Barcelona, Southern France and Italy

After our two-day stint in Paris we flew to Barcelona via Ryan Air. (If you have never heard of Ryan Air, it is a small airline company that models itself after Southwest. They have incredibly cheap flights throughout Europe at small, out of the way airports.) We spent a couple of days touring the famous spots (Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Las Ramblas, etc) before boarding our cruise to southern France and Italy. Here we are sitting in front of Guadi's famous lizard in Park Guell.


The cruise ports were amazing! We had 5 full days at ports with only one day at sea. Here is a picture of Adam in front of the Grand Casino in Monaco.... too bad lady-luck wasn't on our side that day (although we definitely made up for it at the cruise casino).

Oh, here is a little known fact: the leaning tower of Pisa is actually not a gravity defying phenomenon, but really held up by Adam's sheer head/neck strength.

Our favorite had to be Rome. There was definitely too much to see in a 6 hour sprint across the city, but we tried to fit as much of the big stuff in as possible. We were able to see the Coliseum, Pantheon, Forum, Trevi Fountain, and St. Peter's Basilica. Our only regret was not having the time to see the Sistine Chapel, but a two-hour wait was out of the question. Here we are throwing our coins into the Trevi Fountain, guaranteeing our return to Rome (next time we'll see the Sistine chapel).

One of the most interesting places we visited was Pompeii. If you ever have the chance to see the ruins it is well worth it. We were amazed by how accesible it was; we were able to walk through streets and homes that were built ~2,000 years ago.... Pompeii was a fitting end to our great European adventure, and after returning to Barcelona we flew back to Frankfurt and then home.