Med Cruise day 7 Palma, Spain Saturday

The last day we spent at an island off of Spain. I also REALLY loved this. What can I say I am an island kind a person! :) We didn't do any excursions here, just purchased the bus ride back and forth from the port to the main streets in the city. It was so nice and mellow. We had been in places where you couldn't see open ground for what seemed like miles because of people, it was nice to be somewhere a little more low key.

We started by viewing the outside of yet another church.:) We didn't see inside because I told Phil we had seem plenty of those. ;)

Then we did some SERIOUS shopping! Oh I so loved this. We shopped up and down the streets in the normal stores, through the square with lots of cart type shops that had jewelry. I loved shopping and bought what Phil would let me. ;) Scarfs, jewelry, candy, a purse. It was just fabulous.

Shopping!!!

 More "statue people"

Square of shops

 We also tried some pizza here, so yum! Of course we had to get our last gelato too. We saw an interesting site while walking.... guess thats just ok here in Spain. lol

I will say I didn't take this picture but I am not sad someone else did. ;)

Then we headed back through the city along the front of the church and down the town until we got to the beach...at last!

 Yes Please!!

It was a nice leisure day. When we got back to the ship we went straight up to the top and took a nap in the sun. Heaven! We ate to our hearts content that night at the buffet. We went to the cruise staff talent show which was hilariously enjoyable. It was like a junior high talent show, I felt like I should get up there and belt out "Remember Me This Way" from Casper just like I did back then...that pretty much sums it up! lol

Sunday
We got up and had our last breakfast on the ship and disembarked about 8:30...ready for our day of flying! We left at 10, had a 5 hour layover in JFK and then got home at about 10:30 Sunday night (6:30 AM where we were from) to say we were exhausted is an understatement. It was crazy how it took almost two weeks to get used to it again with out our frequent naps! Such a great trip! Thank you Harmons!

Med Cruise day 6 At Sea

We slept in until 10 or so. It was so nice. We didn't even make a peep before then. We decided to skip breakfast and do lunch so we watched How to Train Your Dragon in our room until lunch. Then we went and had lunch at the buffet. After Phil went to the gym and I did some homework, I was coming home to two test the following week. The only reason I felt ok about it was because it was overcast and somewhat cold so I couldn't lay out. I was bummed about that. We meet up back at the room, watched another movie, went up for a snack, took a nap and then got ready for dinner. It was a nice leisurely day after all the hustle and bustle of the past few days. We meet up with everyone from Harmons for dinner at the steak place again! YUM! I got the same thing as last time except for only a 5 oz filet, and 2 pieces of cheese cake!

Oh it was SOOO good!

Our anniversary was the following week as was one of the other couples so they brought us out these cakes and sang us some weird silly song.

 Kathy and Jim

us

After dinner we hung out and decided to play cards. The water was so so rough and the boat was rocking like crazy! I told them I thought I was going to yak so I'd be back. I ended up having to lay down for the rest of the night because I was feeling so sick! I don't understand why I have to get motion sickness. I never got it until I hit my 20's. really weird!  

Med Cruise day 5 Naples, Italy Thursday

Pompeii
Naples was the last of our early days. We first headed to Pompeii. We had the same set up with a mini bus and a guide. This time the guide we had on the bus gave us lots of info during the ride and was also our guide all day.
Pompeii is a city that was completely buried under 4-6 meters of ash during a very long eruption(2 days) from a  volcano in 79 AD. It is crazy because it was lost for 1500 years until it was accidental found in 1599. It was really cool to see how well the stuff had been preserved under all that ash. It was also crazy to see how back then they had things like whore houses with penis' carved into streets and walls directing the way to them. They had many statues of stated items for sale at the souvenir shops. I guess for this city they were a huge symbol of health and prosperity. strange.

A hole where people who were buried were trying to dig out. 

 When there is hallow area in the ground they are able to inject plaster in to form casts from the hallow space. These spaces are where organic material was. That is how they have got these bodies, animals, vases etc. They can get of anything that is made of organic material.

Capri
This was my favorite part of the whole trip! It is an Italian island and was absolutely stunning! We rode our mini bus back to the port and then hopped on a this...

For a 45 minute boat ride over to the island.

What we saw when we got off. The whole island is mtn with stuff built straight up the side. We took a SCARY bus ride up the mtn to the side called Anacapri. I feared for my life the whole time. This beauty is what we saw of the side while driving...beautiful but not if our mini bus went over the edge...ya know?

At the top our tour guide pointed us in the direction of lunch. It was nice because we actually got to have a nice sit down lunch of true Italian food. An interesting salad with a balsamic dressing...interesting but good. Homemade past with a green basil tasting sauce, very good. Gelato for dessert with some Coca Cola Light on the side. It was super good. No menu just this is what you get and it was worth all the 16 euros, even though we didn't have to pay. :) This was the excursion Harmons booked for us to all go on together. They were so nice and generous. They not only paid for it all but also bought us a beautiful music box, it is something Capri is famous for.
After lunch we rode a chair lift up to the top of the island for a beautiful view!

View on the chair lift

When we got to the top it was literally breath taking. I am not sure I have ever seen anything more amazing in my life. 

Can you see those little boats?

After we rode back down we went to the Capri side of the island and had some time to shop. I got some fresh olive oil for souvenirs. After the boat ride back we got back on the ship.
That night we enjoyed the buffet for dinner. They had the best stir fry where you could pick all your own veggies, and some yummy pasta choices.

Med Cruise day 4 Civitavecchia, Italy Wednesday

This day was also an early start and the busiest by far...we were non stop on the go. Our first stop was supposed to be Vatican City, however when we got there the Pope was going to speak and we wouldn't have been able to see St Peter's Basilica.

The Pope flying in

 so we decided to change up the order and head to....

Trevi Fountain
We had a whole 16 minutes here I believe. It gave us just enough time to throw in a coin (to ensure we return to Rome) and take a few pictures. It is said that if you throw in 2 coins you will get married and 3 you will get divorced. I made sure to only throw in 1. :) I also thought it was funny that about 3,000 Euros are thrown in a day.

We then headed back to Vatican City. We saw some cool sites along the way.

"the wedding cake" I dont even know what it real purpose was... haha

We saw a bunch of super old structures

The traffic is UNREAL

 

Vatican City
When we got back to Vatican city the line was amazingly long. It was nice to have a guide and get right to the front. While she purchased our tickets Phil was able to hold her "tutu" This is what she used to help us keep track of her. We also wore headsets so we could hear everything she said as we walked.

My favorite part of all the museums was our tour guide gave us an overview of all the pictures Michaelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel so that when we went in there we already knew about them all of them and could just look. 

Us outside Vatican City

Also an interesting fact is that Vatican City is a country, we have been the smallest country in the world. :) Here is a view of what we saw...

 All the chairs set up for the Pope's talk

 Second window from the right is the Pope's

 Swiss guards

 LOTS of this in the museums, and tapestrys  and maps, and more statues

The Pope spoke under that little white thing

We also got to see inside the Sistine chapel but you are not allowed to take pictures. It was really beautiful. Also we saw where the smoke comes out to signal that a new Pope has been chosen. And I thought it was interesting that they do that choosing in the Sistine Chapel. 

St Peter's Basilica is the largest Catholic church. Inside they showed a lot of other popular churchs size compared to it, it was very impressive. 

 Funny we had no idea why you touch this but everyone was so Phil wanted his pic doing it. lol we still dont know! haha

 Me with the Holy Door it is only opened every 25 years lastly in 2000

After we finished up here we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a local place, Phil and I had sandwiches similar to the day before that were really good.  Walking back to the bus after we saw a lot of gypsies. They intrigues me and still do, I wish I would have had time to watch them finagle some people. :)

The Colosseum

 This was my favorite part of the day. It is just crazy to think they can even build something like that! CRAZY! It was amazing. Phil and I watched Gladiator on the way to Spain in preparation. :)

 The floor use to be where the white flooring and railing is. All of the other walls are the underground area where people prepared and such. 

 The whole outer wall you see in the left side originally came out to where the sidewalk is. It was damaged during an earthquake. 

The whole gang

Like I said it was a VERY long and busy day. I am so glad we got to see as much as we did, because who knows when or if we will ever go back. 

That night we tried out the Mexican restaurant on the ship. It was good and every time we ate at one with a cover charge we ate ourselves sick. 

I also think that was the night we saw the acrobat show. Pretty good.