yourself in Gibraltar, do not go left at the wall. (Or do it purposely, so you have an excuse to return.)

Pic 1: Photo of the Rock and the city of Gibraltar taken from deck 10 on the ship.
Pic 2: Picture of an ugly Moorish castle.
Pic 3: Alameda Botanical Garden. Walkway over the gardens with intricate vine-age.
Pic 4: Giant koi fish, picture taken from the walkway bridge from picture 3.

Barcelona, Spain, Day 1

Friday, May 27. This was the last full day of our cruise and our first day in Barcelona. We enjoyed the city, strolled Las Ramblas, saw a cathedral, and walked the gothic quarter. Then we were back on the ship for our last dinner.

Pic 1: Mercat de San Joseph where you can buy fresh fruit, squids, whole cow legs, and eels.
Pic 2: The inside of the cathedral we visited.
Pic 3: Huge monument at one end of a gorgeous park where we spent about two hours eating lunch and using the free wifi.
Pic 4: Helicopter over a city square monitoring a protest that soon after we passed by broke out into a small riot.