Honeymoon Travels

As I posted a few status' on Facebook from time to time, Chris and I had a very busy honeymoon. We knew with that our future starting dental school and having children in the coming years that there would be no better time than now to travel the world. I had never been to Europe and Chris had been once before with his brother Andrew. So I was especially excited to see the land, meet the people and be enriched in the different cultures. We really wanted to see as much as we could in the month we had available before Chris started back up to finish his Undergrad at Washington State University so we chose to do a Mediterranean Sea Cruise.

Because it would take much to long to document each and every moment of our trip I will give you a quick thought from each stop and pictures too J

July 17^th, after a long day of traveling we had finally reached our first stop Barcelona, Spain! We arrived just in time to be checked into our hotel and head out for dinner because we were starving! A wonderful recommendation from our Bell Hop lead us to a family owned restaurant that was delicious and so much fun. One thing being said though, if I were not there with my husband it would not have been as great, because nobody—I mean zip, zilch, nada—spoke English. From the moment we walked in the door to the intimate 7 table restaurant, I swear everyone’s head turned our way. For some reason the fair skinned, blonde that walked in must have looked lost or at least out of place. You could see the panic come across the owner’s face as she knew that she could not speak to the apparent “Americans”. As she welcomed us in the slowest Spanish she could muster in hopes we would comprehend a bit, she was so relieved when Chris quickly responded in Spanish. And from there on she LOVED us, maybe more Chris than I as I tried my best, but lets be honest Chris was busy translating all evening. The Owner was so gracious to us, and the moment she learned we were on our Honeymoon she started bringing us desserts on the house, and sat down with us to hear all about our wedding. It ended with lots of kisses on the cheeks, hugs and the warmest welcome to Spain.

Welcome to....

Outside of the Spanish Tapas restaurant

View of Barcelona

La Sagrada Familia (currently under renovation) Incredible!!

First stop Monte Carlo, Monaco. After boarding the ship we sailed through the night to Monte Carlo where we took a taxi boat to shore and loaded a tour bus in which we first drove to southern france to Cannes and drove through Nice then back to tour in Monte Carlo. We loved Cannes, it was a beautiful city sitting on the shore of the French Riveria. We had a couple hours to walk the streets and take in the scenery. Then we drove back to Monaco and again had a few hours to walk the streets in the small town. We were right outside the Royal Palace when suddenly the gates open and we saw the Prince drive out escorted by police! So that made it memorable, not every day that you see a 'real' prince! After that we went through the church in which Princess Grace Kelly was married in and is now buried in. Monte Carlo was on of the most beautiful places we saw. Because of the excess of money in the small city it is impeccably clean and very well policed. 

Here is our boat-- The Ruby Princess

On to Nice

The 'mock' red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival

Look over the bay in Monte Carlo-- and our boat anchored at sea!

The Palace

stunning streets to wander through

Florence & Pizza

      We then boarded the ship to head our way to Italy!! I was so excited for the next few stops. I am not sure what it is, but the allure of Italy has always consumed me. I had this picture in my head of the old architecture, rolling hills of sun flowers, good food and the most friendly people. So here I was about to have a dream come true and really experience ITALY!! I think I was so excited I could hardly sleep the night prior. We spent the day touring art museums, seeing churches and eating fabulous food! Great start to our days in Italy. At the end of our day leaving the leaning tour of Pizza suddenly our tour guide stopped our group and said that we needed to hold on to our wallets because we were about to walk by a group of pick- pockets. The group of women and children saw him telling us this and they rolled their eyes knowing they couldn't get away with it so they let us pass without trouble. 

In line to go see Michelangelo's David-- Stunning Sculpture! These street vendors sell mock paintings . 

Duomo

Beautiful buildings- this was actually a women's prison, but now is a 4- star hotel!

This view of Ponte Vecchio (bridge) from the Uffizi museum. This bridge is important because it was the first across the Arno river and is the only to survived the WWII

Here is the typical  Leaning Tour of Pizza picture :) it was funny because they is hundreds of people all doing the same thing all around 

Silly Husband 

Happy Couple!!

Rome & Vatican

Again I loved Rome and Vatican as well as pictures show we had a BUSY tourist day!

The Colosseum built in AD 80!

Hallway in the base level of the Colosseum, waiting to go up

This is where the main stage where it all took place! Amazing

This was taken from the bus, the history lined the streets. It was absolutely beautiful

Trevi Fountain

Tossing in my coin

Love him

I loved the ornate ceilings in the Vatican Museum, I could have shot pictures for hours, but we were on a tight time schedule :) Next time...

These are once in a lifetime pictures! They do not allow pictures in the Sistine Chapel and have it heavily guarded to ensure of this but for some reason we got in and no guards to be seen so our guide said turn the flash off and quickly snap pictures- look what we captured! "The Creation of Adam" by Michelangelo!!

St. Peters Square

St. Peters Basilica

La Pieta

     

Capri, Sorrento, & Pompeii

            The island of Capri was absolutely beautiful, but what really stands out in my mind was the amazing Pompeii. A little history in case you are aware, the city of Pompeii was partially destroyed and buried under up to 20 feet of ash as a result of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. The city was then lost for almost 1700 years. Since its rediscovery they have continually been excavating the area where now is a large tourist attraction. I had personally been very intrigued in this area ever since studying it in a geology class I took in undergrad. As you can see in the pictures the ash and lava came so unexpectedly people were found lying in the streets and in bath houses doing their daily activity. The way that the ash cooled it created perfect molds of people, animals, etc. which were so fascinating to see.

Beautiful Buildings

The most amazing Lemonade!

The main bay in Capri-- just like a post card!

Coming into Sorrento

Roads of Pompei

The Bath House in the city

The people of Pompei were so advanced. As you can see they had lead piping in the walls  for the flow of water.

One of the human castings found on the grounds of the Bath House

Even the people of Pompei like 50 Shades of Grey ;) This was obviously the whore house of the town- complete with concrete beds and all.

This casting was of a person kneeling in prayer

This is why Pompei stuck out in my mind- Wow

Mykonos

            This small Greek island, only about 30 sq miles, was so windy!! Our tour guide told us that they have over 300 windy days a year! It truly was beautiful and it really did look just like the post cards architecture with the white buildings adorning blue shutters. Also the island has a story of a sick pelican that washed up on Mykonos and the people nursed it back to health and called it “Peter the Pelican”. Now Pelicans can be found walking in the ally’s. One happened to be right in the middle of where we had to go and it was one BIG bird!! I’d be lying if I did not say I was a bit freaked out to walk by it J chicken I know it...

Welcome to MyKonos, Greece

If I return to Mykonos I am coming straight to this beach, it was a little slice of heaven

This was painted on the domed ceiling of the church

This man had a small fruit stand out the back of his truck. I got a kick out of his hat!

Me terrified of the bird! You can see almost the entire tour group is ahead of us as I wanted to watch everyone else pass by first...

Peter the Pelican-- Picture does not do justice of his size

This is really what all the streets looked like!

Until next time Greece

Istanbul, Turkey

I have to be honest, Turkey was a country that had never really been on my list of places I really wanted to see, but I learned that, that was only due to my lack of education of what it was home to. As you can see in the first picture below it was incredibly smoggy and humid to boot! But that being said the Mosques, Palaces and Cistern were definitely worth the stop. 

Coming into port. You see the Blue Mosque in the centet

Sultan Ahmed Mosque "Blue Mosque", because of the blue tiles on the inside. One note is that because of the extreme heat and humidity combined with the fact that when you go inside you must remove your shoes, my oh my did it smell of sweaty feet :) I'll let your imagination run with that...

That man is selling bagels--- and balancing them on his head!

Hand Carpet Weaving- who would have known the intricacies 

Entrance to the Topkapi Palace. It was the primary residence of the Otoman Sultans for about 400 years. It now is a museum that holds many sacred Muslim artifacts, army history and even a 96 Carat diamond that was on a Sultans hat 

View of Asian Turkey- Turkey is on both Europe and Asia

Another Mosque- beautiful details

The 2 pictures below are in the Cistern- Chris loved this!

Chris spent almost an hour playing around with different modes on the camera but both of these pictures are unedited! It was gorgeous!

           

Efes (Ephesus)

     This is where Paul is credited to write Ephesians the 10th book in the New Testament. Again it was hotter than hot, but still incredible history. It was all buried (kind of like Pompei) and they are slowly excavating and uncovering more every day.

This theater is still used today. The acoustics are so impressive that bands like Elton John and Sting have come and performed concerts here without the use of speakers!

Look familiar?? This is still used today associated with medicine or healthcare

This is the bath house... that both genders use concurrently. Don't worry there was a water feature in the room so you don't have to listen to the man sitting next to you--- eek that would have been uncomfortable.

This is a good example of their building capabilities 

Turkey Flag

At least they are honest right?

I rode a camel!!

Athens

     This island was just incredible with the amount of history all around. We were able to really see a majority of the big tourist spots. I loved it all but the Acropolis was one what stuck out because of not only the intricate architecture a top the hill, but the view of the rest of athens was absolutely breath taking. You had a full 360 degree view that was amazing to take in. 

Temple of Zeus. It is located in the center of Athens

View of the Acropolis from Temple of Zeus

The acropolis amphitheatre 

The Erechtheum atop the Acropolis

The Temple of the Blacksmiths, Hephaestus

This is a renovated market place. They purposely only carved the groves halfway down because of when people would bring their goods in on carts it would only chip away at groves, therefore leaving it smooth was best. 

Voldemort?

Venice

   Without a doubt I loved Venice from the very moment we spotted the islands on our way into port. We arrived there around noon so we sat on our balcony and took pictures as we came into Venice. The amazing water filled canals really are as pretty and magical as you imagine! 

The night prior to arriving to Venice I was so excited that I hardly slept so about 5 am I decided I would go sit out on our balcony to write in my journal and not wake Chris and this was the pleasant surprise. The sunrise was amazing-- this is not filtered or edited! 

Doge's Palace

Piazzo San Marco or St. Mark's Square

We made it to port after passing these beautiful sites. We then took a water taxi over to St. Mark's Square

Who wouldn't want to live here?!

The Rialto Bridge, one of four bridges spanning the Grand Canal. It is the oldest bridge across the canal

This is Venice :)

Middle of St. Mark's Square

Inside of St. Mark's Basilica

This was amazing! Venice and surrounding islands are known for their glass blowing. We watched this man blow this small pitcher in a matter of minutes!

Inside the Doge's Palace... I told Chris we could move here after Dental School ;)

Some of the sculptures that lined the hallways of the palace!

We got to go on a private gondola ride at sunset!! What a romantic husband I have!

Grand Canal

Back view of Rialto Bridge

Last minutes on our gondola

We were starving after our gondola ride so we found a little restaurant and ate the most amazing meal! This was our creme' brulee dessert that came out flaming! mmmmm!

After a fun filled couple days in Venice we were glad to head to bed in this hotel. The hotel was a renovated palace, and our room was in a stand alone building in the middle of the garden! Sorry now camera allowed in the room... :)

Paris, France

I don't believe I am alone in saying that Paris has always been a must see place on my bucket list. Although we weren't ready to leave Venice, Paris was the perfect place to go next. We saw a lot but definitely not all that we would have liked, so I suppose that means we just have to go back some day. But I think that I can handle that. How can you not love a city full of beautiful buildings, museums, art, great shopping, crepes, bread and cheese galore!!

Welcome to Paris!

Front of Notre Dame-- we fell in love with this church so sorry for the excess of pictures :)

Inside 

Famous Rose Glass Window

What is not to love?

Our 2 hour wait to go inside to the top was along this street was a typical Paris street filled with vendors of food and shopping

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sorry to do this in 2 posts but its not letting me upload pictures so watch for post 2 as well to finish up our trip :)