After a full week on the cruise, we docked in Barcelona, our final port-of-call and where we bid farewell to our marvelous time at sea. We decided to partake in the Barcelona City excursion to have a tour guide show us around the city while monitoring our luggage on the locked bus. We couldn't check in to our hotel room until after 12ish, so we had all morning to go sightseeing. There was no way were toting our bags around with us, so the easiest thing and to get the most out of our cruise experience, we booked the excursion while on board the ship a few nights before. It was perfect! Our guide, Pilar, was amazing and told us loads of information about Barcelona. We visited the Gothic Quarter, Sagrada Familia, Montjuic, the Cathedral, and traveled past La Ramblas and some more of Gaudi's famous architecture. Our bus dropped us off in Catalunya Square around noon where we could walk 2 blocks to our hotel. We had to wait about an hour before our room was ready, which gave us ample time to plan the rest of our day and night there. It also gave my feet a chance to rest after much walking and walking and walking!
Our hotel room was very nice. We had the honeymoon suite, and it had LOTS of space. Our favorite part was the balcony overlooking the city - we could even see Sagrada Familia in our view! The bed sucked - hard as a rock; my neck and back were stiff for 2 days after that one night in Barcelona! Anyway, the first thing we did was figure out our way to the famous Picasso Museum. This was our first time to use the Metro there, and I was proud of us for figuring that out so quickly. I was NOT proud of the fact that once we got there, our maps were either missing streets or were not updated. Yes, mapS - with an "s"! We had two between us, and we could not figure out where the heck we were going. I was getting very frustrated when we figured out our maps were either wrong or not helpful...when finally we came upon the tiniest little street that had a sign at the end of it pointing to the Picasso Museum. I guess I had it in my little mind that an important museum like this one would have a bigger building, a bigger sign - hell, a bigger street! It was just a tiny little hole-in-the-wall kind of place, but it was nice once inside. My favorites were his early years and his sketches before the abstract stuff I just don't care that much for. Once we got passed the Blue period, I was kind of ready to go - as everything slowly turned into kindergraten-looking drawings (in our opinions, we thought our nephews could have drawn some of these things, but I know LOTS of people disagree with us and find this period to be very talented. - Not that my nephews aren't talented... oh, nevermind).
Later that evening, we navigated our way to the Lessops, the Metro stop we needed to walk to Parc Guell, Gaudi's famous park. This was our favorite part of Barcelona; it was so much fun and very peaceful. We felt like we had stepped into either a Dr. Suess book or into Alice's Wonderland. Then, we walked back to the metro after buying my niece a Flaminco dancer doll. My aunt had bought one for me when she lived in Spain when I was little, so it's only fitting that I bought MY niece one.
That night, we ate dinner on our balcony. We had picked up dinner from a local grill (not very Barcelonian, I know, but we needed cheap and tasty). We loved looking out over our balcony to Barcelona at night. Beautiful!
The following day, we checked out of the hotel and made our way to the airport for our flight to London, where we spent 4 more nights before having to travel back to the states. When we got to London, we had to figure out the Underground/Tube system. I'll spare you the details in how my husband refuses to ask for help or assistance and demands that we figure things out on our own and how I usually get frustrated enough for both of us and ask someone myself. Needless to say, we got the tickets we needed, and we traveled the hour long ride into Bayswater, a neighborhood in London. We checked into our bed & breakfast, a quaint little place with a brilliant lobby. Our room, however, was not so brilliant. It was just LITTLE. We barely had enough room to put our actual suitcases, not to mention what things were INSIDE the luggage. This room was tiny, tiny - and we paid some not to tiny money for it! Honestly, we had a tiff about whether to leave the place or not since we were paying SO much for such a tiny place, which at that time felt like it had no air conditioning. Realizing the room was really already paid for (they had charged our credit card upon arrival) with no refunds, we decided to calm down and make the most of it. I did a little bit of room rearrangement - flipping a stool onto the "desk" chair, moving the "desk" as close to the wall as possible, and then we had room for our suitcase to fit on the floor! We figured out how to turn on the A/C (trying to figure out the Celsius conversion), and we unpacked only what we needed for the next 4 days. Soon, it was time to go eat dinner, and we walked just around the corner to a little cafe to buy some "picnic-y" items (sandwiches, fruit, water). Then, we walked just across the street to Kensington Gardens. We picnicked there, watching all the joggers, the strollers, the studiers, the businessmen and women walking home, etc. Then, we enjoyed a little walk in the park before calling it a night.
The next morning, we woke up very early for a full day of sightseeing. We started with our first breakfast at the B&B - a full English-style breakfast. I stuck mostly to what I knew and ate fresh fruit, toast, some eggs, and a little hash brown cake. Their breakfast was so yummy, and we ate there every morning as part of our room package. Then, we headed to the Tower of London for a full morning of a Yeoman's tour, the Crown Jewels, stories of prisoners and executions, and other history and mystery. A few hours later, and we were about ready to leave. Just a quick stop at the Tower of London Gift Shop to see if we could find anything for our nephews. We came across these little paper models enclosed in a glass box with a button that, when pushed, showed you how the paper models worked. Too funny, we had to buy these little models for our 6 and 7 year old nephews, knowing full well that the gift may be inappropriate, but that the boys would love it - it was a paper model called The Executioner which depicts a man's head being chopped off when you turn the handle on the model. The executioner's axe gently falls as you turn the handle, and as it makes contact with the prisoner's neck, the head falls off! We giggled at it, so we thought the kids would love it - even if their parents would have liked a sombrero from Spain or an Italian piggy bank or something a little more innocent. Ha!
Soon, we headed to London Bridge to find a nearby restaurant. We found this cute little shop called Pret A Manger ("Pret"), where we could buy fresh, healthy food for a decent price for both of us to get what we wanted. We enjoyed a nice sit and a yummy lunch while we mapped out the rest of our day. We walked across London Bridge after lunch, admiring the view of Tower Bridge across the River Thames. Tower Bridge is much more impressive than London Bridge, so it was a nice little view there. Then, we made our way to the Globe Theater, a replica of Shakespeare's famous playhouse. We got a short tour before being able to watch a portion of the rehearsal for Henry VII Part 2 from two different aspects in the Globe. I felt like I was part of the audience in Shakespeare in Love, as I watched the actors and the directors interact. We learned a lot that day - like why noble people would say they went to "hear" a play (rather than "see") because quite often, the higher class seats were so high in the theater that they could not see the action but just listen to the play. A play was a social function, where higher class people sat higher up so that a) everyone could see them and b) they could "look down" on lower class citizens. We thought this stuff was interesting to learn about. Next, we walked over the Millenium Bridge to head back to a tube stop to head towards Picadilly Circus where we could eat dinner and look around a little. We had heard about a restaurant chain called Wagamama, a Japanese noodle joint. We ate there after looking around Picadilly a little bit. The restaurant was good, but different than I had heard about. After that, we were ready to head back to the B&B for a nice relaxing evening. . . but first, we wanted to head to Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park, so we exited the Marble Arch tube stop to hear all the speakers we had heard would be there. Of course, when we got off the tube and saw the corner, there was NO ONE there. Not one speaker; not one protester; not one listener. We thought it was ironic and even made sure that we were in the right place by looking at a Hyde Park map - which we were. We took a picture of the empty corner, then we got back on the tube to head "home."
The next morning, after another lovely breakfast at our B&B, we met Helena, a London Walks tour guide, just outside the Westminster tube station. A friend of ours had recommended London Walks tours, and it was a great suggestion. We loved this walk (one of many that the company leads) which was an overview of Royal London and the most famous parts of the city. We saw Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the Jewel House, famous schools, St. James's Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Admiralty Arch, Buckingham Palace, and the changing of the guard. Our tour guide was a tiny but powerful little woman with a big, British voice. We really liked listening to her informative, funny stories which gave lots of background insight that we would have otherwise missed. Our tour ended in Trafalgar Square, where Sam and I saw another Pret restaurant. We thought, heck, we already know we like it and that it's cheap, so we decided to grab lunch there again. And, again, it was delicious, and it gave us some time to figure out what we wanted to do next. We decided to head to Abbey Road for some photos of the famous Beatles crosswalk near their recording studio. We got some pictures, and then we added our own message to the wall outside the recording studio. After several road-crossings, we finally headed back to our B&B. After some down time and getting ready to go, we ate dinner at The Stockpot, a "cheap but cheerful" London restaurant in Picadilly. Then, we got our will call tickets at Gielgud Theatre for our show that night, Hair. The show was amazing - very interactive (the actors came out to the audience many times, even rubbing on our heads and hair a couple times). That night we roamed around downtown for a little bit, not wanting to leave except for our tired feet! I wish we had had more time to go another night to see another show. . . it really was spectacular.
On our last full day in London, we woke up to spend some more time in Westminster Abbey after yet another delicious breakfast at the B&B. Westminster was cool because of all the famous people buried inside - from kings and queens to famous minds like Chaucer, Newton, and Dickens (just to name a few). My favorite part was seeing the irony of Charles Darwin's tomb inside this holy church. Next we went to another part of London where we explored the home of Dr. Samuel Johnson's home - much to my husband's excitement. Dr. Johnson was a famous lexicographer, the man who wrote the first English dictionary. We took some fun pictures, and then went to the well-known pub nearby where Dickens and Johnson often frequented. Sam got a bitter beer here, and then we went to lunch - where else other than another Pret, which happened to be conveniently located next door to the pub, Ye Old Chesire Cheese. 3 days in a row, we enjoyed this cheap, nutritious chain - we hear there are Pret's being established throughout the US - already in New York and DC, on its way to Chicago, and maybe headed here if we're lucky! Anyway, that afternoon we took a much needed amazing nap before going out for our last dinner in London, an Italian place near our hotel. We got some gelato after that and then spent the rest of the evening relaxing and packing up.
Our hotel room was very nice. We had the honeymoon suite, and it had LOTS of space. Our favorite part was the balcony overlooking the city - we could even see Sagrada Familia in our view! The bed sucked - hard as a rock; my neck and back were stiff for 2 days after that one night in Barcelona! Anyway, the first thing we did was figure out our way to the famous Picasso Museum. This was our first time to use the Metro there, and I was proud of us for figuring that out so quickly. I was NOT proud of the fact that once we got there, our maps were either missing streets or were not updated. Yes, mapS - with an "s"! We had two between us, and we could not figure out where the heck we were going. I was getting very frustrated when we figured out our maps were either wrong or not helpful...when finally we came upon the tiniest little street that had a sign at the end of it pointing to the Picasso Museum. I guess I had it in my little mind that an important museum like this one would have a bigger building, a bigger sign - hell, a bigger street! It was just a tiny little hole-in-the-wall kind of place, but it was nice once inside. My favorites were his early years and his sketches before the abstract stuff I just don't care that much for. Once we got passed the Blue period, I was kind of ready to go - as everything slowly turned into kindergraten-looking drawings (in our opinions, we thought our nephews could have drawn some of these things, but I know LOTS of people disagree with us and find this period to be very talented. - Not that my nephews aren't talented... oh, nevermind).
Later that evening, we navigated our way to the Lessops, the Metro stop we needed to walk to Parc Guell, Gaudi's famous park. This was our favorite part of Barcelona; it was so much fun and very peaceful. We felt like we had stepped into either a Dr. Suess book or into Alice's Wonderland. Then, we walked back to the metro after buying my niece a Flaminco dancer doll. My aunt had bought one for me when she lived in Spain when I was little, so it's only fitting that I bought MY niece one.
That night, we ate dinner on our balcony. We had picked up dinner from a local grill (not very Barcelonian, I know, but we needed cheap and tasty). We loved looking out over our balcony to Barcelona at night. Beautiful!
The following day, we checked out of the hotel and made our way to the airport for our flight to London, where we spent 4 more nights before having to travel back to the states. When we got to London, we had to figure out the Underground/Tube system. I'll spare you the details in how my husband refuses to ask for help or assistance and demands that we figure things out on our own and how I usually get frustrated enough for both of us and ask someone myself. Needless to say, we got the tickets we needed, and we traveled the hour long ride into Bayswater, a neighborhood in London. We checked into our bed & breakfast, a quaint little place with a brilliant lobby. Our room, however, was not so brilliant. It was just LITTLE. We barely had enough room to put our actual suitcases, not to mention what things were INSIDE the luggage. This room was tiny, tiny - and we paid some not to tiny money for it! Honestly, we had a tiff about whether to leave the place or not since we were paying SO much for such a tiny place, which at that time felt like it had no air conditioning. Realizing the room was really already paid for (they had charged our credit card upon arrival) with no refunds, we decided to calm down and make the most of it. I did a little bit of room rearrangement - flipping a stool onto the "desk" chair, moving the "desk" as close to the wall as possible, and then we had room for our suitcase to fit on the floor! We figured out how to turn on the A/C (trying to figure out the Celsius conversion), and we unpacked only what we needed for the next 4 days. Soon, it was time to go eat dinner, and we walked just around the corner to a little cafe to buy some "picnic-y" items (sandwiches, fruit, water). Then, we walked just across the street to Kensington Gardens. We picnicked there, watching all the joggers, the strollers, the studiers, the businessmen and women walking home, etc. Then, we enjoyed a little walk in the park before calling it a night.
The next morning, we woke up very early for a full day of sightseeing. We started with our first breakfast at the B&B - a full English-style breakfast. I stuck mostly to what I knew and ate fresh fruit, toast, some eggs, and a little hash brown cake. Their breakfast was so yummy, and we ate there every morning as part of our room package. Then, we headed to the Tower of London for a full morning of a Yeoman's tour, the Crown Jewels, stories of prisoners and executions, and other history and mystery. A few hours later, and we were about ready to leave. Just a quick stop at the Tower of London Gift Shop to see if we could find anything for our nephews. We came across these little paper models enclosed in a glass box with a button that, when pushed, showed you how the paper models worked. Too funny, we had to buy these little models for our 6 and 7 year old nephews, knowing full well that the gift may be inappropriate, but that the boys would love it - it was a paper model called The Executioner which depicts a man's head being chopped off when you turn the handle on the model. The executioner's axe gently falls as you turn the handle, and as it makes contact with the prisoner's neck, the head falls off! We giggled at it, so we thought the kids would love it - even if their parents would have liked a sombrero from Spain or an Italian piggy bank or something a little more innocent. Ha!
Soon, we headed to London Bridge to find a nearby restaurant. We found this cute little shop called Pret A Manger ("Pret"), where we could buy fresh, healthy food for a decent price for both of us to get what we wanted. We enjoyed a nice sit and a yummy lunch while we mapped out the rest of our day. We walked across London Bridge after lunch, admiring the view of Tower Bridge across the River Thames. Tower Bridge is much more impressive than London Bridge, so it was a nice little view there. Then, we made our way to the Globe Theater, a replica of Shakespeare's famous playhouse. We got a short tour before being able to watch a portion of the rehearsal for Henry VII Part 2 from two different aspects in the Globe. I felt like I was part of the audience in Shakespeare in Love, as I watched the actors and the directors interact. We learned a lot that day - like why noble people would say they went to "hear" a play (rather than "see") because quite often, the higher class seats were so high in the theater that they could not see the action but just listen to the play. A play was a social function, where higher class people sat higher up so that a) everyone could see them and b) they could "look down" on lower class citizens. We thought this stuff was interesting to learn about. Next, we walked over the Millenium Bridge to head back to a tube stop to head towards Picadilly Circus where we could eat dinner and look around a little. We had heard about a restaurant chain called Wagamama, a Japanese noodle joint. We ate there after looking around Picadilly a little bit. The restaurant was good, but different than I had heard about. After that, we were ready to head back to the B&B for a nice relaxing evening. . . but first, we wanted to head to Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park, so we exited the Marble Arch tube stop to hear all the speakers we had heard would be there. Of course, when we got off the tube and saw the corner, there was NO ONE there. Not one speaker; not one protester; not one listener. We thought it was ironic and even made sure that we were in the right place by looking at a Hyde Park map - which we were. We took a picture of the empty corner, then we got back on the tube to head "home."
The next morning, after another lovely breakfast at our B&B, we met Helena, a London Walks tour guide, just outside the Westminster tube station. A friend of ours had recommended London Walks tours, and it was a great suggestion. We loved this walk (one of many that the company leads) which was an overview of Royal London and the most famous parts of the city. We saw Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the Jewel House, famous schools, St. James's Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Admiralty Arch, Buckingham Palace, and the changing of the guard. Our tour guide was a tiny but powerful little woman with a big, British voice. We really liked listening to her informative, funny stories which gave lots of background insight that we would have otherwise missed. Our tour ended in Trafalgar Square, where Sam and I saw another Pret restaurant. We thought, heck, we already know we like it and that it's cheap, so we decided to grab lunch there again. And, again, it was delicious, and it gave us some time to figure out what we wanted to do next. We decided to head to Abbey Road for some photos of the famous Beatles crosswalk near their recording studio. We got some pictures, and then we added our own message to the wall outside the recording studio. After several road-crossings, we finally headed back to our B&B. After some down time and getting ready to go, we ate dinner at The Stockpot, a "cheap but cheerful" London restaurant in Picadilly. Then, we got our will call tickets at Gielgud Theatre for our show that night, Hair. The show was amazing - very interactive (the actors came out to the audience many times, even rubbing on our heads and hair a couple times). That night we roamed around downtown for a little bit, not wanting to leave except for our tired feet! I wish we had had more time to go another night to see another show. . . it really was spectacular.
On our last full day in London, we woke up to spend some more time in Westminster Abbey after yet another delicious breakfast at the B&B. Westminster was cool because of all the famous people buried inside - from kings and queens to famous minds like Chaucer, Newton, and Dickens (just to name a few). My favorite part was seeing the irony of Charles Darwin's tomb inside this holy church. Next we went to another part of London where we explored the home of Dr. Samuel Johnson's home - much to my husband's excitement. Dr. Johnson was a famous lexicographer, the man who wrote the first English dictionary. We took some fun pictures, and then went to the well-known pub nearby where Dickens and Johnson often frequented. Sam got a bitter beer here, and then we went to lunch - where else other than another Pret, which happened to be conveniently located next door to the pub, Ye Old Chesire Cheese. 3 days in a row, we enjoyed this cheap, nutritious chain - we hear there are Pret's being established throughout the US - already in New York and DC, on its way to Chicago, and maybe headed here if we're lucky! Anyway, that afternoon we took a much needed amazing nap before going out for our last dinner in London, an Italian place near our hotel. We got some gelato after that and then spent the rest of the evening relaxing and packing up.
The next day, we ate our last breakfast at the B&B before checking out and heading to the airport. Our tube ride took an hour to get to Heathrow, but that was only the beginning of a LONG day of traveling. We even had one more lunch at Pret at the airport! Our flight went to Boston, then we had a flight home after that - overall, more than 12 hours in the air alone.
Our trip was amazing - full of sightseeing, new experiences, and loving each other. We find it hard to believe that it got here so slowly and passed by so quickly and that we've already been home for almost 2 weeks. It will be a long time before we get to go away for 2 weeks straight, but we hope it will be sooner than later. We also have so many memories from our trip that will last us a lifetime. My favorite part of our trip was knowing that I got to come home and spend even more time with Sam - that we still have our lives to spend with each other and that our honeymoon doesn't ever really have to "end."
Here are some more pictures from the second part of our trip:
