EPIC trip of a lifetime!!

Our EPIC trip of a lifetime began in Barcelona, Spain! Barcelona was amazing. (get ready for me to say amazing like a million times in this post because everything was AMAZING!!) We had a tour of the city where we got to see the Sagrada Familia and then got to spend the evening exploring on our own. We went to La Rambla street, had dinner and did some people watching. There was a ton of bachelor and bachelorette parties walking through the streets that evening. Barcelona was also playing Manchester United in soccer that evening, so everyone was pretty excited! Barcelona ended up winning so there was a lot of screaming and fireworks going off that evening.



The next morning we boarded Norwegian Cruiseline "EPIC". I've never been on a cruise before, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but it was pretty "EPIC" if you ask me. We had gambling, water slides, endless choices in food, dancing, more choices in food, and lounging on the deck (which was my favorite). We saw the Blue Man Group and Cirque's "Dreams" while on the ship. We really didn't see any other shows, but they had a ton. We were always so exhausted from our excursions, that we didn't stay up late at nights unless it was to gamble.




Our first port was Florence and Pisa. We had an awesome tour guide Ramona that showed us around. Our first stop was the leaning tower of PISA. It was really cool and I'm glad a get to say I saw it. We did the classic "holding up the tower" poses. After Pisa, we went to Florence. We took a walking tour through Florence seeing the Piazza del Duomo, Piazza della Signoria, and Piazza del Santa Croce. All had magnificent architecture and amazing statues.


PISA


Florence

Our next stop was ROME!!! We started Rome with a tour of the Vatican City. It was so amazing to get the experience the Vatican. We saw many, many, many statues and I wish I could remember all of the names and significance of each one, but it was so crowded and we were moving so fast, that it was hard to keep up. But we did get to go into the Sistine Chapel. Wow!! It was so beautiful and just jaw dropping amazing. After the Sistine Chapel, we got to tour St. Peter's Basilica. When we arrived that morning, we were told we were not going to get to see St. Peter's, but it had opened up by the time we got there, so we were excited! St. Peter's Basilica is HUGE! It was definitely beautiful inside as well. After the Vatican, we took a panoramic bus tour through Rome. We got to see the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, and Trevi Fountain. Rome was definitely my favorite stop. I wish we had more time to explore and see everything.


The Vatican

St. Peter's Basilica



Our next stop was Naples. Jonathan and I hike Mt. Vesuvius and toured the ancient city of Pompeii. The hike wasn't too hard, but the tour guide didn't give us hardly any time to enjoy it. We basically had to walk up at a steady pace and practically run down to get back to the bus on time. Pompeii was awesome! We stopped outside of Pompeii to eat some famous Naples Pizza and after the tour we had some lemonade. Pompeii is definitely something everyone should go see. It was so amazing to see how everything was so well preserved and how advanced the city was back then.


Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius in the background

Our last stop was Palma Majorca. We took a small panoramic tour and went on a wine tasting while we were there. Palma was definitely the most beautiful of all the stops. Very clean. Jonathan and I definitely want to go back. We decided not to venture out on our own because we thought it was going to rain, but it never made it all the way to us, so we didn't get to see as much of Palma as we would have liked.


Palma

Finally the reason we went on this EPIC trip was to celebrate our 5th anniversary and for me to celebrate the TVCC Cardettes 50th Anniversary!! The Cardettes performed on the ship and we had an awesome 50th Anniversary Reception as well. It was great to get to experience this trip with some of my Cardette Sisters!



Below are pictures from the trip! Jonathan and I are already planning our trip back! Just got to safe that money!!