Our European Cruise Vacation

Ok, I'm not joking when I say this is a long post. It look me 2 hours to upload all 130 of the pictures, and about another hour and a half to give captions. The process has taken over 3 days to complete, so get a snack if you need one and settle in to see 1/6th of the pictures we took on our 2 week vacation to Europe and Asia.
This is me in the London Heathrow Airport after being in a plane for 9 hours. Thrilling
In Barcelona, getting a little something to eat at the end of our long day to travel.
The Columbus statue, we walked around Barcelona for about 4-5 hours before getting on the boat.
Hey Everybody!
Cam thinks Goudi's architecture is cool, so he's showing a "Blue Steel" pose.
Wow, am I really in Europe, this is great!
Can you spot Cam in his shirt that matches the arch?
A pretty good impression I thought.
Oh it's bright, but so great to be on the boat, and our feet were tired from walking but we saved probably 10 euro by walking from our hotel to the pier with our suitcases.
Our first gourmet meal on the boat, mine was Indian and I ate it wrong, but it still tasted good.
Port 1: Villefrance, France. A picturesque photo I thought
We took the train to Monaco, here's Cam with the city in the background.
And here he is again in one of their small streets.
The Monte Carlo Casino, very nice inside--but we only saw the entrance because you had to pay to go into the casino part.
The back side of the casino.
And another view.
We then took the train to Nice, France. This was near the beach and the older part of town with the tourist shops.
There was a beautiful park on a hill, we went part of the way up and took pictures but didn't climb to the waterfall at the top because of time and feet that were still tired.
This is the view from where we climbed, it was a pebble beach and the water sounded cool on the big rocks.
And back to Villefrache, you can see our boat in the distance.
Port 2: Livorno, Italy-- Gateway to Pisa and Florence. This is the Field of Miracles, and is stunning when you walk in the gates.
We bought tickets and took the climb up to the top of the leaning tower.
I don't know how it stayed standing when I let it go.
But it was a good thing Cam was holding it from the opposite side, because it seems to tip more in his direction.
A view down from the top. My dad would not have liked it. But you are all the way on the top with a little guardrail. If you look closely you can see the shadows of people on the top.
Keeping my balance on the slick marble.
Cam's about to fall into the middle of the tower.
And one last picture from the top, you can see the basilica and baptistery behind us.
Here I am in Florence. I can't remember the name of this church.
Posing in a museum. We saw some original work from Donatello and Michelangelo's students.
This is the 3rd largest Christian building in the world.
Cam in front of the baptistery.
Here we are in a Piazza, we just finished our rip-off gelatto, I won't say how much we paid, but it was ridiculous. Behind us is David--the exact replica--since the original is in a museum.
Same Piazza.
And there he is, I was confused in our navigation's and was glad we found it because I was getting downtrodden thinking we'd made it all the way to Florence and I wouldn't see THE David.
I just liked this sculpture.
This guy was weird, he wouldn't let go of my hand after we took the picture, maybe he thought I'd give a bigger tip the longer he held my hand...
A picture over the Arno River.
And some rowers on the river.
A view from the bus. Now you can see why it is the 3rd largest Christian building in the world.
The Tuscany Countryside.
My Man Cam, all dressed up and looking mighty fine for dinner.
From the top deck after dinner.
Port 3: Rome.
We walked from our port to the train station. And then took and hour ride into the city.
Our first stop was Vatican City.
I really liked the way the guards dressed.
This is Cam from the steps of St. Peter's Basilica.
They let us in while they were having mass. It's too bad it was Sunday and the Sistine Chapel is not open on Sundays.
Just another view inside, the people were ruthless in there, shoving and everything.
We were on a bridge here. You can see the Dome of St. Peter's Basilica very small in the background.
The Pantheon.
Oh look, some Roman Guards in front of the Pantheon. And a Gypsy.
Looking up while inside. It's cool that it's just as high as it is wide.
Cam inside the Pantheon.
Me coming out of the Pantheon.
Oh hey Cam, are you just hanging out with Roman Ruins?
They are all over the place, ruins, ruins, ruins.
The victory arch, as viewed from the Coliseum.
Interior view of the Coliseum.
Happy to be here!
Cam (That's all that needs to be said)
Heather (Again that's all that needs to be said)
The Coliseum is the most impressive from the outside.
A Modern Roman Gladiator
The street that lead to the Coliseum was really cool, we're walking away from the Coliseum in this picture.
The nice waiter that gave me a wet kiss on the cheek after the picture.
Cam's lunch, doesn't it look great?!
Like all of Rome, you're walking along down an alley way and then BAM, there's a Piazza and the Trevi Fountain.
We threw our coins in and so it looks like we'll be returning to Rome in the future.
Me posing on the Spanish Steps.
Formal Dinner night. We had my time dining and ate with new people most nights. This evening we ended up with all the same couples that had been at our table the night before, and they were all just so great!
Port 4: Mykonos, Greece. Made famous by the fabulous Jackie Kennedy Onassis. (sp?)
They have 365 churches on the island, one for each day of the year.
It was such a windy day, when I picked through my hair that night it took me at least 10 minutes to get all the tangles out, it was the only day I forgot my hair elastic.
They have lots of windmills that are now out of use but pretty to snap pictures of.
Ok, we bought some Cheetos to eat while the sun set... they were a weird gross flavor so I had to just eat the yummy strawberry cream filled candy bar. (Notice the wind in Cam's hair)
Pelican's are the Mykono's mascot.
Port 5: Ephesus, Turkey. You can see Cam Running towards the fortress.
When this is blown up really big it is a great model shot.
Here's Cam at the Temple of Didyma.
The detail on the stones was so pretty.
This was the tunnel we walked through into the temple, and a cool shot of Cam.
Here you can see the outside of the Temple of Didyma.
Ok, I know this is blurry, but the bus was driving fast. I begged Cam to keep it on the camera because look how cool it is...a waterpark half-pipe. By the looks of it Turkey really knows how to do waterparks.
Here we are at some more ruins. Our tour was called "Ancient Glories." At this city they discovered magnetism and was thus named after the city.
The Ancient City of Ephesus.
Me in front of Hadrian's Temple.
Nike
Celsus Library. I think I like it so much because they modeled it after those ruins that you see on Indiana Jones.
Us right in front of Celsus Library.
The theater that Paul wanted to preach at in Acts 19. I'm saying "Hey!"
Cam wants to preach here too. Nowadays they have big named concerts here, Elton John, Ray Charles, etc. because the aucustics are great due to all the marble.
A view from further back. Doesn't he look fine?!
A cool statue we found on our way back to the boat, which you can see on the left hand side...well, I guess that's the right hand from where the thumb is placed.
Port 6: Santorini, Greece-- Our favorite!!
My donkey that didn't want to go up the hill, grrr
Isn't the view immaculate? And the scenery behind him isn't bad either.
Oia, the town that I HAD to visit. We rented a 4-wheeler and rode around to our hearts content all day.
I just loved Santorini and would love to go back just to stay a few days there.
It looks like a postcard...and makes me feel relaxed.
Just checking out the ocean.
On Top of the World!
This was after about 20 switchbacks to get to the top of this mountain to the ancient city of Thera. I just realized how many times I've said ancient and ruins in this post.
Cam swimming in the water.
We were on black sand beaches, really cool, but just imagine how hot the sand gets.
Port 7: Athens, Greece. With a theatre behind him, this is Cam as we were walking up to the Acropolis.
Here it comes...
Very Cool, there is a lot of restoration going on which is cool but frustrating when you want a pretty picture.
Also on the Acropolis, with the Erechtheion in the background.
We saw someone try this so we took a try too. It's a timed picture with our camera leaning just right on the ground.
One of the temples they've restored beautifully in the Agoro below the Acropolis.
In front of Hadrian's Library.
The Olympian Zeus' Temple
A view from the other side includes a peak at the Acropolis too.
These are the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They definitely had a different walk and costume.
Panathinion Stadium, which was constructed for the first modern Olympiad in 1896.
Our day at sea we played some mini-golf.
Did some rock-climbing. (This was an impressive start, only on yellows so he had to get a jump to start the climb.)
Me whipping up to the top on the easy ones :)
Look we're on TV!! We participated in the Love & Marriage Game Show, and WON! The next day they started broadcasting it almost 24/7 on one of our stateroom channels. Way to go ROCKETMAN!!
Port 8: Naples, Italy. Here is a view on our drive up Mount Vesuvius.
And as we were hiking to the top of the Mount to walk around the crater.
This is a look at the inside of the volcano.
Our new friends, the Browns!
Authentic Italian Pizza.
Pompeii was huge. We were there for 4 hours walking around and didn't even see everything!
It was great having friends with us to take good pictures of us together.
In one of the houses.
Look at the painting still on the wall.
One of the theaters.
Another day at Sea where we tried our hands at simulated golf.
Unexpected stop #1 after 3 windows broke on the boat and we were late to port and missed our flight...London. We caught a flight to London but had to spend the night there which gave us a few hours before we flew home to see some of the UK. This is the Tower Bridge.
Big Ben
Cam in front of Westminister Abbey
Hey, a phonebooth. It reminds me of Rockettes and my grand finale in our Superman routine.

That's it my friends, thanks to those of you that made it through.

5 comments:

StephanieRose said...

not only did I make it through- but I LOVED IT!!! I am so jealous of the two of you. You two look great and I really loved the picture with the wind in Cam's hair. Also- 7 peaks has a water slide like the one in Turkey. I love you sister and I am so happy you had such an amazing trip!

Tanner and Jamie said...

Looks like you had fun! I am jealous!!

Aly said...

Heather!!! I am SO jealous that you got to go on a European cruise!! I have sooo many of the same pictures in Italy! Also, London is by far my favorite city in the entire world! I just had to comment and tell you how jealous I am that you got to visit all of those amazing places :)Looks like you had an absolute BLAST!

Unknown said...

Oh my! SO FUN! I loved reading through and seeing all your fun pictures! :) That sounds like the greatest vacation right now!

Heather C Taylor said...

That was so much fun looking at your pics and reading all your comments! Im so glad you spent that much time getting them all loaded! It was good to see you on Sat and I hope all went well for you and your family today. Take care!