The Mediterranean: Cruzando en un Crucero!

It's hard to to capture in words how very excited I was to see Peter, Jessie, and Aunt Serena in the Barcelona train station and to board our ship, the Norwegian Epic, for an 8 day journey around the Mediterranean.  They had quite the travel-extravaganza arriving to Barcelona, and many times as we my mom and I sat in the station we thought we may be going it alone for another 8 days.  When they arrived, we were thrilled to see one another and to start out on our vacation!  *Please note, that while traveling has been above and beyond thrilling (and in this case, extremely luxurious), there is a difference between travel and vacation.

We headed to the port, picking up a t-shirt and underwear for Peter on the way in Las Ramblas, because his luggage had been lost on the way.  This shirt would be the one in each of the photos that we took for the next 4 days until we arrived in Rome and the underwear, Superman and Batman designed will live on forever. Somehow his suitcase magically showed up on the cruise, making Norwegian the best cruise line ever. Amazing really!

But back in Barcelona, we strolled down Las Ramblas and then we quickly got aboard the nicest cruise I have ever seen.  The ship is new this year, and was voted the top entertainment ship, featuring the Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil, a dueling piano bar, pool tabels, two bowling alleys and more.  So just in case Florence, Rome, Naples, Palma de Mallorca, and Barcelona did not have enough to offer- we were covered!  

Honestly, the days on here were amazing!  I have so many great stories to add here, but for now will tell them through photos and a quick blurb (each of these photos comes with a story).

Atop the Duomo, the 442 stairs were worth it!! 

A four-course dinner with that view wasn't so bad!!

Enjoying the rest of the Italian wine before boarding for Rome! There is an actual story here in which Peter and Jessie had me buy a bottle of wine to drink on the train, accidentally got separated, drank the wine with strangers, and showed up back at the boat happy as could be; while in the meantime I stood for the hour long train ride surrounded by sweaty strangers and NO wine.  I'm not bitter; I'm just also not the one smiling in this pic! :) 

Enjoying the huge funnel slide on board!  One of three slides :). 

Where Jessie learned here best, and most frequently used Spanish phrase, "Yo gané".  

Strolling the streets of Capri!  Life is pretty darn good. 

We rented bikes in Mallorca!  My favorite day :). 

Park Güell

   

The endless journey to chocolate and churros at Cafe Laitana (that didn't exist) 

Heading back to Madrid on the Ave!