Photos!

Boy...did I take a ton of photos!! I've spent the better part of the last two days going through all of my photo cards and uploading the best ones to Winkflash. You'll find 700+ at http://www.suzastampin.winkflash.com Enjoy!

We're home!

What an amazing adventure! I still can't believe the number of famous places that we visited. We left the ship at 5:30 am to catch our shuttle to the airport. There was a bike race in Barcelona yesterday morning, so, the roads were going to be closed making us need to get to the airport early. Our flight left Barcelona around noon and we arrived 9 hrs later in Philadelphia at 3:15 pm US time. We had a 3 hr layover in Philly before boarding our flight into Albany. It was a short flight and I dozed on and off most of the way. By the time we arrived home, we had been up for about 20 hrs. I couldn't wait to see my husband and then hit the bed! I got about 5 hrs sleep but was awake about 4 am. Finally, after tossing and turning for awhile, I decided to just get up and start the laundry. Our weather in NY is supposed to be nice today and tomorrow, so, that should help me get caught up as there's 12 days worth here, plus all of my clothes. I love to hang the wash on the line, so, I was hoping for good weather!

I'll be working my way through emails today and trying to get caught up on things. As I get caught up, I'll start going through the thousands of photos to post the best in some slide shows. I know there are some that can be deleted as many were taken as we flew by things on a bus. Needless to say, I have some fleeting tree pictures! LOL!

Can't wait to get time to post a good long post with lots of details and pics!

Nice & Monte Carlo

Changing of tbe Guard

Prince Andrew's Palace

Cathedral


Monte Carlo Casino

Tender

I can't believe this fabulous trip has come to an end. Nice is a tender port, which means we had to take small boats from the ship to port. Once we reached the port, we drove through Nice on our way to Monaco and Monte Carlo. They certainly aren't lacking for money in Monte Carlo. We posed for pictures in front of a black Lamborgini, plus saw a yellow and a silver one. We also spotted Bentleys and Mazarattis. I'm not sure if I spelled Mazaratti correctly, as it's the first time I've seen one. LOL!
After seeing Monte Carlo, we drove on to Monaco. We visited the Cathedral where Princess Grace and Prince Andrew are entombed. After the Cathedral, we went on to the palace to view the changing of the guard. After some time for shopping, we boarded our bus to get back to the port. Once at the port, we tendered back to our ship and set sail at 3 pm. We'll arrive in Barcelona around 5 am. Our plane leaves around noon, so, we'll be catching a shuttle to the airport a little after 6 am. Since Barcelona is a port city, there are many ships disembarking on Sunday, so the airport could be a bit crazy.
While it's been a great vacation with lots to see, I'm looking forward to getting home. Over the next week, I'll go through the 2500-3000 photos that I've taken and pick out the best to post a slideshow for viewing.
See you in the states!

Florence/Pisa

We had another fantabulous day! We started our day in Florence viewing two of the most gorgeous churches I have ever seen! They were bulit with pink and green marble. After walking the streets of Florence, we did a little shopping for some Italian leather. Beautiful! Then it was on to lunch. Yum! After lunch we walked to the Accademia Gallery to view Michelangelo's David and some of his other works. The detail on the statue of David was breathtaking! We also view some paintings in the gallery, but, due to time limits, did not have much time to just wander. After boarding our bus, we headed to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower and take the usual photo of each of us holding up the Tower. I can't wait to get home and post pictures of everything!

Tomorrow we will be in Nice, France. We then fly out of Barcelona around noon on Sunday. I hope to get on again tomorrow with a report from Nice.

Rome Photos

Vatican Ceiling
Swiss Guards at Vatican

Coliseum

Trevi Fountain

Pompeii Photos

Beautiful inlaid wooden table in Sorrento
Paintings on the wall of the Pompeii ruins
More paintings on the wall of the ruins
Pompeii ruins

Mt. Vesuvius

Rome!

Wow! What a day! We left the ship at 8 am and headed for Rome. It's about a 1 1/2 hr bus ride from Civitavecchia to Rome. We arrived and walked to the Trevi Fountain to toss in a coin. After the fountain we headed for the ruins of the Coliseum. The architectural dig continues at the Coliseum.

After the Coliseum, we headed for some lunch. What we thought was going to be a quick lunch turned out to be a 5 course meal! We were stuffed and did not expect to eat that much for lunch. After lunch, we boarded our bus to The Vatican. Gorgeous! The lines were long, but it didn't take us long to wind our way to the door to enter. Absolutely one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen!

We are exhausted! We have walked what seems like a million miles. Good thing tho as the food on the ship is delicious! Tomorrow is another full day tour filled with Pisa and Florence. My plan is to get to bed tonight at a decent hour so I can catch up on some zzzzzzzzzzzs!

I was going to post some Pompeii and Rome pictures, but the internet is very slow here again tonight. Hopefully tomorrow!

Pompeii, Sorrento, & Capri

Another fantastic day! Just when I think it can't get any better, it does! Today we visited the ruins of Pompeii. We shopped in Sorrento and did some sightseeing in Capri. The ruins in Pompeii were nothing like I had imagined. Everyone is saying the same thing. We did not expect it to be as massive as it was. The ruins of Pompeii came from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. When the lava flowed, it came down the volcano and buried the city below. People who were walking down or standing in the street were stopped in their tracks and covered with lava. We saw both humans and a dog. The insides of the walls of the buildings were amazing. They painted scenes on the walls of their homes. Some of these paintings are still visable! There were also graffiti etchings on the walls of the theatre.
We then moved on to Sorrento to do some serious shopping. LOL! The inlaid wooden boxes were gorgeous. There was also the most beautiful table I have ever seen. I have taken a picture of it and will post it at a later time. I said that if I were ever to have a table that gorgeous in my home, there would be barbed wire around it so that nobody could get close enough to it to put a scratch on it! LOL!
We then took a hydrofoil to the island of Capri. Once on the island we took a bus about half way up to top. The road winds around and around and is barely wide enough for two vehicles to get through. Let's just say, we had a close call or three! LOL!
After spending some time on the island, we took another hydrofoil back to the port and boarded the ship. We've spent each evening doing some of the many activites provided. Tonight we went to a showing of the Second City Comedy group. Very funny. After that, we moved on to the Spinnaker Lounge for a game of The Newlywed Game. I have not laughed so much in a very long time! The Emcee was a hoot and the couples ranged from being married 5 days, 10 days and up to 43 years. Following The Newlywed Game they was a Dancing with the Stars competition, but, we didn't stay for that. We need to finally get to bed before 12:30! It will be a long day tomorrow as we tour Rome.
I took many pictures today and will post some tomorrow along with some Rome photos.
Well, off to bed! We may actually make it to bed by 11. Good thing as we need to be up by 6 to be ready for our excursion at 7:30.

Malta

Currently, we are sailing through the straight with Greece on one side of the ship and Italy on the other. We also sailed past the volcano, Mt. Etna. It was already dark by the time we went through, so, we couldn't see anything. I'm not sure if we would have even if it was daylight.

This morning we sailed into the Malta port around 7 am and disembarked about 8 am to take a tour around the island of Malta. We started out in the fishing village of St. Julian's. They have these cute multi-colored boats that have a raised eye painted on each side of the bow. These boats go by the name of Dghajsa. They look similiar to a gondala boat, but are more colorful.


There were horses and carriages in the fishing village.




We continued on to the Blue Grotto. The water is so blue!



After viewing the Blue Grotto, we continued up the mountain to the highest point on the island of Malta. Pictured below is a limestone church at the highest point.



On Wednesday we are in the port of Naples, Italy. We will disembark to see Sorrento, Pompeii, and Capri.

Below are the pictures that I've been trying to upload for Paris and Barcelona


Eiffel Tower


I'll post some pictures tomorrow from Barcelona and also from our trip into Sorrento, Pompeii and Capri.

Paris Photos

Here's a couple of photos of Paris. I'm going to resize some more and will post them and some of Barcelona and Malta later on.

Day at Sea

We've had a great day at sea. Very relaxing, which was nice after being on the run for the last few days. We sailed past the coast of Algeria around noon and will pull into Malta around 7am in the morning. The view coming into the port is supposed to be spectacular and we'll be on the observation deck to view it. After that, we will depart the ship for the Malta Scenic Beauty excursion. The only thing that I know we will see is the Blue Grotto. I have no idea what other sights we will see.

Will post more tomorrow! I'm having a fantastic time!

Barcelona!

On our way to the ship today, we toured the Gaudi museaum. The mosaics were amazing! It's been another long day. I'll post more tomorrow with details of the things we have seen. But, since the ship's internet is as slow as it was in Europe, I'm going to need to download a photo program tomorrow to resize my photos since they are so large, they don't want to upload.

When I get back, I will go into more details on all that we see and will put up lots more pictures. I will put together some slideshows and label each of the photos. The internet connection on the ship is very show and my pictures are too large to upload.

We're on the ship now and will be at sea all day Monday. Tuesday we'll leave the ship for our Malta Scenic Beauty excurion. We'll see the Blue Grotto while there, and so much more.

Amazing!!!!

Wow! Paris was absolutely amazing! We ended up missing our Eurostar train and having to catch the next one, so, that threw things into a tailspin. But, we recovered nicely. What an amazing city. We walked around and it´s like nothing I´ve seen before. We went to all the tourist attractions.

I will go into more detail tomorrow once we hit the ship. Our internet connection in London was the pits and it took all of my battery to upload the few pics and post the London message. We don´t have the right converter here to convert for my power cord, so, when we hit the ship, we´ll have power and I can post some pictures and go into lots more detail. Plus, by then I´ll have some sleep and can be a bit more coherent. We´re running on about 8 hrs sleep over the course of 3 days.

We´re in Barcelona now. What a fabulous city! We walked down La Ramblas and saw the street people perform. We went to the gorgeous church that they´ve been building for I have no idea how many years. I´ll know when I post tomorrow.

We just came back from seeing the most amazing sight. They have this gorgeous water feature that is lighted and dances to music. It only runs in October and November on Friday and Saturday nights. It was the most spectacular sight!

I have taken a ton of photos and will post some tomorrow when we get on the ship. Each day is better than the first! Having a ball!

Check back tomorrow for pictures!

More pics

Pictures, I think!

The internet connection is extremely slow here and has caused the pictures to upload horribly. They're very pixilated when enlarged, so, I hope you can make them out.

Here's a link

London

We're in London!

We made it! Our flight into Gatwick Airport was uneventful...thank goodness! But...the cab right from Gatwick into London...that's another story! It's about 25 miles and it took us almost 1 1/2 hrs to get there. Talk about traffic! We were so afraid that we would miss the changing of the guard as it was already 11:15 when we arrived at Buckingham Palace. We thought the guard changed at 11 am, but, thankfully, it was 11:30. Phew!! So, we got to see everything...well, as much as one can see with a bunch of people standing in front of you :) After the changing of the guard, we headed for the Double Decker bus and flew through the city. We jumped off at Big Ben to see the Parliment and Westminster Abbey. Wow! It would take a day just to do Westminster Abbey justice. After that we started walking and ended up at the Royal Mews at just the right time for the changing of the horse guard.

After that, we headed to the location of the London Eye and the River Boat tour. We took the boat tour first, had some dinner and then road the London Eye just at dusk so that we could see the city all lit up. Unfortunately, the majority of those pictures did not come out well. I'm not sure if it's from taking them through the glass or what.

Then, of course, we had to take a cab to Harrod's Department Store to see what was there. Wow! What a store! We only bought a little chocolate to bring home to family just so we could have a Harrod's bag and receipt. LOL!

It's been a fantastic first day!

We get up tomorrow in time to catch the 5:25 Eurostar into Paris. We've already scheduled a walking tour that covers all the main tourist attractions.

I'll try and post some pictures in a little bit. The internet connection is very slow, so, they're not uploading. I need to resize and try again.

Now, it's time to get some sleep! Check back tomorrow for Paris info.

We're in Charlotte!

We've arrived in Charlotte, NC! I survived the flight and it wasn't so bad. Although, I did feel like a sardine in a can! LOL! We have a 3 hr layover and then we're headed to London, baby! Can't wait!
Will post more tomorrow!