Day one-The doclings and I left Atlanta on Tuesday, arriving in Barcelona on Wednesday morning. Our flight to Munich did not leave until 2 PM so we hung around the Barcelona airport attempting to translate food. When we arrived in Munich , EuroKid was waiting for us outside of customs. She was more beautiful than her pictures shadowed. This very mature young woman took us via the German rail system to our hotel, the Holiday Inn in downtown Munich. We had a beautiful view of downtown Munich, but hardly had time to appreciate it as we headed to dinner at a vegetarian restaurant with EuroKid and her family. Aunt Tropical Doc joined us as well. She is a tropical medicine physician who is married to an emergency physician. I wanted very much to meet him as well, however he was required to work that night. EuroDad and EuroMom were wonderful. The food was delicious but I hardly noticed because the company was so much fun! It was all too soon when Aunt Tropical Doc drove us back to our hotel, where we fell into an exhausted sleep.
The next morning, EuroDad and EuroKid met us bright and early in our hotel lobby where we began our exploration and expedition through downtown Munich. The Munich market was just as I remembered, although a bit damp, as we were caught in a sudden rainstorm. I found some lovely honey which was delicious! We waited out the weather in a nearby Starbucks and then when the skies began to clear we made our way deeper into the city. We climbed 13 floors up the belltower and had a birds eye view of the glockenspiel of the main square as it marked the hour of noon. Native figures performed their timeless dance and the mechanical knights jousted. I suspect that the color code of the knights was significant since the blue and white Bavarian knight knocked over the red and yellow knight wearing the colors of Austria. After we caught our breaths following the climb, we took the bus to an open market called the "mini Oktoberfest". Our lunch of sauerkraut and gnocchi was delicious. We shared a German pastry similar to a doughnut as well before heading back to our hotel to freshen up for dinner.
Dinner with EuroKid and her family was a blast! Their hospitality was so gracious that we could not have felt more welcome. Martha's sisters were so cute we wanted to take everyone home with us. the doclings played soccer with them in the backyard. The girls all were wearing their Atlanta T-shirts that we brought for them. The three little sisters (11, 9, and 7) were just as cute as they could be! We were so sad when it was time to head back to our hotel. I'll fly to Barcelona left bright and early Friday morning and EuroMom and EuroKid were kind enough to get us a ride to the airport. We had made such good friends, we felt we were leaving part of our family behind!
August 5 found us back in the Barcelona airport, this time waiting for diverdownspouse. His flight was delayed slightly but we ended up meeting in customs and rode to the hotel together. Melia Barcelona was in a very nice area of town near grocery stores, making it easy for us to purchase supplies for our cruise. We had a nice, long walk to the Chocolate Museum (XM), which we always find with difficulty. The chocolates were as delicious as ever, and did not last long in our bags. We had a lovely dinner in the shade of l'Iglesia Santa Maria del Mar. It was fascinating watching the passersby. After dinner, we negotiated the Barcelona subway system and managed to return to our hotel with no problem
Saturday, August 6 was the day we had been waiting for! We hired a taxi to take us to the port where we boarded our home away from home, the Disney Magic! We adapted to the rhythm of the ship immediately, having sailed on three prior occasions. We had no luck with an upgrade on this cruise, but our inside cabin (2101), was our home away from home. Conrad, our server, was wonderful and Timur was a delight. Our dinner companions proved so much fun that when it came time for our dinner at Palo we were sorry that we could not share it with them. Neil, Kate, Luke, and Amy were terrifically engaging.
Sunday, August 7 brought our very first disappointment. The breakfast buffet at Parrot Cay had the worst grits I have ever had. I discussed them with the chef who nodded and said that he would try to do better, but this became a never-ending thorn in my side. I begged our head waiter Luis to do something about this tragedy, but to no avail. The grits problem was quickly forgotten once our first excursion began. VIllefranche, France was our first port of call. We had access to Nice, France where we walked around in old city center. A lovely lunch in Eze, France was shortly followed by our trip to Monaco. We toured through Monaco, Monaco and saw the palace as well as the outside of the oceanographic institute where Jacques Cousteau's first submarine is located. Mark enjoyed his brief tour of the Palace. Morgan, Wolf, and I enjoyed people watching while we waited to recongregate for our trip to Monte Carlo. Every third car was a Ferrari, every fourth car was a Porsche, and every fifth car was a Bentley. The only thing exotic for them would've been American heavy metal. We enjoyed seeing the Gucci, Pucci, Tucci stores though we did not enter the casino because we couldn't afford it!
Monday, August 8- The next morning held more bad grits on our way to La Spezia in Italy. Our trip to Florence and Pisa was the long-awaited. Florence was every bit as beautiful as I remembered! We enjoyed seeing the monuments and I particularly enjoyed hearing about the Medici family. The Palazzo Vecchio was beautiful, and the palace dominated the square. The sculptures taught Morgan a little more anatomy than I was prepared for, but otherwise the kids seem to enjoy seeing the sights. We traveled along the Piazza Della Signore to the outside of the Uffizi Gallery and on to the Ponte Vecchio. Since mom's house was broken into earlier this year and all of her earings were stolen, I was able to replace at least two pairs with offerings from Florence. While we were there, I met a shopkeeper who had ties to Atlanta and he just couldn't live with himself if I didn't purchase the beautiful handbag from his shop. He gave a "special discount" that I could not discuss with the other passengers, and I pretended to believe him. The bag was very nice and now resides in my closet. Pisa was a delight for everyone. Diverdownspouse has never been to Italy so this was a treat for him to see one of her well-known landmarks. We all took turns making the obligatory silly photos pushing, pulling, pinching, and sitting on the tower. We did not have time to climb the tower, as they only have recently begun allowing tourists to do this again. Additionally there is a very long wait for tickets and we had a ship to catch.
CivitaVecchia was our port of call on Tuesday, August 9. This was the port for Roma! How does one even begin to choose the highlights of Rome? There were so many highlights, I don't know how they settled on the three that we saw. After a quick drive through Rome and a brief orientation of the entirety of Western civilization, our first stop was the Colosseum. This was diverdownspouse's favorite stop in Rome and I thoroughly enjoyed it as well. We got to see the areas of combat and the remains of the three rings. The engineering was amazing. To think, that the original stadium actually had a cover! Amazing. From the coliseum we went to Trevi fountain where the doclings threw three coins in while I took pictures. I had forgotten how huge that fountain is! The whole fountain was larger than our pool, and the Piazza was nearly a football field in size. From Trevi fountain we walked through narrow streets out to a main thoroughfare where we walked up the hill to a very nice hotel where we had our lunch. I could barely hear the guide during most of this walk and I gather there were honeybees associated with one of the Popes. I'm still not clear why, although apparently there are honeybees carved into many monuments in Roma. After a delicious lunch where I managed to spill wine on only one person, we went to Vatican City to see the Pope. It turns out that he wasn't home, so we went to the Sistine Chapel and through many of the art galleries as well as St. Peter's instead. Since Il Papa made us cover our knees and shoulders, we were rather hot under the collar by the time we arrived! The works of art were astounding. Male docling really enjoyed the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and though he is not well-educated in biblical literature, I did have to explain parts of it to him. The restoration is finally complete, and I enjoyed seeing the art in its original colors. Following our tour through St. Peter's Basilica, we ended up in the Square near the ancient Egyptian obelisk. We were treated to the use of Bernini's colonnade and the fancy optical illusion which made the back three columns disappear when one stands on the focus of the ellipse. One of the more fascinating tidbits I learned was that the other cathedrals that were much smaller than St. Peter's were kept smaller by virtue of the fact that the Pope refused to consecrate if they were bigger than St. Peter's. Sigh- ever-present politics!
Thus ends part uno of our trip- part two coming up soon!
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