WE’RE BACK!! We got in around 5pm Saturday, and couldn’t stay awake past 8pm. (Jet lag is awesome.) Also, Delta misplaced my suitcase full of 2+ weeks of souvenirs at O’Hare, but they managed to find and deliver it Sunday. I can’t even express the unique combination of rage and panic I had over that.
Our vacation was incredible, and so varied it’s hard to remember times and places at this point. I have well over a thousand photos, and Matt has 600. Since it’ll take me forever to get through them, here’s a photo-a-day version, which is a totally insufficient summary but will do for now.
Day 1/2: Parliament in Rome. This photo doesn’t convey how incredibly huge it is. This is one of the most impressive things I saw there.
Day 3: Sail-away champagne (ok, Prosecco, since we bought it in Rome) on the cruise. Our cabin on the back of the ship was amazing.
Day 4: Our lock on a fence on the Via dell’ Amore in Cinque Terre. You’re supposed to write your name on the lock and throw the keys in the ocean.
Day 5: Monte Carlo, Monaco. It was exactly as over-the-top ridiculous as we wanted. (The structure right in the center is the stands for the Grand Prix, which is next week!)
Day 6: La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Gaudi is some kind of insane genius. We loved Barcelona; it’s a great city for wandering. Just take the metro, because it’s HUGE and you may almost die if you try to walk it all. We know this.
Day 6 bonus photo: We came back from Barcelona to find this on our bed (minus Bally, of course; I added him). We also were sent a bottle of champagne and still don’t know who it’s from… we met two different groups of awesome people on the ship and don’t know who sent it!
Day 7: Our ship offered cocktail classes, and we took one on the day at sea. We figured it would all be stuff we knew, but we did actually learn a few things and met nice people. Plus Matt got to get behind the bar!
Day 7 bonus photo, because can this ever get old?
Day 8: We made a “friend” in the souk in Tunis and had to make a quick getaway. You know that scene in Indiana Jones where he’s running through the market trying to escape? It’s not that far from the truth. (It wasn’t that funny at the time, but it’s hilarious in retrospect.) Also, Tunisia is amazing in so many ways, and we got great insight thanks to our driver Hedy. Totally not what I expected.
Day 9: Palermo, Sicily, Italy… one corner of the Quattro Canti. (What I really want to post is the Capuchin Crypts, but you CAN’T TAKE PHOTOS OF THE MUMMIES. I will always remember how it smells being in a basement full of people who have been dead for hundreds of years.)
Day 10: Off the ship and back in Rome. I really love that all the touristy crap in Rome is legitimately impressive. Also, it’s such a great city for wandering around. Plus Italians are the best Europeans.
Day 11: The Spanish Steps. My photos of them are crappy because we got up early, rushed to see them (it was a little over a mile roundtrip), pick up our bags at the hotel and roll them to Roma Termini, and from there to Fuimicino airport, then to Paris Orly, then to pick up our car and drive to Brussels. So we were maybe rushed a little, and of course we had to climb the damn stairs even though it was hot out.
Day 12: Brussels! We stayed in a 5-star mansion of a hotel, everything was within walking distance, and they have excellent beer everywhere you look.
Day 13: Mini-Europe and the Atomium in Brussels. These are things that exist, and we didn’t know about them til recently, which is pretty much a failure on our parts. Loved them, and unfortunately had to hurry because we were going to catch a train to London.
Day 14: Visited the Queen’s house in London. I don’t get the royal family thing at all, but I definitely loved all the Jubilee stuff at Harrod’s.
Day 15: The Cutty Sark. In Greenwich, which was awesome. We visited the Prime Meridian, because we’re that kind of nerdy.
Day 16: Back to Paris (via the train through the Chunnel, and our car parked in Brussels). Notre Dame was another of those places which was as unbelievable in person as you’d hope. We went inside, and they were having some weird laser-projected show going on in the dark.
Day 17: We took a boat on the Seine that visited all the major sights in Paris. What I’ve realized is that everything is better when you’re on a boat.
Day 18: We flew home. Airfrance from Charles de Gaulle to O’Hare was the best 9-hour flight (or best flight, period) I’ve ever been on.
I’ll be back with more photos soon!
I can’t wait to see all the photos. And hear all about it!! So far: AMAZING.
I’m pretty disappointed that in all the photos you chose there were only two drinks in them…at least tell me you were half liquered up taking the pictures!
the liquoring-up usually took place after being tourists. or on airfrance, where i think they want everyone to be drunk all the time.
Great pics. I can’t wait to go back to Italy in October. I think your first picture is the Parliament (aka Wedding Cake building) and not the Pantheon :)
I took a journal last time, writing down everything we saw because it does get to be a blur!
oh crap, you’re right! i do have a pretty extensive journal, but of course i haven’t consulted it. haha.
It is SO much to consume :) I felt like I was on art, culture, history overload. And I can’t even find my journal. It had a picture of the leaning tower as the cover & everything :/ I wanted to take it back for our October trip. It can not be found. Awesome!