BACK HOME

We are home now after a WONDERFUL, AWESOME, FANTASTIC, AMAZING trip. We had so much fun and saw so many wonderful things. I'll start with the 1st place we went to and I will move on from there. I apologize in advance for this blog being so LONG. I mean I only have 368 pictures I have to show you!!! Just kidding I picked my favorites of each place.

Our first place was Barcelona Spain. We flew to London (which took us 8 hours) and from London we took another airplane to Barcelona.

Needless to say we look tired in this picture. The Jet Lag was really bad for us both.

Holli and Ike after the Long airplane ride.

Okay so after we got off of the airplane ride and also off of the train we had to pack all of our luggage a few blocks to the apartment we were supposed to stay at that night.

Come to find out the apartment we were supposed to stay in the owner decided to paint that day....so they had to move us to a different apartment. It ended up being a great thing because we were closer to the cruise boat. This picture is of the taxi ride to the new apartment (don't worry we didn't lose dad, he is sitting in the front seat)

We were walking around Barcelona just having a great time. The scenery there was beautiful...the art on the walls was amazing...I would show you all those pictures but we just don't have the time.

This HUGE lion was hard to get on but I made it. This was by the cruise boat so we stopped and took some fun pictures. Okay so we get on the ship and our 1st stop was in a place called Villefranche (thats in france if you couldn't guess). Joe and I didn't get off the ship for this one because of Joe's back. But we took some awesome pictures from the boat. Here are my favs.

Beautiful background don't ya think?????

Here is my handsom Husband. He looks good in this picture.

Beautiful sunset...all sea no land in this picture it was wonderful.
Okay for the next stop we went to a place called Livorno, Italy....here we had the choice of seeing Florence or the leaning tower of pisa. Well you'll see which one we chose.

Yep you guessed it!!! The leaning tower of Pisa. COOL HUH?????

Now the Tower was pretty cool, however, there was a church in front of it that was AMAZING. It was painted by Davinci (however you spell it). I would show you pictures of the inside but again we would be here for a really long time and to tell you the truth I am starting to get tired. My next blog will go into the detailed pictures of the cruise.
Okay after the Leaning tower of Pisa we stopped in Civitavecchia (still in Italy)
Here was the BEST part of the trip I think...When we got off the ship we took a train and we went to ROME. Everybody was going to the Colosseum but our little family group decided to go to Vatican City first and I am glad we did. The reason being was this....

YEP!!!! We got to see the POPE. How many people can say that they went on a trip to Europe one day and just came across the POPE. Not many. It was a really cool thing. When we first got there...there were a TON of people, so we were wondering what was going on. Then I went over to somebody and He told me (in very little English) that the Pope was going to address the croud. It was so cool. We were a little sad because we didn't get to go inside the church but I think it was a great trade off.





This place is called the Spanish Steps...nothing really to exciting...just a bunch of steps really...but when you get to the top you see this....

Beautiful picture of the landscape and of me and my hubby. So next place was the Fountain (can't remember how to spell it and don't even want to try).

HOLY COW art work okay....wow it is amazing!!!!!



Okay so that was the beautiful fountain....next and not least we went to the Colosseum. We didn't have enough time to go inside but here are some cool pictures of it.










And those pictures are of our Rome Italy part. The next stop we went to was called Ajaccio. There we just walked around for a little bit going into the shops and things but there was nothing really to exciting to see or take pictures of.

So the Final stop was in Malaga, Spain...and we were all so exhausted that none of us got off the ship for that port. We had worn ourselves out. But later that night we did to through the Gibralter...this is were there is a space between Spain and Africa. So on one side you could see Spain and on the other side you could see AFRICA. THIS WAS SO AWESOME. I have always wanted to go to Africa and help out there for a few months and this trip only makes me want to go worse. I saw Africa. YEY. These pictures are not very good but they are 2nd favorites.





The reason why these are blurry is because we were on the ship and it was about 10:00 at night and the wind was CRAZY!!!!! But yeah thats me and AFRICA. YEY!!!!

After that we were 6 days on the Atlantic Ocean....that was fun because we had 18 to 22 foot swells....so the boat was really rocking back and forth. It was great!!!!

We got to NY, USA and we were so glad to be back on american soil. We went to a broadway play called Wicked....it was FANTASTIC!!!! Those ladies can really sing....and it was a lot of fun to...the story line is awesome...it puts a whole new twist to the Wizard of Oz.

The next day we went to Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty but it was so so so cold that day because of the rain and wind that nobody really enjoyed NY all that much. We didn't really take any pictures. I'll post one because we took it on the cruise ship as we were entering NY.


That was when we were coming in to NY.

And that was our trip ladies and gentleman. We took a flight home and have been some since tuesday morning. It was a fun and wonderful trip. One that Joe and I will never forget. Thanks for going through my trip again with me. I hope I haven't bored you to much.