We got an early start this morning. Our bodies told us to get up pretty early so we decided to make the most of it and get the day started. We decided to check out and leave our bags checked at the front desk of our hotel so we could tour Barcelona and then come back around 3:00, grab our bags and a taxi, then head to the port to board the cruise ship. Here’s  a pic of our hotel we stayed at:

We took the train to downtown Barcelona where we decide we would grab a quick bite before we started our heavy touring.  We stopped at this little authentic deli where we grabbed some meat & cheese sandwich and a Pepsi Light. Yes they call Diet Pepsi, “Pepsi Light” in Europe!

I even got to meet tthe REAL LIFE Super Mario!

We then walked down to one of the most famous attractions in all of Barcelona, the Segrada Familia Temple which is a giant Temple designed by the master architect Antonio Gaudi. This building has been under construction since 1882 and they’ve still got another 30 to 80 years (depending on funding and resources) to go before it will be finished.  It’s one of the most historic places in Barcelona, and WOW, this place was amazing!

Next we hopped back on the Subway to go towards the south end of the city and take a walk near the Zoo and a beautiful park close by.  It was so hot and muggy, if not for our huge bottle of water, we would have died.

Here we are on the Subway:

Here’s Janine next to a car that’s just her size! Literally!

Something cool we saw, but I didn’t know the name of it.

Lots of walking and sightseeing later, we hopped back on the subway and over to the famous Gothic district in downtown Barcelona.

This was our favorite part of the day. Janine had mentioned these small alley ways going in and out that had tons of little shops and authentic places and she wasn’t kidding. This little part of town is just absolutely incredible. Just how you would imagine yourself touring through a gorgeous authentic part of Barcelona. We grabbed something to eat and drink and did lots of walking. The streets were overcrowded with people and the street performers were out in force. It was a really cool cultural experience to be in the heart of downtown Barcelona and experience the everyday happenings of the city.

Lots of little deli’s like this one all over the place.

Next we had to find a way back to the hotel, and after lots of walking, getting a bit lost, hopping on the wrong train, we finally were able to make it back to the hotel where are taxi was waiting for us with our luggage. We jumped into our taxi, then 30 short minutes later we arrived at the port where the Princess Cruise Bellman were waiting to get our bags.

The Ruby Princess was freakin HUGE.  Just disembarked 8 months ago. This was only its second trip!

There were our cruise cards.  You couldn’t go anywhere without these.  IT was our room key, our credit card and our ID on the ship.

The main area in the middle of the ship called the “Piazza”.  Shopping, eating and entertainment. Plus the central area for passenger services.

The Hallway to our room on Deck 10, called “Caribe”

Our room, small but cozy!

A view from our balcony looking towards the back of the ship.

Our Balcony. Which was huge!

Once we got on board, OMG! It was the most beautiful amazing thing, we were so overwhelmed! We didn’t know where to start! All we wanted to do is get to our room, relax and take a shower. We were so exhausted from the long day of walking and touring in Barcelona.

After a short meeting about safety, called the “Muster Drill”, we got back to the room, relaxed, showered and took a nap before heading down for dinner. Dinner time was nice, we decided to hit the buffet first, and we were taking it all in. We couldn’t believe we were finally here on the boat about to embark on the Mediterranean!

We tried to hit all parts of the boat just to get to know where everything is. We were successful in doing that. We also watched a really good welcome show that at the big main theatre which was quite nice. We had drinks through this whole process and were getting a bit tipsy. After the show and a lot of walking around the ship, a little blackjack in the casino, we were back in the room exhausted. The first day on the boat was done, we decided to crash for the night.  We were on our way to the French Riviera (Monte Carlo)!

{ 1 comment }

Woke up early this morning for a long day touring Rome. Docked in Civitaveccia we had about a 45 minute drive to downtown Rome. Our first stop was at the Colosseum. Janine and I had seen it several times in movies and pictures but to see it for the first time was amazing. The tour guide, who spoke excellent English (and who I think has some American in her) was so knowledgeable and articulate. She was integral in our tour in helping us understand the history of the Colosseum. We went inside and toured all levels getting a feel for what life was like inside the gladiator arena back in Roman times.

Before our next tour, we stopped and had lunch at a nice little restaurant in central Rome where they had a meal prepared for us including pasta, veal and wine. It was a nice refresher. Rome was extremely hot and humid.

Our next stop was Vatican City where we headed straight to see the Vatican Museum. Now, the museum is so huge (they say there’s over 3 miles of walking if you want to see everything) that we wouldn’t be able to see everything obviously so we decided to take a short route seeing a few things and then straight to the Sistine Chapel. We saw hundreds of old roman statues created by the many artists and architects of the renaissance period. We also saw some incredible tapestries (huge rugs. These tapestries were gigantic. Some of the biggest rugs you’ve ever seen. The art on them was amazing considering the times back then.

By this time we were getting a bit antsy because the inside of the museum was not air conditioned so it was EXTREMELY hot and humid especially with all the crowds of people we were walking with.

Next up was the Sistine Chapel which was one of the things we were most anticipating. It was beautiful, absolutely stunning to see. The tour guide gave us an incredible take on the inside going detail by detail on just about every single piece of art inside the chapel. She was extremely knowledgeable and it made the experience so much more worth it when you have someone telling you where and what everything is.

We weren’t allowed to take pics (but I did anyway) and we weren’t allowed to speak and the Swiss guard were constantly “shhhing” everyone inside the chapel. We spent a good amount of time in there just ooing and awwing at the marvelous work of Michaelangelo.

Here’s the back wall of the Chapel:

Ceiling:

more ceiling:

Incognito shot!

Our next stop was a tour of St. Peter’s Basilica. Again…STUNNING. Words can’t describe what I felt walking in there gazing at how incredible this place was. Once again, our tour guide was amazing going over every detail as we walked by all sorts of historical artifacts, relics and mosaics.

St Peter’s Tomb underneath the main altar

Stunning! It’s HUGE, look how small the people are!

The “amazing” doesn’t stop as we then leave the basilica and drop right into St. Peter’s Square. Pictures galore, we just couldn’t believe we were finally here experiencing this place. It was truly unforgettable. We had to just sit and stare and try and take it all in as we wouldn’t be there long. I can’t wait till the next time we can come here.

View of the Square:

St Peter’s Basilica from the outside

The Swiss Guard! Yes they still wear those funny outfits.

Great shot of Janine and I in front of the Basilica looking out into St Peter’s Square.

Another view:

After this we were pretty beat from all the walking and the terrible humidity and heat. Hopped on the bus, back to boat, dinner and just relaxed. We had another long day the next day.

{ 1 comment }

We woke early again this morning for our longest excursion yet. Just under 11 hours. Our first journey, once off the ship, was to hop on a jet boat that took us to the Isle of Capri. We didn’t know what to expect, but when we got there, we were amazed by how BEAUTIFUL this place was. Seriously, if you could drop Beverly Hills onto a small island paradise, this would be it. This place was truly catered to the rich. The place we went, which is up in the hills of Capri, there were no cars allowed. Only walking was the way people got around. All the streets were very narrow, made for pedestrian walking. The exception was these little carts that would truck around heavy items for the residents. The place was truly out of this world. We got some STUNNING pictures from a few of the many incredible lookout points on the island. We did a little shopping as well, as we had to get something for our niece who’s coincidentally named “Capri”.

After Capri, we hopped back on the speedboat and headed back to the mainland to Sorrento, which is a beautiful little area of Italy where they are well known for their lemons and olive oil.

Sorrento seemed like a really peaceful place. A place to escape and not worry about the everyday grind. People were nicer, calmer, gentler and more friendly. We did a bunch of shopping here during our free time, picked up some of the local “Limoncello” (a local lemon liquer), and took in some of the amazing ocean views on the coastline. This place seemed so far away from my real life at home, it was hard to believe people were living here set apart from what seems a world in turmoil  throughout so much of the world.  Sorrento, to us, meant peace and quiet and it sure felt like it.

Our next and last stop of the day was Pompei, the city that was wiped out and buried by the volcano Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. It’s hard to believe that this city, which was actually discovered to be quite large for those times, was completely buried by volcanic ash and unknown to any inhabitants for over 200 years. It wasn’t until a local farmer was digging his well that he came upon the ruins of an old city buried in Volcanic rubble. What would come next is the longest excavation in world history which is still going on to this day.

It’s INCREDIBLE to see the amount of land, buildings, houses, roadways, temples, courthouses, theaters and even people that were discovered here. Once again, we had an excellent tour guide who spoke great English throughout the day and gave us great information, especially in Pompei. As you can see in the pics, this place is unreal. To think about what happened to these people and this little “city by the sea” as they called it was truly breathtaking.

{ 1 comment }

Slept in today, needed to re-charge after several days of touring which had exhausted us quite a bit. Had breakfast, went to the pool, enjoyed the beautiful day, took another nap, watched a movie, dressed up for “formal night” on the boat, had a wonderful 5 course dinner with Janine and then watched Slumdog Millionaire at the pool where they have a big screen where at night, they play movies on called “Movies under the stars” where you sit on pool/lawn chairs and they offer you blankets and popcorn. Very cool.

Here are some various pics:

Janine and a look at the central Piazza:

A view from the top level of the ship overlooking one of the pools.

A view of Monaco as we were coming into port:

Chillin at the pool:

Lunch time:

Writing thisjournal while smokin a stogie on our balcony!

A nice view of the ship from the back looking towards the front:

From our balcony!

Formal night!

Dinner at the “Crown Grill” Steakhouse:

{ 1 comment }

Arrived this morning in the beautiful little greek Isle of Mykonos (pronounced mee-koe-nose). Today was only a half day because we have a long trip to Istanbul after this. We hopped off the ship, then jumped on a bus for a short 15 minute trip to the very popular beach here in Mykonos, one that is internationally acclaimed. I forgot the name of the beach, but I will update as soon as I find out.

We stayed on the beach for about 3 1/2 hours laying out, napping, eating, drinking, buying souvenirs and taking lots of pics. It was a peaceful and enjoyable taste of how life would be living on the little, yet well known Greek Isle of Mykonos. Short ride back to the boat and we were to set sail to Istanbul by 1:30. Seas were pretty rough the rest of the day. The worst we’ve seen so far, which isn’t saying much. The whole trip thus far has been totally smooth sailing, so when I say “rough” I don’t mean “Deadliest Catch” rough, but more like a little rocking back and forth, not bad at all.

{ 1 comment }

Woke up this morning to a somewhat cool morning in Istanbul. It was cloudy enough to expect rain, yet since we didn’t bring an umbrella, we were hoping it wouldn’t, plus just touring around the city while raining makes the tour somewhat unpleasant.

We started off our tour with a trip into the heart of downtown Istanbul. After being dropped off by our tour bus, our guide led us on a short walk through the cobblestone streets to a nearby local mosque. Now considering the extensive research I’ve done on the roots of Islam, a system (not just a religion) which has so much history rooted in anti-western values, I wasn’t too fond of actually visiting the mosque’s in Istanbul.

This was our first ever visit inside a Muslim house of worship. We were told to take our shoes off, a Muslim custom, and the inside was rather boring compared to the many churches, chapels and basilicas we had seen up to this point. We didn’t waste much time in there because Janine has a complex of going barefoot anywhere other than inside our home so we headed out.  As everyone else was heading out, the Muslim mosque keeper started yelling at all of us because some of us were putting our shoes on while we were still standing on the carpet out on the front steps of the mosque. It caused quite a scene and made many people feel awkward and uncomfortable, especially when the old muslim man started shouting at our tour guide and getting into it with her. Made the whole experience feel very welcoming!

After this, our next experience was a visit to an even bigger mosque! Yippee! This time it was the faous Blue Mosque, the largest mosque in Istanbul. By this time it was raining pretty hard and we had to make several stops to get out of the rain. I even bought an umbrella for 4 Euro from a local scraggler who was trying to sell umbrellas to the tourists.

Once we got the blue Mosque, it was HUGE. I can’t say amazing because I wasn’t impressed just knowing what I know about Islam. We had to take our shoes off again, and Janine didn’t even want to go inside because of this. We were forced to go in because there was only one exit point and it wasn’t where we currently were at so we had to go with the group into the Mosque. We took our shoes off, stepped foot inside this massive place, and omg, it STANK like smelly socks and dirty feet. Funny, because the whole point in taking off the shoes is to keep the mosque “clean” according to Islamic custom, yet by making thousands of people take opff their shoes, it created a terrible stench that was hard to bear.

Janine’s sensitive gag-reflexes were even tested at some point. I took a few pictures of the inside just because, but it wasn’t out of admiration for the place. It was in fact HUGE.

I even got an interesting picture of this little cordoned off area where all the muslim women were corralled. They looked miserable. I remember one woman giving me a dirty look because I pointed my camera and took a picture of them.

This compared to going to St. Peters Basilica doesn’t even match up in terms of a welcoming, holy place, and I’m not even catholic. This place can be summed up as a big historical building that propagated the terrible values of Islamic culture, nothing more in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, muslims are decent people, and I have no problem with the people, only the ideology of Islam. The people are the biggest victims unfortunately. I have met many good Muslims who simply don’t understand what their religion really entails.

After the Blue Mosque visit we were taken to the largest marketplace in Istanbul called the “Grand Bazaar”. This place is massive, and you could get lost VERY easily if you’re not careful simply because every little street looks the same and sells practically the same stuff. I’d say 90% of the shops are selling either jewelry or carpets. We found a couple little stores that were actually selling some kind of substantial souvenirs, but we weren’t there very long.

After a short bus ride back to port, we were back on the bus.

Overall, with the rain and everything, we weren’t too impressed with Istanbul. We were hoping our visit to another part of Turkey tomorrow (Ephesus) would be much better.

{ 1 comment }

The weather was much better today, still a little cloudy and slightly cool, but it was much better than the heat and humidity we had experienced through the first leg of the trip. We arrived in the port of Kusadasi (pronounced locally as Koo-chah-dah-say) and were taken about 30 minutes inland to the ancient city of Ephesus. Now I had been anticipating this stop all trip because of the enormous amount of biblical history that Ephesus has from the House of the Virgin Mary to the final resting place for John including the book of Revelation being written by John here.

Our first stop in modern day Ephesus was the original house of the Virgin Mary. She came to Ephesus with John after the death of Christ and had made her home on the outskirts of the city up on a small hill where she lived out the remaining years of her life. For all the Catholics that were on this tour, this was even more significant since they hold her in extremely high regard under Roman Catholicism.

The next stop was the grand daddy tour of the day, the ancient city and ruins of Ephesus from the first century AD. We spent quite a bit time here. Ephesus was mentioned in the book of Acts several times by and also the place and people in which Paul had written to in the book of Ephesians. We saw several points in the old city that were incredibly remarkable. I got the same feelings here as I did while visiting Pompei. Knowing the history of this place, it was just amazing to be here and take it all in and imagine the people we’ve so often read about in the Bible living here.

Our last and final stop was at St. Johns Basilica and the tomb of St. John. What was different about this Basilica among the many others we had seen throughout the trip, was that this one laid in ruin. Not only that, but a big mosque had been erected right next to it. How fitting.

We were able to see what the Basilica would have looked like, and it was quite beautiful. It’s a shame that it lies in ruin now. I hope they are able to reconstruct it one day.

Here’s what it once looked like:

The tomb of John was still there on display. It was surreal for me since I had been studying and reading about John and his writings all growing up in my Bible study groups. We got some pictures, although I was quite annoyed that, while I was observing the tomb of John, the Muslim call to prayer suddenly rang out from the nearby Minaret (the tall skinny tower erected all around muslim cities that calls out 5 times a day). It was annoying because this was a serene moment for me and was rudely interrupted by the last thing I wanted to hear. I guess it was an ironic moment, something that represents the battle between Christianity and Islam for so many years, or should I say the constant oppression of Christians by Muslims throughout the centuries.

After seeing John’s Basilica and the tomb of John, we headed back to the boat for a fun evening on the boat.

{ 1 comment }

Today was an exciting day in the largest city in Greece. We set off on our tour with the first stop being at the old Olympic stadium. It was built sometime in the 1800’s and seats close to 70,000 people. It’s amazingly beautiful looking considering the entire place is made of marble. We didn’t have much time here, just a few pics and then back on the bus.

Our next stop was the main attraction of the day, the Acroplis. The bus dropped us off at the base of the hill. We had to hike pretty far up just to make it to the top, but man was it worth it. Not only were the Pantheon and the rest of the temple ruins amazing to see, but the view of the entire city of Athens was incredible. You could literally view the entire city from this vantage point. We spent a lot of time with our tour guide learning about the history of the Acroplis as well as taking lots of memorable pics.

After we exited the Acroplis, we walked down some old city streets of Athens to a place called “La Placa”, which I don’t know what it means, but it was basically this city square with lots of shopping and restaurants. We were given about 2 hours of free time so we used the time to have lunch at an authentic Greek restaurant tucked on a little hilly street down some alley that we had passed on the way to La Placa.

We had a wonderful lunch and then shopped around a little more, walked around a bit more of the city area and then met back up with the group and took a long walk over to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where we had the privilege of witnessing the changing of the guard, which was really interesting.

We then hopped back on the bus, and headed back to the boat. We had another wonderful evening on the ship taking in some of the main shows throughout the several venues on the ship

{ 1 comment }

Today was nice having a day off to relax. It had been several days since our last “day off” if that’s what you want to call it from all the excursions in all the ports we had visited. Since we were winding down towards the end of the trip, we had to prepare ourselves mentally to leave this surreal experience and head back to the States. The whole day we spent relaxing, laying by the pool, playing cards, reading our books, and in the evening had a nice dinner, took up the main show of the evening in the large Princess theatre which was incredible, as were all the shows during the trip.

After the show we met up with Russ and Courtney Riley, another newlywed couple we had met on the trip who were also on their honeymoon.  We had some drinks and we shared some laughs with them at the one “nightclub” on the ship, the first time we actually had a moment to enjoy that experience high atop the ship overlooking everything else around the ship.

Russ and Courtney:

Russ and I:

Janine and Courtney:

{ 1 comment }

Ah Venice, the city of love and romance. We had been looking forward to this all trip, even though it meant getting off the Ruby Princess for good. We had this whole day to pack and then head out to the city center, because we weren’t actually getting off the boat today. We still had one more night here on the ship, and then we would exit the ship early tomorrow morning for good. We spent this day relaxing as well, sleeping in, enjoying the views on our balcony, having a beer and smoking a cigar. We decided to pack before we left the ship to see Venice. We didn’t have any excursion planned, we simply wanted to do things on our own today.

The ride into Venice was amazing.  We got to see so much of the city just from the view from our balcony.

A view of St Mark’s Square from our balcony:

We packed all our bags and then headed out to the St. Mark’s square around 4:00. We took a Cruise sponsored city water bus that was exclusive to the Ruby Princess passengers that would take us back and forth from the city center of venice as many times as we liked all the way until 1 AM, so we knew we had an easy and free ride home whenever we needed to come back. Once we got to St Mark’s Square, it was really crowded but the place was beautiful. We took lots of pictures and the day before had listened in on the “port talk” on the ship which they held everyday to learn lots of cultural and historical aspects of the ports we were visiting. We were really excited to finally be in Venice, walk the streets, shop, take pics, and just be together enjoying this special time with one another.

Here are some pics of St.  Mark’s Square:

We even got to take a Gondola ride together! It cost a pretty penny for a half an hour ride, but it was well worth it. We may not ever come here and do this again so we had to experience this at least once together. It was so romantic! Quiet, lovely, and so elegant as we slowly floated through several little waterways as our Gondolier (who spoke good english with a thick Italian accent) took us by a few historical points of interest such as the original house of Marco Polo, the old prison of Venice where Casanova was once held, we also passed underneath the famous Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal which was awesome. It was short, yet something we’ll never forget. It was the final peak of our honeymoon and there couldn’t be a better way to top it off.

Janine in front of the Rialto:

So many shops just like this.  Janine wanted to eat at every place we saw.

Gondola central!

Rialto Bridge:

On the Gondola!

{ 0 comments }

This morning we got off the boat really early (around 8:00AM) and had a really smooth transition getting off the ship. Our bags were ready for us and we simply grabbed them, hopped into a taxi, and 10 minutes later we were at our hotel which turned out to be a REALLY nice place so we were pretty satisfied. If we (or anyone reading this) ever goes to Venice. Consider staying just across the bridge outside the city at a wonderful place called “Hotel Bologna” located just across the bridge in the next town over called “Mestre”. It’s well worth it. It’s literally, right across the street from the train station which is a 6 minute ride to Venice for 1 Euro! Great deal and right across the street! The Hotel was wonderful btw…Great customer service, beautiful rooms with plush white satin sheets, modern technology, flat screen tv’s and FREE internet all over the hotel! Well worth the cost of a room for around $175. Pretty cheap!

Since we got to the hotel so early we decided to go back to Venice for another day, this time doing what we called an “eating tour” tour on our own. This meant just walking through the streets of Venice, stopping at several little shops and trying the local delicacies, taking in all the great shopping spots, especially those quaint unique stores that you’ll never find anywhere else. We found several of those. We did a lot of walking today and eventually found our way back to the train which brought us back home for our last night in Europe.

What an INCREDIBLE trip! We will truly never forget it! Please enjoy some final pics…

Love,

John & Janine Schulenburg

{ 1 comment }