Day 31 Lake Como

Lake Como

We packed up the car and hit the road again to head to Como, Italy. It’s near the southern end of Lake Como, one of the most beautiful lakes in Italy. We had to take the highway through the central mountains again that were a traffic mess coming down to Pisa the first time to get back up to Como. I hate Italian drivers and roads. Like most everything else in Italian culture it’s kind of a free for all. I think I mentioned before that the lane lines on the road are merely a suggestion in Italy and people drive where ever the hell they want to mainly. They weave, they’re jumpy, the truckers are just as bad, and I hate it. While stuck in traffic we saw a cat in the window of a car next to us and Colin was saying “That’s a nice kitty, I like kitties.” Then he says “Mommy you like doggies, Daddy you like goats.” LOL I don’t know where he got that from, but apparently Shelby is fond of goats! After what felt like the longest three and half hours in the car ever we finally arrived in Como. Our hotel was very nice, we always seem to find the nicest hotels when we only have one night to stay there instead of at the places where we stay for a few nights. After bringing some stuff inside and taking a little break in the room we headed out to explore. We went to the lake where Colin was thrilled to gather rocks to throw them in. We fed ducks and found a little playground and park area with a train for kids and another carnival type ride. Colin loved that. We also did some people watching and saw some VERY interesting outfits. You have to wonder if these people have mirrors in their house. One girl was skinny as a rail and wearing a fluorescent pink mini dress with these horrible high top sneaker turned high heel lace up shoe things in the same horrible shade of pink. It was hilarious to walk behind her and watch the faces of people as they noticed her. She’d catch their eye and you’d see them do a double take, then look her up and down and then attempt to stifle the laughter. After walking around some we had to go back to the car to feed the meter and then we sat on a bench and watched the sun go down behind the mountains and the lake. We ate dinner at a place right next to the lake and enjoyed our last bit of Italian seafood. I’m very glad we went to Italy and saw the sights and experienced it once, but I think Shelby and I both agree that once was enough for us. There are only a few things I will miss about Italy, the food is definitely at the top of that short list.

Day 30 Livorno

Livorno

We all slept in until after 8 and Colin until after 9:30! Colin woke up sounding HORRIBLE. He’s very congested and hardly any voice, so we took advantage of being on a base and took him to the peds clinic for a check. Sure enough, upper respiratory infection and an ear infection. I can’t wait for the ENT consult to get this sorted out and hopefully he can stay well for longer than a month. He wasn’t letting the sickness slow him down any though and aside from sounding like a dog toy with a broken squeaker, he was ready to go. After the doctor we grabbed some lunch and then headed to the beach in the afternoon for a bit. The water was much colder than in southern Italy and wind made for some waves, so we didn’t get the water a whole lot. Colin and Daddy did a lot of digging in the sand and we buried Colin, which he thought was hilarious. A little relaxation and rest for all of us was a good thing. The sun was out but the breeze and scattered clouds made it a great beach day and not too hot. After the beach we hit the grocery for a few pickups to keep us snacking on the road and got some dinner. We ate outside on the porch of our cabin which was nice and peaceful. After eating Colin threw more rocks around and then he and Shelby went off watching ants. Shelby showed him all about the ant eater bugs down in the holes and they collected ants to go feed the anteaters with. Colin thought this was great fun. Later on it was popcorn and movies and another early bedtime. I’m going to miss vacation!

Day 29 Livorno

Today we got up very early to beat the heat as we trekked back to the train station for our three hour train ride back to Livorno to get my car from the Army base, Camp Darby, where it has been parked while we were on the cruise and in Rome. To the grandparents and family who complain about us not visiting the States in the last two years; I encourage you to spend three hours on a train with my child, keeping in mind there is much more room and many more interesting things to see on a train than there are on a plane. When we arrived in Livorno I was more than ready to be off the train, but then it was time to hop a taxi to the base, so more riding. My car never looked so good after having not seen it for so long and relying on public transportation. We got checked into a cabin at the “resort” (so they call it) on Camp Darby to just relax and reorganize for the day. There was a lot of laundry to do and repacking to be done. Colin and Daddy went to the pool to play but the water was pretty cold and Colin seemed worse today in terms of sickness, so they didn’t stay out too long. When I came home from doing laundry Colin was happily playing with bugs and throwing rocks around outside and I could see he was pretty happy with our cabin. So we decided to take another day and stay here since the price is decent, Colin loves the place and the beach is nearby. With that decision made I didn’t have to spend half the night reorganizing and packing so we went out for dinner on the beach and came back to head to bed early. We were in bed before ten and for the first time in over a week I didn’t have to get up early for something the next morning. Aaaaah!

Day 28 Rome Day 3

Rome Day 3

Today was another early morning to be up as we had to be ready for our tour of the Colosseum. It was HOT again today in Rome. You really can’t appreciate the Colosseum until you’ve seen it in person and you know some background on it. To realize that it was built almost 2,000 years ago and the extensive lengths that Romans went to to build it. Nero had been an unpopular leader and Vespasian had taken over the role of emperor and had to win back the favor of the public after Nero’s damage. So he got the idea to build the greatest amphitheater ever where all Romans could come together and enjoy sporting events. The whole idea was to keep the people happy and control them by giving them something to do. Vespasian’s arena plan was so grand there was no flat land area large enough to build on, so they got creative. Near the forum was a large lake that belonged to Nero as part of his personal palace grounds. Vespasian decided to drain the lake and use the flat lake bed to build his Colosseum on. So they built an elaborate system to drain the lake, then poured layers of concrete (which the Romans invented) to support the weight of the structure. Building something of this magnitude required great engineering skills to ensure the structure could support its weight. The arch played an important role here because by design it is strong and distributes weight evenly, yet remains open in the middle to make it lighter. The bottom row of arches around the Coliseum is made of marble, then, each layer above that gets lighter by using different building materials such as cement and bricks. When you consider the massive amount of marble needed, and that the marble came from a quarry in northern Italy and had to be transported to Rome, this alone makes the building an incredible feat. After the Coliseum we went to tour the Roman Forum ruins. It’s incredible to see what is there and has been standing since before Christ. For me to walk on original marble stones that ancient Romans and rulers walked across is insane! The tour was quite interesting despite the heat and after it was over we found a restaurant to get some pizza for lunch.

We were so hot and tired after lunch we decided to walk back to the hotel and take a little nap. Colin seems to be getting sick again, he has stopped eating and been fighting a fever since last night, so a nap would do us all good. I didn’t expect to sleep so long but felt great when we woke up two and a half hours later! We got up and decided to head over to the delicious restaurant from last night and eat there again. After dinner we went walking to see Rome at night all lit up. We hit the Trevi Fountain, which is equally impressive at night. Then the Pantheon, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier building, the Pallazo Nuova, and lastly the Colosseum. It was a late night for us but the sights at night were worth it.

Day 27 Rome

Rome Day 2

We had to be up early this morning to be at the Vatican by 9 to start our guided tour. During tourist season the lines to get into the Vatican, St Peters Basilica and The Coliseum can be HOURS long, so it is best to book a group tour with a guide in advance so you can get there and go in without waiting in the lines. The Vatican is RIDICULOUS. The artwork in there is incredible. Anywhere you see the color gold in the building you can rest assured you are looking at pure 24 karat gold. Gold is everywhere. As is marble. Much of the marble used in the Vatican was recycled from The Coliseum and other monuments and things in Rome. Once the Roman empire fell many of the temples and political buildings were stripped of their bronze and marble and no one really cared. After the Vatican tour we walked around and did some more sightseeing. We found a large park to let Colin run around in. We fed pigeons and then he chased them around the grassy area for a while to burn off some energy. I have no idea what the fascination with birds is, but Rio has become his favorite movie and he’s in love with birds. Chasing birds is one of the best things ever apparently. After the park we headed back towards our hotel to find a place to eat. It was only 5:00 which is super, super early for dinner by Italian standards. Many restaurants don’t even open until 7 PM, Italians and a lot of other Europeans don’t eat until 8 or later. In touristy areas the restaurants open earlier because they know not everyone eats that late. We finally found a place that had just opened and it was excellent. Small little family place and you could tell they were proud of their restaurant. We had spinach ravioli for the first course and mussels for the second. For dessert we had homemade Italian lemon cake and tiramisu, yum!

Day 26 Civitiveccia & Rome

Rome Day 1

We had to be up crazy early to be packed and ready to get off the boat by 7:15 AM. We chose that time, but either way we would have been kicked out by 9:30 anyway. If we were the first ones to get off we got to carry our own luggage off the boat and not deal with the madness of baggage claim and all, much easier. After getting off the boat we walked to the train station to get on a train to Rome for our next adventure. For being Rome’s port, Civitivecchia is not very close via train. On the slow regional train it took us almost 2 hours to get there. By the time it arrived we were tired and ready to get off the train. Then we had to walk through the train station to the opposite end where the metro boards so we could get on the metro to our hotel stop. Travel by train is fairly easy if you are familiar with the system and travel lightly. When there is a kid involved there is no such thing as traveling lightly. We got more than a few funny looks as we trudged through the station and streets with our bags. In our defense we had been on a cruise for the last ten days and it had been 12 since we’d last had access to our car and wash facilities. Two large rolling suitcases connected to one another, each of us with a backpack on, a small duffle bag and a stroller is no fun to lug up and down stairs in train and metro stations. If you are thinking why didn’t you just take the elevator dumb dumb? I should remind you we are not in the USA, ADA does not exist, and accessibility for handicapped people in wheelchairs is nothing short of a miracle.

Anyway…we finally made it to the hotel hot and tired. The room was like a sauna, no air conditioning, but at least they were kind enough to provide us a fan, which at this point I was totally thrilled with. We’ve learned things in Italy are never what they appear to be. We use booking.com to book hotels every time we travel and we usually find the hotel descriptions, reviews, and photos on that site to be very accurate when we arrive at the hotel we have chosen. In Italy, this does not hold true. Most of the hotels we’ve seen pictures of do not look anything like the hotel you actually get. They advertise air conditioning and there is A/C, in the lobby area and not in the rooms. Or there is AC in the rooms, but they do not actually turn it on. Same with internet, they advertise WIFI, but when you get there it is always down, or if by chance it is working it will only work in the lobby or common area, never in your room. So frustrating. Shelby was not thrilled with no air so he asked at the desk and they girl said she didn’t realize we had booked an air conditioned room and gave us a new room that did have air. We had to move but it was worth it, because it felt like Rome was going to burn again at any moment it was so hot. After moving rooms and unpacking a little bit we went to grab some pizza for lunch and found a shady spot under a tree to eat in and then we started walking.

We walked ALL OVER ROME and saw many of the sights you must see while visiting Rome. We hit up the Trevi fountain, saw a lot of ancient buildings, a lot of ruins, some amazing sights, The Forum ruins, the outside of The Colloseum and many other sights. We learned you could probably die rich selling drinks on the street in Rome. A bottle of water is 1 – 1.50 Euro, oh wait you want cold water? That is 2 Euro. Bastards! Can of coke, 4 Euro (roughly 6 USD!) Bottle of Powerade will cost you 4-5 Euro. Seriously, if I actually liked Italy I would retire here and sell water on the street and become a millionaire. The first grocery store we came to we went in and bought a 6 pack of bottled water for less than 2 Euro. Not cold, but who cares!

Day 25 - Naples

Naples/Pompeii

Due to paperwork issues with the government (stupid Italy!) we left Sicily late yesterday evening and we made up time at sea so that we should have arrived in port on time in Naples. Except that there were more clearance and paperwork issues at the Naples port courtesy of Italian officials that prevented us from docking for over an hour. We had booked a private tour through a company to take us on a full day tour of Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius that was supposed to meet at the train station at 8 AM. At 7 when the boat was not even docked I knew we weren’t going to make the 8 AM meeting time. I called the emergency contact number on the tour confirmation and told the man that our boat was arriving later than scheduled and we would not be at the station at 8. He told us no problem, to just call him back when our boat was docked and we would see if it was possible to still take the tour or not. The boat docked and I called a couple times and got no answer. We got off the boat and I continued calling (paying a small fortune to use my cell phone in Italy no less) a few more times and got no answer so we just started walking to the train station. About halfway to the train station the tour company finally answered the phone and they told me that there was a grey bus at the boat. WHAT? You want me to go back to the boat?! I tried to pre-coordinate for pick up at our ship twice and was told both times it was not possible to be picked up at our boat and now you are telling me there is a bus waiting at the ship. NOT AMUSED. OK fine. We walk back to the boat and look for the grey van/bus they told us to look for and see nothing. By this time most of the cars waiting to pick up people from our ship had cleared out and there were only a few people left. I called the tour company back and told them I was at my boat, and which boat that was, and there was no one waiting for us that I could see, so could they please contact the driver and ask him to hold a sign or get a better description of his location for us. We were told they would call back. At least 15 minutes or more had passed and still no call back so I had to call them again and try to find out. No answer. Finally at about 9:30, an hour after getting off my boat, the tour company called back and said the van was waiting at the “picnic bar” which is right across from the boat. I told them I didn’t see any picnic bar near our boat but I was ask a taxi driver and find it. I ask a cab driver and he says that bar is about a kilometer and a half down at the other end of the port. Not anywhere near our boat and I told them at least a dozen times which ship I was on. URGH! So we start walking. Shortly after we start walking the actual tour guide calls me and starts yelling at me in Italian wanting to know where we are and why are we not at the picnic bar. I explained to her I am trying to find the picnic bar, that I was told there was someone at my ship and to wait there, which I did for an HOUR before I was told now I needed to be at the picnic bar. She was not pleased and asked me how long until we got to the bus. I told her I have no clue, I’m not familiar with the area and then she demanded I stop a local on the street to ask how far away from the bar we were. When they said probably 5-10 minutes walking so was frustrated and started yelling about how she’d been waiting for us for almost two hours and the people on the bus were all mad they had to sit so long. I told her at that point to forget it and go without us. We didn’t want to go on a tour with a bunch of people all pissed off at us for being late when it was totally not our fault and we did everything the tour company asked of us. We were also getting a little concerned about making it back to our boat in time to set sail now that we were starting out two hours late on a full day tour that was supposed to be 6-8 hours. We said forget it and went back to the boat to decide what to do.
We decided we only had time at this point to do either Pompeii OR Mt Vesuvius, but probably not both. So we chose Pompeii because it was already dreadfully hot out and climbing a volcano in that heat would have been tough. We negotiated a cab far to take us to Pompeii, wait for us for a few hours and then drive us back to the boat. It cost a small fortune but what can you do? Pompeii was interesting, and we had watched a video the night before about it which was helpful. We bought the audio tour headphones but they weren’t very helpful and a tour guide (like we had planned to do!) would have been a lot better. It was so so so hot and it was not stroller friendly AT ALL. Colin refused to walk because he was hot and pushing the stroller was a nightmare. The day was just not what it was supposed to be. At least we were there and we saw it. We were back on the boat in time for a late lunch and then we went and played some bingo, which was a bust, again. Shelby took Colin to the pool while I packed our stuff up to leave the boat the next day. Boy does that job stink! That night Colin went to the final party at the kids club for PJ and pillow fight night. Shelby and I went to the piano bar one last time. Many people were staying on the boat for another ten days of cruising around the Eastern Mediterranean, oh how I wish that was us! The last day on the boat was partially a bust, but the cruise was still amazing and we can’t wait to do it again.

Day 24 - Sicily

Sicily

Today we woke up in Sicily. I had a massage and a facial scheduled for the morning, I’m really getting used to this pampering first thing in the morning! When I was done we decided to do just stroll around Palermo. Once the boat was docked and we were cleared to go ashore we got a city map and just wandered. Colin has been doing great on the potty training, hardly any accidents since the first week of vacation, though getting him to take advantage of the opportunity to use a bathroom when one is available can be challenging. He prefers going with Shelby because they will race each other. Shelby will tell him they are going to have a pee pee race and he’s going to finish making pee faster than Colin. This gets Colin going and he eagerly rushes to the bathroom to go race Daddy and win the pee pee race. Today while they were in the potty Shelby started singing a song about “Colin’s going pee pee in Sicily, pee pee in Sicily!” and Colin thought this was hilarious. The rest of the day he would sing “making pee pee in Sicily” anytime they went to the bathroom. After some sightseeing we headed back to the boat to get cleaned up for dinner. Colin was very excited about dinosaur night at Club HAL and wore his dinosaur shirt to club that night. They made dino eggs out of clay and set off a volcano they had built.

Day 23 - Tunisia

Tunisia

This morning we woke up in Africa! Tunisia borders Libya so it was a tad bit interesting given the current status of affairs in Libya at the moment. People on the ship suggested only going out of port on one of the cruise sponsored trips or excursions. We had just planned to go to the beach here but were warned cabs were pretty expensive, so we decided to book an excursion to the beach through the cruise line. The bus took us from the ship to a resort on the beach in Tunisia and then we spent a few hours at the resort and had access to their beach and pool. When we got off the ship there were people dressed up playing music and there were camels sitting outside waiting for people to have their picture taken riding them! We made sure they would still be there when we got back from our beach trip and were assured the camels would be there all day, they were full time workers. I’m really glad we waited because it turns out there were camels and horses on the beach to ride! Driving through Tunisia you can see it is a MUCH different place than the US and where we’ve traveled in Europe. It’s definitely a third world/developing country with a lot of interesting living quarters and dwellings and also a lot of trash around. It is very hot and humid, you see people parked or standing in just about any patch of shade you can find. Shelby said it was very comparable to when he was in Qatar or Bahrain. The people are Arabs but it was also has a strong French influence as the French were in control there at one time, so the people all speak French and Arabic. The resort we arrived at was very nice and there didn’t appear to be many people there and the ones that were there didn’t appear to be locals. We’d been warned about the culture here and the haggling and bargaining you must do for anything you buy. So when we got down to the beach there were several camels and horses waiting and the people were ready to deal. At first they told me 10 Euro for Colin to ride the pony. I said 5 Euro and the guy said OK. I went to get my wallet and realized I only had a 100 Euro and a 50 Euro bill and 4 Euro in coins, so I gave him the 4 Euro when I went for the ride. He tried to tell me it was 10 Euro to ride and I said ok then and took my 4 Euro back and told him they had camels right next to our boat for 5 Euro so we’d just ride there. He let me walk away and then a few minutes later he was over at our beach chairs telling me to put Colin on the horse for 4 Euro. Yay! Then before Colin was even off the pony he was trying to strike a deal with me to ride the camel. He said 2 people for 10 Euros on the camel. I told him OK because Shelby thought he had a 10 in his wallet and since I got the pony ride for a steal I figured whatever. Well Shelby did not have a 10 Euro in his wallet, so all I had left was the 100 and the 50 and I didn’t want to show him those. I took a US $10 bill out of my wallet and gave that to him and told him $10 to ride the camel. He said $15 or 10 Euro to ride the camel. So I then pulled out my 50 Euro bill and told him IF he could give me back 40 Euro in change I would pay 10 Euro for the camel ride. He called all his buddies together and they all attempted to scrape together 40 Euro but couldn’t do it, so then he told me $10 was ok and he took my US dollars to ride the camel. Deal! LOL It was quite interesting. Fun to bargain and haggle once or twice on vacation, but I wouldn’t want to live in a society where I had to argue over prices every time I went to the market or something. After we got our camel and horse rides out of the way we played in the water for a while. The water was crystal clear and turquoise with powdery fine sand on the beach. Lots of seashells and crabs were on the shore and there were fish in the water. We swam and cooled off before heading up to the beach to build a sand castle sea turtle and Shelby went out to catch some fish in Colin’s net for him to watch swim in the pail. He came back with a couple crabs and Colin was thrilled. We enjoyed our time on the beach and then it was time to head back to the bus to ride back to port. Once back on the ship we ate lunch and then headed down to the pool for a while. Colin met up with some of his friends from the kids’ club and had fun swimming with them and his Daddy. After that it was dinner time and then Colin went off to the kids club for pirate night. Arrrgh!

Day 22 - Sea Day

Today we got to sleep in as it was a sea day and we had nothing to do but relax on the boat. We woke up late, had breakfast delivered to the room and then went down to play bingo for the $50,000 grand prize. Neither one of us hit bingo and we didn’t win any money. We had some lunch and then met up at the kid’s club for a family scavenger hunt. Colin helped name our team, “The Hairy Dinosaurs,” and we set off to find the things on our list. We had some interesting things to collect and got lucky to meet a Canadian that had a Loonie on her so we could check that one off the list. When it was all over our team won with 21 items collected and then there was a 5 way tie for second place with 20 items. Colin won a Holland America rubik’s cube and magic 8 ball and he got a magnet and a mood ring thing.
Here are Colin and I with once of his club HAL counselors, Adrienne


After the scavenger hunt I snuck off to my pedicure appointment and spent some time in the spa and I don’t know what the boys were doing. When I was done it was close to dinner time so we got ready and headed over to eat and then Colin went to kids club for camping night. Shelby and I went down to the casino and played roulette and came out ahead $36 in the end. Not too bad and we were just glad we didn’t lose any money. When the piano bar opened we went over there to hang out until it was time to get Colin from kids club.

Day 21 - Mallorca

Mallorca

I’ve been dying to go to Mallorca since we moved to Germany and learned it was the European island of choice for beach getaways. It looked beautiful from the port and we had just planned to grab a taxi and head to the beach for the day. For a reasonable price we went to a beach a little ways away from the port that was not as touristy as some of the others, but still pretty busy and full. Like most European beaches this one was clothing semi optional. Europeans have this laid back, individual, whatever goes kind of attitude towards fashion and beach apparel is no different. Most of the men wear speedos, as do boys. Little girls wear only bikini bottoms up until about age 12/13, or when they start to get boobs. Teens typically wear bikinis and adult women have a choice to wear a top or not. Pretty much everyone wears a two piece bathing suit regardless of age, shape or size, and age and shape play no part in the choice to go topless either. You see many little old ladies out there with their boobs covering their belly buttons and people really don’t think much of it. It’s strange to us as Americans, but perfectly normal here in Europe. The beach in Mallorca was beautiful, you could see the to the bottom of the crystal clear water and fish swim around. There was a small amount of trash in the water that was disappointing, but otherwise it was very pretty. We built sand castles, played in the water, Colin loved swimming in the ocean and wasn’t scared at all. After a few hours at the beach we were ready to head back to the boat and get ready for some dinner and the evening events. Colin went to club again and got his fill of kids his own age for a while.

Day 20 - HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY COLIN!!!

Barcelona II

Shelby was so excited about it being Colin’s birthday he was up at 4:30 this morning. He woke me up about 5:30 and just after that decided to wake Colin up too. He put three candles in a blueberry muffin he got from the buffet while walking around the ship at 5am, lit them and woke Colin up with the birthday songs. This song, and this one, are family traditions in our house. You always get woke up on your birthday by these songs playing and you are then stuck with the goofy melodies in your head for the rest of the day (and likely the next few days…just listen and see, lol!). Colin was only slightly amused, totally confused and tired. We all got up and got ready and wanted to get an early start in Barcelona because there were a record twelve cruise ships docked at port today and it was going to be packed. First thing we did was hit up Starbucks, and then went over to the big market, La Boqueria to wander. Amazing fruits and veggies piled up, candies and goodies too. Meat and cheeses, including whole skinned rabbits for sale in the meat case, as well as every kind of seafood you can imagine. It’s so colorful and interesting to walk through, I LOVE markets in Europe. The flowers were incredible. Every kind you could think of and CHEAP! There were huge arranged bouquets with lilies, roses, and a variety of other flowers that would have been well over a $200 arrangement in the US and I had to ask the price just to satisfy my curiosity. I about fell over dead when the guy told me THIRTY EURO! If I had room in my suite for that thing on the boat I would have been carrying it on board for sure! I couldn’t believe it. It would have been at least 80 Euro in Germany for that kind of thing, and probably about $225+ in the States. Crazy! After the market we got on the bus to take us back over to La Familia Segrada so we could tour the inside. It opened at 9 AM and we got there about 9:30 and couldn’t believe the line to buy tickets was already wrapped around the block! I didn’t think waiting in it was going to be possible, but Shelby and Colin jumped in line to wait while I walked around the outside of the building to take the pictures I wanted to get. The line turned out to be moving pretty quickly for as long as it was and within an hour we had made it up to the booth to buy our tickets. It was totally worth it, the interior is amazing! The church became Antoni Gaudi’s passion and life’s work but it has been left incomplete since 1926 when Gaudi was run over by a tram and killed. In recent years a private organization has taken over the goal of completing it and it is being funded solely by anonymous donations and admissions to the church paid by tourists. Inside is truly a masterpiece, amazing and whimsical, very Gaudi-esque. After that we got some lunch and then headed to the aquarium there for Colin’s birthday. Colin slept through lunch (yay for tiny blessings!) and we woke him up once we were inside the aquarium standing in front of a tank with large fish in it. He opened his eyes a crack, saw the fish and shot up wide awake saying “Look, fish! I love fish!” We laughed hysterically. He enjoyed the aquarium but rushed through most of the tanks in search of the sharks. Having been at the beach and on the boat we’ve been talking a lot about sharks and he was more than ready to see some. He was very interested in them and didn’t care a whole lot about much else. After the aquarium we took a cab back to the boat and boarded a little bit early so that we could relax some and clean up for dinner. For dinner we went to one of the fancier special restaurants instead of the buffet since it was Colin’s birthday dinner. The stewards there were amazing and entertained Colin the whole time. They kept coming over with origami paper animals and making stuff for him, birds that really flapped their wings and frogs that really jumped. The majority of the dining room staff were from Indonesia and the Philippines and all had family and children back home. They sail 9 months out of the year so they really miss their families and loved seeing little kids on the boat. I imagine the money they make on the boat allows them to provide a pretty good life for their families back home. Colin wanted a chicken quesadilla, Shelby had an amazing filet and I savored every bite of my king crab legs. For dessert Colin got his own chocolate birthday cake brought to the table with candles and singing staff. After dinner he was able to go to the kids club, Club HAL, since he was officially three now. He was super excited to play with other kids and was known as “the birthday boy” all night. He got another birthday cake there too, spoiled boy! Shelby and I enjoyed some kid free time and went to the piano bar and had a few drinks. When we picked Colin up at 10 he was good and tired and so were we!

Days 19 - Barcelona

Barcelona I

This morning I had to wake up early so I could be down at the spa on board by 8 AM. I started my day off with a nice deep tissue massage and then followed that up with a long overdue manicure courtesy of Shelby. He booked my “surprises” a while back when he was planning the trip. So sweet! After my pampering I met back up with the guys and we had lunch while the ship docked in Barcelona. What an incredible city, the architecture and buildings are amazing! No wonder so many famous artists made this their home or were inspired while visiting here. We wandered down La Rambla doing a little people watching and checking out some of the wild street performers. The streets were packed and because we got in to port midday and it was already afternoon a lot of the museums, markets and things already had very long lines or were super crowded. We walked along and got some nice views of La Pedrera and Casa Batlló, two of Antoni Gaudí’s masterpieces. We accidentally discovered a Starbucks and it felt like we had won the lottery. Since Italy does not believe in Starbucks we had somewhat forgotten about them while we were there. Two iced white mochas later we were on our way to the Cathedral. We bought tickets for a hop on hop off bus so we could get around a little faster and get to some of the farther out places. We drove by La Sagrada Familia, a huge church that was started in 1882 and still to this day remains unfinished. The line to get in was insanely long so we decided to stay on the bus and come back to that one earlier in the morning tomorrow. We took the bus to Park Güell, a park designed by Gaudí back in 1900-1914, and walked around there for a bit. I LOVE the architectural style of Gaudí. It’s so whimsical and fun to look at, then when you remember that he lived in the late 1800’s and designed all his masterpieces before his death in 1926…WOW. So ahead of his time!
Next we headed over to the Barcelona Futból Club stadium to check it out. Shelby has a friend in Iraq who is a big Barcelona fan so we got some pictures for him and then boarded the bus again. About that time were hungry and ready for tapas so we found a restaurant in the Gothic Quarter and ordered about 5 different plates of tapas, paella, and a big pitcher of sangria…yum! Another stop at Starbucks on the way to catch a cab back to the port and it was good night Barcelona. The ship is docked here all day tomorrow as well, so we’ll have another full day to get out and explore.

Day 18 Monte Carlo

Monaco Port

Waking up in Monte Carlo was like waking up in a dream. Some ports you can’t dock in and the ships have to anchor just outside of port and you take a small boat, or tender, from your ship to the dock. That is how it works in Monte Carlo, so we were out in the bay a little bit rather than being right up next to the land, which makes the view that much prettier from the boat. Monaco is the second smallest country in the world, behind the Vatican (which we’ll visit later!), but has a high population and tons of money. First thing we noticed about Monte Carlo was the H.E.A.T. It was HOT, I think perhaps unusually hot when we were there. Today we had booked a tour through the cruise that took us to the French cities of Nice and Eze. We got on the bus and right away the tour guide started annoying us (and most of the people on the bus). She went on and on about stuff that didn’t really matter and then told the same dumb stories at least three times each. She did not work for the cruise line, she is a private tour guide that just does the tours they set up, and trust me when I say, she was awful. Other people on the tour were thoroughly irritated with her too. Regardless we were stuck on the tour, so, on we went. First stop was Nice (pronounced like niece) and after the stupid tour guide finally stopped flapping her jaws and wasting our time telling us where the toilet was at least a half dozen times, we set off to walk through a market and walk down the beach on the French Riviera. We had to be fairly fast since time was limited. Even though it was hot as heck out there we stopped for a quick cappuccino at a café and then it was back to the bus. There were a ridiculous amount of tour busses in the area today creating a nice traffic jam that took us some time to get through when we came into and left the parking lot in Nice. We got on the bus at 11 to head over to the next stop on the tour for the day, Eze. We were almost there when traffic came to a standstill just short of the parking lot where the busses park and then the tours walk the rest of the way up the hill to Eze. We sat on the bus for a while and then the tour guide got off to run up ahead and see what was going on. We could see lots of black smoke coming from just up the hill and it turns out the fire was actually a bus that caught fire right in the parking lot where our bus had to park. We didn’t have any details but the tour guide called the ship who told her to return to the boat and there was no way we would be completing the stop in Eze. After our amazing bus driver did a three point turn in the middle of a small two lane highway that was literally on the side of a mountain we were on our way. I can’t believe he did it in only three points…I seriously thought it would be 5 or more! The entire bus applauded when he finished making the turn, lol. While Shel and I were disappointed we weren’t getting to see Eze, we were happy to be off the bus with annoying tour guide sooner. Then it happened. She said that instead of heading back to the port she could drive us around Monte Carlo on the bus and point out some things and have us back to the port at our regularly scheduled return time of 2 PM. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! A few people, including us, promptly asked if we could just get off the bus in Monte Carlo, do our own walking tour and then walk back to the place where you take the tender back to our ship. She gave some ridiculous answer about it being a legal thing and she has to return us to where she picked us up and such, so no, we couldn’t just get off. So we’d been on the bus since 11 and we were supposed to get off and have time to eat and walk around in Eze, but since we never made it to Eze we were held captive on the bus three hours driving around looking at crap we didn’t care about and listening to the stupid tour guide tell us the same stories three times apiece. Shoot. Me. NOW! Thank God Colin had fallen asleep in my lap shortly after getting back on the bus at 11, because trying to contain a three year old on your lap for three hours with no food or toys would have been a nightmare. As soon as we got back to the boat we made sure to go to the excursion desk and complain about the terrible tour guide, and the fact that our tour was NOT what we had signed up for. I understand the bus catching fire and us not being able to make it into Eze was out of their control, but at that point they should have returned us to the port and let us do what we wanted. Not force us to stay on the bus starving and bored as we drive around in circles in Monte Carlo when that was never part of the tour itinerary we signed up for. The ship looked into it and refunded us 75% of what we paid to take that excursion. So I guess it was ok. We later found out that the bus that caught fire was a tour from our boat. I think they were doing the same tour we were, thank goodness that wasn’t us! Apparently the bus had just parked when it just burst into flames and the people on the bus barely had enough time to get off. No one was hurt, but I heard about a lady whose purse got stuck on the arm of the chair and she couldn’t fiddle with it to get it loose in time so she had to leave it behind and all her ID, passports, money, bank cards, etc… were inside. Oh man talk about nightmare! I was overjoyed to be back on the air conditioned ship after literally sweating off 10 lbs walking around Monte Carlo (and I don’t sweat…it takes a lot of hot to make me sweat!) We were happy to relax on the boat and enjoy dinner and drinks that night.

Day 17 Livorno Port

Livorno Port

Today was our first real day on the cruise and our first stop was Livorno. If that name sounds familiar it’s because we were just here a few days ago! LOL The Army base where we left my car parked is in Livorno and it’s right next to Pisa, which we had already seen. Because we had already done the Pisa thing we booked an excursion through the cruise that took us on a wine tasting in the Tuscan countryside. Perfect! We got on a bus and went to a small village called Lucca where we walked around and visited some shops. We bought some handmade Italian pasta made right there in town to bring home. We also visited the butcher and bought some Tuscan style salami and some marinated olives. We had a nice cappuccino and then it was time to get back on the bus to head to the winery. Torre a Cenaia Winery has been around for many years and they make several different varieties of wine. We learned about how they process it, how the type of wood the barrel it is stored in affects the flavor, and how the type of cork used makes a difference too. Then we got to go inside and sit down for a proper wine tasting. We sampled five different wines and they were all paired with the right foods to compliment them. There was salami, bread, Tuscan bruschetta (olives, anchovies and chicken) and cheese. Then for the dessert wine we sampled we dipped our biscotti in it. OH MY! Yum!! After all the sampling we got to buy the wines and other stuff to go with it. I bought several bottles and of course some biscotti too for my dessert wine. It was a nice trip and Colin was very well behaved on it. Our tour guide was great too, she gave us lots of good information and was funny and personable.
When the tour returned back to the port in Livorno we ended up taking a taxi back to the Army base so that we could go to the US bank branch there on base. Stupid me put a bunch of money in an account we don’t use often and then forgot the pin number to my ATM card (because I never use that account!) and couldn’t get the damn money back out. Ugh! I tried calling the bank to change the pin over the phone but of course that would be too easy and they don’t do that…so I had to go in to the bank. Luckily I realized it where I did, but a few days earlier when we were already at the base to drop off my car would have been much better!
When we were done with that we boarded the boat and got some dinner and relaxed watching the sun set. When we returned to our room that night there was another sculpture and more chocolates waiting for us. The steward also makes up Colin’s bed in the pull out couch and gets it all ready for him. As soon as Colin entered the room he made a dash for the chocolates and snatched them up off the bed without me even noticing. Colin took the chocolates and then ran and hid underneath his bed. Shelby saw this happen and didn’t say anything to Colin. Immediately after hiding his chocolates Colin said he had to poop and he went into the bathroom. While he was in there Shelby took the chocolates from under the couch bed and put them up. When Colin was done in the bathroom Shelby told me to come out and watch and I didn’t know what I was watching for. When Colin came out of the bathroom he made a beeline for under the couch to go knock off his spoils. When he got under there he realized they were gone and was quite upset and came out asking who stole his chocolates! LOL He remembered they were left on the bed the first night and made sure he was getting them all to himself tonight by running into the room, stealing them, and hiding them. Little stinker!

Day 16 - Board cruise in Civitavecchia

Finally it’s cruise day! We got up, got packed and then waited for noon when we were allowed to inprocess the ship. Our ship was Holland America’s Noordam. Getting on the boat was pretty easy and once on board we checked out our room first and then wandered around to see what all the ship had to offer. Originally we had a regular/small stateroom booked on the first level of the ship with just a small porthole window. About three weeks before the cruise Shelby got an email saying they were offering reduced rates to upgrade rooms and we ended up getting a verandah room that was much bigger and had a balcony for a lot less than it was originally supposed to be. It was much nicer to be up near the top of the boat and I think we’re spoiled now for all future cruises!
Here is when you enter our room, bathroom is immediate left and closets to the right.

Better shot of our room.


Shelby took Colin to the pool to swim off some energy while I unpacked our room and got our “home for the next ten days” set up. Later on it was dinner time. We opted for the buffet type thing since it’s just easier with Colin, and I was shocked at how good the buffet food was. It really was more like I had ordered from a nice restaurant than picked up seafood off a buffet line. I could get used to this! After dinner we tried to take Colin to the kids club on board and had to ask about when they would accept him because the age for care is 3-7 years old. Technically Colin is still 2 until he turns three in four days, so we didn’t know if they would allow him to start tonight since he turns three during the cruise, or if he would have to wait until his actual birthday. After some checking around it was decided that he had to officially be three before he could be left in the care of the club, so we’d have to wait a few more days. He was SO excited to see kids his age and play with other kids we couldn’t make him leave right after getting there, so we asked if it was ok if we stayed there and kept an eye while he played for a little bit. The staff was ok with that so he got to have a little bit of interaction with the kids and make a couple new friends. When we got back to our room our steward had turned down our bed, left us a nice towel sculpture of a penguin and some chocolates. Colin was excited to see chocolate when he realized what it was.

Day 15 - Civitavecchia

Civitavecchia

This morning we woke up and drove the car over to Camp Darby where we would leave it while on the cruise. The hotel on base had no problem with us leaving it there and we knew it would be much safer there than in a garage at the port, and it was free! We parked the car and then got a cab to take us to the train station, where we got on a train to Civitavecchia, which I have no idea how to pronounce. This is the port near Rome where the cruises stop to access Rome. The train ride was about three hours and we got in first class, which gave us a little more room and comfort. Italian trains, at least not this one, are not nearly as nice as German or Korean trains. I was glad we did first class after seeing second class and how full it was. We made it to the train station and the hotel was less than 2 km from the train station so we decided just to walk there instead of getting a taxi at the station. We seriously underestimated the heat here and were hot and sweaty by the time we made it to the hotel. Thank God this room had AC, and it was turned on and functioning when we got there. This actually turned out to be the best hotel we’d come across in Italy yet. The room was very nice, desk clerk more than helpful and it actually matched the online description very well. After cooling down a bit and resting up we headed out for some lunch which was a huge adventure. Colin fell asleep in the stroller so we were happy to have a peaceful quiet lunch with him passed out. It is Assumption Day in Italy, a religious/national holiday and many of the restaurants were not open. The one we did find that was open turned out to be a gem. The waiter came over and seemed scared because he didn’t know much English. He explained in very few words that today was special set menu for the holiday. It was all fish only and 30 Euro per person. We said ok (we didn’t have a whole lot of other options) and waited to see what kind of stuff would show up. This turned out to be our best (and cheapest) meal in Italy so far! He started off bringing out two glasses of prosecco, then the antipasti of fried calamari, fried anchovies and some kind of fish and cheese pate that was fried. We devoured everything but the anchovies and eagerly awaited the next course. After that came some mussels and bread. Next was a salmon ravioli dish. At this point we were full but it was such an exciting adventure because we had no idea what was coming next or what the heck we were really eating, but everything was incredibly delicious. After the pasta came a broiled fish fillet that had some cheese and herbs layered in between the fillets. It was divine! Lastly came some dessert and espresso and the bill which amazingly was 60 Euro for the two meals and 13 Euro for the bottle of wine we ordered. No cover charge, or service charge or any other hidden charges that we’ve found Italy to be notorious for. Best meal yet and best deal for sure! After lunch we headed back to the hotel to change and head to the beach. The beach here was a pebble beach, very rocky and no real sand. Colin was ecstatic to throw rocks in the water and play in the shallow water. We could see from the beach that they were setting up fireworks for something that night and there would be some kind of street festival later too. When we finished at the beach we went back and changed clothes and wandered back to the beach area to where the festival was and had some pizzas for dinner. Later on we took Colin to ride the carnival rides set up for the festival and then watch the fireworks at 11:30. It was a late night but we figured we’d relax tomorrow on the boat. Excellent food, Italian beach and fireworks…I’d call that a good day!

Some vacation updates

Several new blog posts from the trip are up. I have video of the lake, feeding the ducks and some from Prague too, but the lame-o internet here in Italy would never get it uploaded before I have to leave. Sorry...you'll have to wait for that! Tomorrow we head down to Rome to get ready to board the cruise on Tuesday, maybe I'll have time to keep updating tomorrow. Internet on the boat is likely to be scarce. We are having a FABULOUS time!

Day 13 & 14 - Pisa

Pisa

Day 13, Aug 13.
Driving from Venice to Pisa was interesting. Italian drivers are not as courteous as German drivers and it’s a bit more of a free for all than we are used to. The traffic was pretty heavy too because it was a holiday weekend in Italy. We had to drive through the Appennino mountains that run down the middle of Italy to get to Pisa on the western coast from Venice. The drive felt like forever even though it was only a few hours. We arrived in Pisa in the late afternoon and it’s a funny little place. It is not a huge city, just a nice size town and really not too much there. The old town has several hotels mostly in a one block stretch and at the end of that stretch there are loads of souvenir shops and then the street dead ends smack into The Leaning Tower. It almost doesn’t look real because you have old, run down city and touristy hotels, then boom…green grass, large open protected area and massive marble structures come out of nowhere. Despite their age they look so clean and pretty compared to the city. Our hotel balcony had a view of the Tower from it and if I didn’t physically stand there and take the picture and see it with my own eyes I would believe it was a photoshop job, it doesn’t look real!

We got our stuff organized and headed down to the Tower and Duomo area for some pictures since it was a nice sunny afternoon. The funniest thing was seeing all the people posing for their silly Leaning Tower pictures. Some pretending to hold it up, some pretending to lean against it, some pretending to touch the top…you name it, people were trying it. It was hilarious just to lay in the grass and people watch at all the tourists attempting to get the perfect picture.
After getting our pictures out of the way and letting Colin run off some energy in the grass we headed to a restaurant that was recommended by one of our travel books for the Tuscany region. They were right, food and wine were excellent. Apparently many, many famous people have come to eat there as the owner is an older man, and pictures of him in his restaurant with celebrities line the walls. Most of them are Italian stars I didn’t recognize, but there were quite a few people I did know in the photos. We had an excellent meal with more fresh seafood and delicious dessert before walking back to the hotel to call it a night.

Day 14, Aug 14.
Today we took advantage of some down time and headed to Livorno, where the Army base Camp Darby is located. We forgot the GPS in the hotel room but Shelby said he thought he could remember how to get there from looking at Google maps earlier, it was a pretty straight and easy shot from Pisa. Wrong. We got lost, almost gave up, then finally got lucky. From what we were led to believe Camp Darby is a decent sized base, we were seriously misled! They didn’t have much of anything and most all of what they did have was closed on Sunday. Poop. We were not able to get some of the snacks and pick up items we had hoped from the base that day. There was no haircut for Colin as the barber shop is closed on Sundays and Mondays. We did get some useful information about where to leave our car tomorrow and catching a train to Rome for our cruise though, so it wasn’t a total wasted trip. We attempted to head down to “The American Beach” in Livorno, which is an American beach run by the military. We were a little put off that you had to pay to enter and pay to park at this military beach, but decided it would be worth it to take Colin to the beach. When we got there the man informed us the parking lot was full and there was nowhere to park so we would have to either wait for someone to leave (he then noted the lady over there had been waiting on someone to leave for over 20 minutes) or just go park on the street in the city and walk. There are not that many Americans on that base for the lot to be full, and ALL the cars and mopeds in the parking lot looked like they belonged to Italians. So my guess is “The American Beach” is not just for Americans. We decided to just head back to the hotel in Pisa after the beach was a bust because parking on the city street was a joke, it was bumper to bumper with no open spots and even if there was one it wouldn’t be Dodge sized anyway. We weren’t too disappointed about it. We found a nice place for dinner and then I had to take on the task of packing us for the cruise and determining what to bring on the boat and what to leave behind with the car. I hate packing!

Days 10, 11 & 12 - Venice

Venice

Day 10, Aug 10, Drive to Venice.
Colin woke us up at 0430 this morning with a fever and having to pee. Another 24 hours on meds and we should be fever free (I would hope) and he’ll be doing better. We tried to put him back to bed, he told us the sun was up. Shelby said “Are you sure? Go look outside.” So Colin went to the window and opened the curtains and said “Uh oh. Where’s the sun?” LOL “See Colin, we told you it was ridiculously early, now go back to bed!” Nope. He was up and so were we. So we packed up and loaded the car and hit the road. Just after crossing into Austria I asked Shelby where he put my down pillow that I had asked him to leave accessible in the car. He didn’t know where it was and didn’t remember loading it. Apparently it was left at the hotel. I called the hotel but they would not check, too busy said the lady at the desk. Management will be hearing about that later. I was told lost and found works off an email system and I needed to email them the information. Whatever. Driving through Austria and into Italy is BEE-U-TEE-FUL! I was snapping pictures left and right when MY BRAND NEW CAMERA decided to get something dirty inside the lenses and now has a giant blob in the middle of all my pictures. OMG today is NOT going well so far.
When we got closer to Venice we came across an Army post that had a BX so I took my camera in there and showed them the blob and explained I was on vacation and didn’t have the box or anything, but I did have my receipt and it was pretty much brand new. Thankfully they exchanged it for me so I was happy with that. New camera now and the day is getting better.

We finally arrived in Venezia and made our way to the airport so we could park our car. The islands of Venice are not accessible by any means other than boat. There are no cars, taxis or mopeds/bikes on the island at all. Everything from people to goods arrives via boat. When you get there and see how narrow the streets are, if you want to call them streets, you understand. Most streets are a narrow alley way that two people can barely walk side by side down. We parked our car at the airport, took only what we needed for a few days in Venice and then went to the “bus” station to catch a water bus to the island. The bus route is kind of indirect so we were on the boat for about an hour and a half before we got to our stop near Saint Mark’s Square. They have private taxi boats that are much faster and can get you there in 20 minutes, but they are 100 Euro for the ride versus about 15 Euro for the public water bus. We got some great views on the bus though and even got to see a few of the other outer islands like Murano on our way to St. Mark’s. There really are no words to describe Venice. Everywhere you look is a beautiful view. We got totally lost on the way to our hotel (very common and even easier to do) but didn’t mind wandering and checking out the sights. After we finally found our hotel and got settled into our room we went out to find a place for dinner. We soon learned that eating is an event in Italy, and it ain’t cheap either! Many people order appetizers, or antipasti, which of course we did because there were too many good things to pass up. Then comes the first course, or primo, is usually rice, pasta or risotto. When you’ve eaten your big plate of pasta then comes the second course, secondo, which is usually some kind of meat or fish. If you would like a salad that would come next, by that time I cannot imagine how you would have room for salad, or why you would want one for that matter considering skipping it means you are now on to cappuccino/espresso and dessert! By the time dinner was over we were stuffed full and exhausted.

Day 11, Aug 11, Venice.
We woke up pretty late and got ready, then headed out for some breakfast. Italians don’t really do fast food, nor do they do to go stuff. There is ONE McDonald’s (pretty much the only fast food/chain kind of place there) and even that doesn’t open until 10 and does not serve breakfast! Bars are open even in the morning and they all have espresso machines where the people come to get a croissant and a cappuccino for breakfast. They don’t take it to go, they stand around at small round tables (much like they do in Germany) and eat then move on. You can sit down in some places, but if you sit down you are going to pay a cover charge of 1-3 Euro per person for sitting. This is why locals don’t sit, they stand at the bar with their coffee. After our delicious cappuccino and filled croissants we went to St. Mark’s Basilica and waited in the entrance line. All the churches are Catholic and they all have rules to enter. You have to cover your knees and your shoulders, no photography, no noise. You cannot really describe the inside of the Basilica, it is breathtaking. The ceiling of the massive church is all mosaic tile and most are shiny gold, so with the morning light shining in the whole ceiling appeared to glisten and sparkle in the sunlight. I had to buy postcards to take pictures of so that I could post some to try to show you how pretty it is, though no photograph could capture all it’s beauty. It’s incredible to think about such a work of art being built in this day and age, let alone hundreds of years ago. After St. Mark’s Basilica we wandered around and got totally lost. It was nice to get out of the tourist packed streets and just take in the sights. Neither of us cared that we were lost (you can’t really get too far on the island anyway) and we saw other tourists who were also happily lost and not the least bit concerned either. We found a great place to eat lunch, still expensive, but the food…OMG! We didn’t even order off the menu really, we saw a plate of spaghetti with big shrimp/mini lobster looking things come out to the table of locals next to us and told the waiter we want that too. I’m certain we paid more for it than they did but it was worth it. Crazy delicious! We drank a big carafe of wine, ate til we were about to bust and then hit the streets to wander around some more. That afternoon we found a park for Colin to play in and burn off some energy before we ate dinner. Dinner was another amazing event full of wine, seafood, and dessert.

Day 12, Aug 12, Venice.
We got up a little earlier today and headed out to explore. Yesterday we stumbled across a huge fruit/veggie market and fish market that was all being cleaned up and done for the day, so we missed seeing all the goods. Today we started out earlier and headed that way to make sure we could see the market. The fish arrives at the dock fresh out of the water, many still breathing, and gets thrown on ice right there in the square for people to buy. Restaurant chefs and residents come down and buy their fill and couriers deliver the seafood to the restaurants in coolers on wheeled carts that barely fit down the narrow alleys. Delivery men in Venice are in seriously good shape! They have all kinds of shellfish, squid, octopus, fish, you name it. I wish we had a place to go buy seafood like that! After the market we wandered some more, bought some things, found a place for lunch, and wandered some more. We saw some gigantic private yachts docked and cruise ships coming in to port. We overhead someone saying the saw George Clooney on the island that day, so who knows who the boats belong to, but they aren’t residents I’m sure. We took Colin to the park again and snagged a great table on the waterfront at the mouth of the Grand Canal to eat dinner and watch the sun set. Colin was so good, we spent two and half hours at the restaurant eating and drinking! He played with cars and watched people and boats go by, ate his food and when he got bored with that we let him watch Rio (his newest movie obsession) on the iphone and he was happy as could be. It was a great last night in Venice with the food and the views.

Sorry!

I'm working on it, I know we've been on vacation a week now and I'm just getting around to posting blog updates and pictures...it takes time to upload pictures and write these things. I'm too busy enjoying vacation!

Days 7, 8 & 9: Garmisch

Garmisch

Aug 7: This morning we got up early and got on the road to head to Garmisch. It was a long drive with lots of potty stops along the way. It was raining and cold most of the way. Colin talked the entire way about going to throw rocks in the lake. When we got settled in the room Shelby took Colin to the pool to wear him out a little and I had to do laundry before dinner.

Aug 8: The weather was still not cooperating much for us today. Cool and raining. We did take advantage of a break in the rain to go for a walk and let Colin ride his bike. He loved riding through the puddles on the bike path and thought that was super cool. We needed a few things from the BX so we had to do a little shopping too. Later on Colin got to go swimming again and it was after the pool that he really seemed to be feeling miserable. He had been picking at food the last two days, one of the first signs of his routine sickness that he gets. Then this afternoon his neck starting to swell up over a matter of a few hours and a fever came on. Lovely…we knew where this was going. Just two weeks ago we went through this and had an ER visit and Colin was sick. It comes on every 4-5 weeks so when he had it last time I had hoped we’d be in the clear on vacation as far as sickness goes. Apparently not. So we called the insurance company and were told to take him to the German ER in Garmisch. They operate much differently than US ERs and we were in and out of there in under an hour! It was awesome! They don’t play around there. The doctor said she thought he had an upper respiratory infection and a throat infection, gave us antibiotics and we were on our way. Hopefully Colin will be feeling better soon and not be sick on the cruise.

Aug 9: We woke up to a brief moment of sunshine in the morning, but it didn’t take long for the clouds and cold to come back. We decided we had to go to the lake to throw rocks today rain or shine, so we packed up and went. The lake was chilly, but still beautiful. It’s a little crazy that it was much warmer in April when Colin and I were there for spring break than it was in August! Gotta love Germany’s crazy weather. At the lake we walked on the trail that goes around the lake to find a good beach spot to stop at and throw rocks. Colin had his little bike and was riding ahead of us. We came to a bridge in the middle of the trail and there were people around admiring the views and when Shelby and I turned to check on Colin we found him standing in the middle of the trail ahead. With his pants around his ankles and his bicycle helmet still on his head peeing like a garden hose! Right in front of everyone, no shame. Shelby and I both screeched at the same time “OMG Colin WHAT are you doing?!” To which he ever so casually and nonchalantly replied “I just peeing.” Oh boy we have got to teach this child the art of discretion. We soon found a beach and there were ducks there that were either starving or just very friendly. Maybe a little of both. They came right to us and literally sat in my lap. It was a mama and her babies and there was more than one family there. Whenever a baby duck from the other family came over to try to get some food the mama that was eating with us would grab hold and bite like hell on it and the duckling would squeal and swim away. It happened a couple times! They all looked the same to me but apparently that mama knew her babies and he was not one of them! After the lake we went back to the hotel so I could get stuff packed and reorganized for Venice and Shelby took Colin to the pool. Colin is feeling a little better, but when the fever pops back up he gets a little whiny. Packing for Venice was not fun. We are parking our car at the airport on the mainland of Italy and then taking a water taxi over to Venice. That means we need minimal bags which is a pain in the butt for us. We can only take in what we can reasonable carry with us on foot to the hotel and still wrangle Colin. Thankfully we are only there for 2 days!

Vacation Day 6: Praha

Prague

Again the forecast called for 70% chance of rain and skies were pretty cloudy, so we spent a while in the morning contemplating what to do. I wanted to go to Sedlec Ossuary, aka the bone church, but it was about 2 hours by train from our location and not much else around the church to see. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere. Then we considered a trip to Karlstejn Hrad castle, but decided against that too. Instead we decided to walk around and take advantage of the little bit of sunshine gracing us. We discovered there was a Hooters in Praha so we had to stop in for lunch and get Colin’s picture taken with the Czech Hooters Girls. It’s tradition. After lunch we walked across the Charles Bridge and back up to the Prague Castle to get some better views of the city in the sunshine. On our way over the bridge Colin spotted a little park with a playground and there was no way we couldn’t stop once he’d seen it. He got some good run time in and made a few friends. The best toys on the playground were the pigeons. Colin went NUTS chasing after them and running from one end of the playground to the other. He even got a couple other little boys his age in on it and they were a sight all charging after the birds. By the time we got up to the castle the clouds were moving back in and it started to rain a little bit. The rain did not last long, thankfully and soon enough the sun was shining again. For dinner we went to a place called Vytopna. The restaurant has a giant model train railroad running all over it and the tracks are built onto every table. Anytime you order drinks your drinks are loaded onto a train car from the bar and the train drives them right on to your table for delivery. Needless to say we ordered a lot of drinks because Colin thought the train coming to his table was the coolest thing ever. We spent as much money on drinks as we did on food and we would later be up half the night to pee! LOL Colin also cracked us up asking our waitress if he could pet her lizard (she had a lizard tattoo on her calf).

Vacation Day 5: Praha

Prague

We decided to do another tour thing to see the sights of Prague because many things are so spread out and it seemed like it would be best. We were picked up at our hotel and driven to the tour starting/meeting point. We got on a bus that drove us around and the guide pointed out some things. Again, it was hard to take pictures from inside the bus, and also a little difficult to listen to the man while trying to entertain and contain Colin. After driving for a bit then we stopped and it became a walking tour. We went to Prague Castle, the largest castle in the world, to see the palace. It is massive and composed of several buildings on the castle grounds. It is where the Bohemian Crown Jewels are kept and all the government happenings go on. It’s also the biggest castle in the world! Everything is so beautiful in Prague. The buildings and the architecture are amazing and things are so old! Many places we’ve seen in Germany are old as well but have had some restoration after damage during the war. Many things here in Prague have been untouched for the most part. The weather for today said 70% chance of rain, but we got very lucky and while it was very cloudy and overcast all day, we didn’t have any real rain drops fall while we were out and about during the day. Prague is huge and spread out with lots of things to see. At every corner and alley are incredible buildings that look like works of art.

Vacation Day 4: Drive from Berlin to Praha

Prague

We didn’t bring a stroller because he hates to ride in them and ours is pretty big and bulky anyway. After two days of keeping him close by and Shelby carrying him on his shoulders when he got tired we decided we would have to purchase a stroller. First stop (after Starbucks of course) on the way out of Berlin was at Toys R Us to get a good, lightweight, travel stroller and Colin was just going to have to learn to like it. The rest of the day we drove to Prague and got settled in our hotel. Czech Republic was frustrating and reminded me of when we first moved to Germany. When in Korea it never really bothered me that I couldn’t read anything because the letters/characters were totally foreign to me and made no sense. When we got to Germany it drove me nuts that I could not read the signs because they were all the same letters in the English alphabet, so they LOOKED like they should spell something, but the words had no meaning to me. Frustrating, I eventually learned German and to read the signs and got over it. Being in Czech brought back the frustration as the letters are the same, but they make absolutely no sense at all. Our hotel was very helpful in making us reservations at a traditional Czech restaurant for dinner that included music. Dinner at Koliba was awesome! Inside was all dark wood and there were wooden carved stools with sheep skin blankets on them. In the middle of the room was a big coal grill where meat was cooked (it was hot as hell in there!) and there was a three man band playing traditional Czech music. Our waitress spoke English and when I ordered wine she asked me if I wanted a half liter or a liter! When our drinks came out they were served with some excellent bread and also a shot of cinnamon schnapps for both Shelby and I. Ick, but when in Rome Praha…. It was nice because the place was full of tourists and everyone was taking pictures of everything so I didn’t feel dumb photographing the band or the man cooking the meat and stuff. There was a large group of Chinese people visiting from Hong Kong for a convention and they were very nice and in love with Colin. In Korea Colin was very popular with his light hair and blue eyes, and apparently the Chinese are just as interested. The lady was taking pictures of him and telling us how handsome he was while Colin was hamming it up for her and telling her all about himself. “Name Colin, I three (holding up three fingers), I live Germany!” LOL We didn’t order anything besides drinks, all the rest was a preset menu thing as part of the deal we paid for when the hotel made our reservation. So it was a surprise to see what showed up at the table for us to eat. First came an appetizer that could have been a meal it was so big. It was two pieces of white bread toast with some kind of goulash on top. It had ground meat of some kind in it and I later decided it was probably deer because I saw a lot of deer goulash on the menu at traditional restaurants. It was topped with melted cheese and it was delicious. The main course came out as a mass of food all piled on a big wooden cutting board thing. There were grilled beef steaks, roasted ribs, grilled pork chunks, some eggplant stuff, potato fries, veggies and I forget what all else piled on. It was so big it caught the eye of the Chinese people near us who were also taking pictures of our food and asking how many people that was supposed to be for, lol. Everything I tried was excellent, though I’m still partial to Shelby’s BBQ ribs…they are definitely better. Dessert was a chocolate layered torte kind of thing, very good. I’m glad we found that place, lots of fun and good food.

Berlin

Berlin

Day 1: Drive to Berlin (Aug 1)
Shelby started his day at 0430 this morning when he headed into work for a few hours. Colin and I finished packing and met him on base when he was done with work so we could hit the road. Finally after some errands and a few speed bumps we were on our way. According to Google Maps the drive from Ramstein to Berlin is about 5.5 hours. Clearly they are not referring to those travelling with a potty training, almost three year old. Our drive was more like 7 something hours and I was more than ready to get there and be out of the car when we finally arrived at our hotel around 11 PM that night.

Day 2: Berlin City Tour (Aug 2)
After waking up and getting around our first order of business was to hit Starbucks…always a priority when travelling in big cities! We decided to book tickets for a “hop on, hop off” type bus tour since there were so many things to see and we didn’t really have a “must see” list planned out yet. We figured it would take us to all the major important sites and we’d see a little bit of everything that way. We went to the stop to board the bus with our email confirmation/purchase receipt on the iphone (how did we live before this thing?) and the stupid not-so-nice woman at the desk said that the receipt had to be printed and was not valid on my phone. (Which it clearly said was acceptable right there on the phone but arguing with her wasn’t going to get me on the bus). We spent the next hour trying to find an internet café with a printer, no luck. Then we found another stop for the same bus tour and I decided to ask that guy, who barely glanced at my phone and told me to go to the bus stop and get on. So we went to where he said, showed another lady at that ticket booth the phone and she gladly handed over our tickets. I told her about our experience with the bitchy woman up the road and that we wasted an hour of our time trying to find a printer that we didn’t need. She apologized and FINALLY we boarded the bus.
Colin was super excited about riding the bus and at every stop he would tell us it was not time to get off yet. The only downside to a tour bus like that is that it is difficult to take good pictures from inside the bus, you just don’t get the photo ops you get while walking. Speaking of photos, I’ll apologize in advance for mine. A couple months back my Panasonic got a dirty spot on the lens and needed cleaning. Since it was 2 years old and a newer model was out I just decided to upgrade and buy the newer Panasonic Lumix because we’ve had previous models and the quality and capability for the money are outstanding. I bought it right before vacation and didn’t have a ton of time to play with it before leaving. Well the latest model does not stand up to the reputation and I do not care for it at all. Sadly I am stuck with it because I can’t return it to stupid Aafes after 30 days and we will be on vacation longer than that. I left my Canon at home so I am stuck with what I have for now. Hmph.
Back to the bus…we saw a lot of major points of interest on the tour. The tour bus had headphones that gave little tidbits about places, but trying to listen to an audio guide while keeping tabs on Colin does not work out so well. I don’t remember very much of what I “learned” on that tour. We also buy books from every city we visit to reference and read about the places we stop to see so we can get little factoids about the buildings and history. Again, reading while trying to keep Colin from running off/spitting on things/chasing pigeons/peeing in public/touching things and/or people/picking up trash/eating said trash (pick any of the aforementioned) is basically impossible. So again, I saw a lot of really cool stuff in Berlin…but I can’t tell you a whole lot about it. I’ll be visiting wiki pages for places when I caption photos for you, lol!
Potty training while on vacation is fun too, especially when public toilets are spread out and you have to pay to use them. Colin will tell you when he has to go to the bathroom, but you often don’t have a lot of time once he lets you know to get him there. Then if there is something he’d rather be doing, you can forget him telling you at all. For example on the way to Berlin we stopped at a McD’s to eat and let him play. While playing he pooped his pants, even though I asked him numerous times while playing and reminded him over and over that if he went in the toilet he could go back and play after. He was too excited to stop and pooped a horrible nasty poop all over himself. We had to strip him down in the parking lot in front of everyone and go through a case of wipes to clean him off. He really doesn’t care too much about going on himself, so we had to come up with a way to express to him how bad this was. He LOVES to stay in hotels, so we told him that we were not going to the hotel anymore, that we had to go home now because the hotel does not allow kids that potty in their pants to stay there. That got his attention! He cried and bawled and hysterically claimed he’d go in the potty from now on. He even told us that he didn’t poop his pants, the other kids on the playground pooped in them! LOL I don’t think so kiddo! We let him think we were driving home for a long time and he was beside himself upset. He didn’t have another accident that day though, lol. On our first day in Berlin he had two accidents first, in the Concert/Opera house. We had to pull him around the side of the building and duck into a corner to change his clothes and rinse out his shoes…thank God for Crocs! Then that night at dinner he drank a lot and had already been to the bathroom. Shelby took him before we were ready to leave and he screamed and protested and did not want to go (making him ”try” to potty is torture apparently). He sat on the toilet fussing but refused to go. He came back to the table and a two minutes later said he had to potty and so I got to take him this time. Well he didn’t make it to the bathroom before he peed all over my hip where I was carrying him! YOU WERE JUST ON THE DAMN TOILET AND WOULDN’T PEE AND THEN YOU PEE ON ME?!?! I now understand why some animals eat their young. Thankfully we were close to the hotel , which he cried all the way back to because we told him we were going to pack up and leave because they would kick us out when they saw the pee pee on his clothes. We pretended to have a little conversation with the reception about how he will not have any more accidents if he can stay at the hotel and not leave. He was quite relieved to be “allowed” to stay at the hotel.

Day 3: Colin fun day Berlin (Aug 3)
Today was Colin’s day. After the Starbucks stop we headed to the Berlin Zoo for the day. Colin’s favorite part of the zoo was the goats in the petting area. We wound up there first thing in the morning on a toilet hunt and he didn’t want to leave. It was great because no one else was really back there yet and the goats were hungry. Colin fed and loved on them and told me one in particular was “Colin’s goat” and we were taking him home. We eventually talked him into leaving the goats and got to see some other animals too. The other highlight of his day was getting to feed all the little begging birds on the terrace at the zoo restaurant. He was talking to them and making sure they each got some and would have fed them all day long if we’d have let him. After the zoo we hit up the aquarium next to the zoo, but by that time he was pretty tired and only half interested in the fish.