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| Tuesday: Heading Across the Pond. Well, almost... | ||||||
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With a full pot of coffee and a dozen
doughnuts, the family truckster departed Rockport at 6:30am. We met up
with Pop Pete at the Houston airport for our flight to Newark and our
connecting flight to Paris. Or so we thought. A thunderstorm south of
New Jersey forced our plane to divert to Baltimore and we missed our
connection. So, instead of spending Tuesday evening winging our way over
to Europe, we spent it arguing with Pablo and the other Continental Airlines
incompetents. At about 11pm, we resigned ourselves to
spending the night in Newark. And, rather than what would have been a
shortened visit to Paris, we opted to just stay in Barcelona for the two
days before our cruise departed. |
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| Celebrating July 4th in the Houston airport. Yee haw. | Reaction to being stranded in Newark and having to skip Paris | Well, at least Continental didn't lose our bags | ||||
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| Wednesday: New York | ||||||
| Trying to make the most of our unexpected layover in Newark, we headed into rainy Manhattan for a few hours. We enjoyed the NBC Studios tour, Times Square, Ground Zero and $64 worth of sandwiches before heading out to Newark airport for our flight to Barcelona. | ||||||
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| Rockefeller Center | Stage Deli | With Rupert Gee from the David Letterman Show | Times Square | Ground Zero | ||
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| Finally, on our way back out to the Newark airport and on to Barcelona | Miranda, the world's most traveled monkey, makes yet another trip | |||||
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| Paris, France (Paris trip simulation brought to you by PetersonVision ®) | ||||||
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These are some of the things we would have
seen if we had actually made it to Paris. |
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| Mona and Elizabeth | Eiffel Tower | Paris and Will | ||||
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| Thursday/Friday: Barcelona, Spain | ||||||
| With the help of Google and Borders Book Store, we hastily planned our unexpected two-day visit in Barcelona. What a nice surprise - we found Barcelona to be a great place to visit. We arrived early on Wednesday morning, and fended off the jet-lag-induced urge to sleep with a stroll down La Rambla and a visit to the Barcelona Cathedral. On Thursday, we visited a couple of couple of great structures designed by Antoni Gaudi, and walked around the harbor area. Will took 276 pictures in one day, before losing Bill's camera. | ||||||
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| Winging our way over the Atlantic and in to Spain | Arriving in Barcelona | Except for the vagrant sleeping in the hallway, our hotel in Barcelona was very nice | Pete awaits the Barcelona Metro | Heading in to town | ||
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| Sights from the Mercat de la Boqueria | Sights from the Barcelona Cathedral | Elizabeth makes friends with a mime | At the La Sagrada Familia | |||
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| Sights from La Sagrada Familia | Will found the trip to La Sagrada Familia to be quite enriching | el Arco de Triunfo | Pete lassos a lion at the Barcelona harbor | |||
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| Sights from Casa Battlo | Heading back to the hotel after a long day of exploring | |||||
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| Saturday: We set sail | ||||||
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Our two cabs zoomed us from our hotel to the
pier, and by 11:30am we were all aboard the Voyager of the Seas.
We spent the afternoon doing the requisite exploring and making
reservations for the week. About 7:30pm, as we were enjoying dinner with
our tablemates (the Murphy family from Scotland), the Voyager set sail for
France. After dinner, we all caught the "Welcome Aboard Show", the
grown ups made donations in the casino, the kids set out to make some
new friends, and fun for all commenced. |
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| Ready to go! | Elizabeth takes the elevator up to her cabin | Yet another lifeboat drill | Pop Pete shows the waiter how to spin a tray | |||
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| Sunday: Marseilles, France | ||||||
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Marseilles is pretty quiet on Sundays, so we
just strolled around the old part of the city, had lunch at a sidewalk
cafe, and took a hairy tram ride up to the Notre Dame de la Garde
cathedral. This was the first formal night and we enjoyed a very
nice dinner in the dining room. After dinner, we caught the show,
and everyone won in the casino - including Elizabeth, who won $156
playing craps. As usual, Will disappeared into the night,
whereabouts unknown. |
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| The harbor in Marseilles | Will discovers where Evian comes from | Elizabeth calls home | Day 2 of the cruise, and Will is already tired of the picture taking | Will scores a watch. Don't expect any after-sales service there buddy. | ||
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| Bill tries to choke down some scary bouillabaisse | At the Basilique Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde | So many french fries, so little time... | Formal night | |||
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| Elizabeth and Will | ||||||
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| Monday: Villefranche, France | ||||||
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While the youngsters slept in, the grown-ups
awoke early to catch a train over to Monte Carlo. What a great
place - just as pretty as the postcards, very clean, and obscenely
affluent. We helped fund the Monaco economy with a visit to the
Grand Casino, did a little shopping, and headed back to the ship for
lunch at Johnny Rockets. Late in the afternoon, the kids joined us
for a return trip to Villefranche to hang out on the beach (by the way,
one piece of a two-piece swim suit appears to be optional in
Villefranche). After
dinner and watching the sun set while cruising down the French Riviera,
we scored another win in the ship's casino and turned in for our busy excursion
tomorrow. |
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| Scenes from Villefranche | In front of the Grand Casino in Monte Carlo | Monte Carlo | Even the taxis are cool here | |||
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| Tendering away from the Voyager | Swimming in the Mediterranean | Enjoying the sunset as we shove off for Italy | ||||
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| Tuesday: Florence/Pisa, Italy | ||||||
| We met our guide Manny at 8:00am and he delivered us to Pisa before the tour busses arrived. After 294 winding steps, we made our way to the top of Leaning Tower. The Tower is fun, but it didn't take long to see all we want to see, so after the purchase a few requisite miniature leaning tower souvenirs, we hopped back in the van and Manny sped us to Florence. After lunch ("the best pizza ever", according to renowned pizza expert Will Peterson), we toured the Galleria dell'Accademia (to see Michelangelo's "David"), the Complesso Monumentale di Santa Croce (to see the final resting place of Michelangelo & many of his buddies), did a little shopping, and indulged in a gelato before heading back to the ship. We had dinner tonight at "Portofino" - a very nice restaurant on the ship - and then enjoyed the ice show. Elizabeth linked up with a new friend tonight, Johnna from South Carolina. | ||||||
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| Manny was waiting for us on the pier | Yikes | Pete does his share to prevent the tower for leaning further | Made it to the top! | |||
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| Overlooking Florence | Bootleg photo of Pete and Elizabeth with David | Michelangelo's tomb in the Santa Croce | Dinner at Portofino restaurant on the ship | |||
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| Wednesday: Rome, Italy | ||||||
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Our guide, Claudio, picked us up at
8:00am and whisked us into Rome. What a busy day: the Roman Forum,
the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps - all
before lunch! After lunch at a nice trattoria, we had another
guide, Katerina, lead us through the Sistene Chapel, St. Peter's
Basilica and the rest of the Vatican. |
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| Our guide, Claudio | The Roman Forum | Outside of the Coliseum | And inside | Will and Pop Pete check out the Coliseum | ||
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| At the Pantheon | Elizabeth tosses a coin into the Trevi Fountain | With a gladiator at the Trevi Fountain (apparently, "Gladiator" is Italian for "loser in costume that charges 10 euros to take a picture with him") | On the Spanish Steps | Our guide for the Vatican, Katerina | ||
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| The Sistene Chapel | All worn out from a day in Rome (and from staying out way too late the night before) | |||||
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| Thursday: Naples, Italy | ||||||
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Our guide Adriano met us at 8:00 sharp and we
headed for the Amalfi Coast. If there is a prettier place than the
Amalfi Coast, we sure haven't seen it. We visited Positano,
Amalfi, Ravello, and had some great pasta and pizza at a great little
restaurant in Pontone. After leaving the Coast, Adriano drove us
over to Pompeii, were we had a two-hour tour through the ruins.
After our very tiring tour, it was a struggle to don our formal duds for
the evening; but we did, and enjoyed a nice dinner and show. |
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| Elizabeth on the Amalfi Coast | Overlooking Positano, Italy | Pompeii | Bill and Pete demonstrate how the gladiators trained in Pompeii | With our guide Adriano | ||
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| Decorum was a little lacking at our second formal night | Pete and Elizabeth look to break the bank at Let it Ride | |||||
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| Friday: At Sea | ||||||
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Finally, a little relaxation. After
three long days of excursions, it was nice to have a little R & R
Reading, napping, eating, and a little last minute exploring was the
order of the day. A casual dinner, the farewell show, and it was
time to pack up a week full of fun. |
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| Pete and Captain Gerry | Enjoying our last night at sea | Serving our servers, Anna and Paolo, on our last night at sea | ||||
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| Saturday: Heading Home | ||||||
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We left the Schooner Bar on the Voyager at
7:05am Barcelona time, and arrived at 12:13am Texas time - 24 hours and
8 minutes of travel. We arrived home with one less camera, alot
fewer dollars, 2465 photos, and countless memories. Until next
time... |
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| When you look like your passport photos, it's time to go home | While dozing on the way home, Will bears a striking resemblance to a Pompeii victim | |||||
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10. (to Pablo, the useless Continental Airlines representative who explained how he had worked 30 unpaid minutes to try to help us): "Man, that's a half hour you'll never get back" 9. "What time do we have to get up?" 8. "Let me pop one." 7. "Where's Will?" (also, "Will, we spend 1/3 of our time looking at the sights, and 2/3 of our time looking for you!" 6. "New rule: no more than one church per day." 5. Pete's Aladdin's Lamp joke told to the Murphys, featuring a "gold Cadillac", "a $100 bill", and an "Oscar Meyer wiener", none of which had any meaning to our Scottish table mates. 4. "Eat something! You're skin n' bones!" 3. "I wanted to see more ashed up people at Pompeii." 2. (when Will was asked if he wanted to go to the midnight buffet) "Yeah. Let me grab another piece of pizza first." 1. "I want to do
this again, but not anytime soon." |
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