Day 4 - Sicily

Day 4 was Sicily! Our ship docked at Messina. I had spent a lot (a lotttt) of time before the cruise trying to figure out what to do at each of our ports.  The Disney shore excursions were pretty pricey, so we usually just decided to find our own fun.  This was one the days I was looking forward to most...I had scheduled us to go paragliding!  Everyone was pretty excited, except Dax. He has developed a fear of heights and did not think that it sounded like a good idea to go flying around in the sky. He volunteered to be the photographer. We kept asking him if he might change his mind, trying to encourage him, but he was pretty adamant, so we arranged for him to come along to watch us jump, then be down at the landing zone. He was very happy not to join us, and to this day he doesn't regret his decision to keep his feet on the ground.

When the ship docked my kids were not that excited when we walked past the huge group of waiting cars and taxi drivers, because I informed them the train station was only like half a mile away so we didn't need to take a taxi there. We can walk! There was a grumbling as we found our way to the station, but it really only took like 10-15 minutes, and ok maybe it was closer to a mile but STILL. We found our train pretty easily and started our scenic trip up the coast to Letojanni, a small beach town where we would meet our paragliding peeps.

The train trip was about 45 minutes, and there were two adorable older British couples in the row in front of us. They were clearly bumming around Italy for a while and were making plans and just talking about what to eat for lunch and I want to be just like them when I grow up.  Here is a picture I took out the window of the train of the beautiful ocean and a reflection of one of my cute British idols:

We got off the train and easily found our Fly Etna jumpers in Letojanni. We had originally planned to jump of a nearby hill and land on the beach, but they had decided it was too windy for that, and recommended we drive up away from the coast and jump off of Mount Etna, the active volcano.  Okay?

We all piled into a big van/bus kind of thing and drove up a twisty road up the mountain, er, volcano. We could see the summit of the volcano from time to time, and smoke/steam (not sure which) was indeed coming out of it.  I had read about this volcano beforehand in all my research and knew it was pretty common, so I reassured my kids that it was pretty unlikely we would see any lava or be killed in an eruption (it was probably good that our visit to Pompeii was for later in the trip, haha).  

We got out of the car and did a little hike through the forest, until we came to a hill with no trees on it.  this would be our jumping off spot.  I started getting a little nervous. 

Preston was first!  They were most worried about getting him in the air since he was a "big guy." Me and the girls were also happy to let him go first and demonstrate what we would have to do to get ourselves airborne.  It was pretty much....you run down this hill and don't stop running!  I can do that.

Here is a picture photographer Dax took of Preston right before takeoff:

Preston ran down the hill like they said...all the way to the edge of the "cliff," but then they flew up into the air and out over the valley!

My turn next!  I ran down the hill and about halfway down off we went!  Dax took pictures like a pro but did not feel bad that he was not participating.  He drove down the landing site with the tour driver to take pictures of our landing.

Included in the jump were pictures of our jumps...literally dozens of pictures.  Most of them were of the tops of our helmets, but here are a few fun ones (for some reason mine didn't upload, but I am not sure if I was smiling as much as these guys anyway, because once we were in the air I started worrying about the landing, haha).

Here is Cora, who jumped last. Her tandem jumper was the best English speaker and he saw that she was having fun, so he did a lot of fancy flips with her at the end. 

Here is another cute one of Cora:

Here is Arden!  She had a fun time also!  Here she is right before she took off:

Once we "took off," we flew around over a forest for a while, gaining some altitude. It was so beautiful! we could look up the hill and see the summit of the volcano, and down below us in the valley was a little town, and far below was the beach and the Mediterranean.  Amazing!  

Arden's jumping partner spoke some English and they had a fun time together.  Mine really only spoke Italian so it was kind of a quiet ride for me, since my Italian is verrrrry limited. "Ciao! Grazi!" that's about it.

At the end of the "flight," Arden and her partner kind of circled around and around the landing site to lose altitude, and she started getting a little air sick, poor thing.

Here is Preston!  His jumping friend didn't speak must English either.

I was worried about the landing, but not to brag, I nailed it! We waited in a pretty little meadow for the girls to land.  Here is a picture of the meadow, and that is Cora up in the sky almost upside down, with Mount Etna in the background.  Cool!  

After we all landed, we piled back into the van, and started driving down the mountain on the twisty windy road.  Here was our view, and so it is not surprising that Arden's air sickness quickly converted into car sickness:

They kindly drove us to next destination, Taormina. Arden was realllly not feeling so great, so we stopped at pretty much the very first restaurant we saw. We had our first real Italian pizza at this restaurant, and it was nice to sit down and drink water for a bit.  

Eventually Arden recovered and we ventured out into the cutest little Italian town you ever saw.  We came across a cute little Italian alley with cute little Italian balconies and adorable Italian plants. I made Cora go stand in it to take her picture. Cuuuuuute!

Arden decided she wanted to get in on the picturesque alley too, now that she was feeling better.  Cuuuute!

We headed down the main shopping street, Corso Umberto. It was kind of crowded, but very beautiful and there were lots of fun stores. Arden bought a cute little canvas bag, Cora got some post cards for the collection she was starting. 

We found another picturesque alley. Daxton did not want to participate in the "lets go be cute in an alley" activity, so the girls did it again.

At the end of the street was a beautiful pizza called Piazza IX Aprile. It was stunning, up on the cliffs above the ocean.  Here is a view looking away from the ocean back towards the church. 

I finally talked Dax into being in a picture, but he made Preston be in it with him. Still counts!  This time we are up by the church looking back towards the sea.

After we looked around the beautiful square, we decided we better start the trek down to the train station to catch the train back to Messina. I did NOT want to be one of those people who gets left by their cruise ships for being late, so I tried to make sure we were back with at least an hour to spare from all our shore excursions.

I used my trusty cell phone to navigate us down the mountain...it was by now verrry humid and pretty warm, but we were going down hill so it wasn't too bad, right?

Preston made me turn around on some stairs by a pretty bush and I of course blinked but its still a pretty bush!

We walked down through the town for a while:

Here is a picture of our way down after we started heading down the steep part, it was fun to walk down with such a beautiful view!

Here is a picture that Preston took, they had cactuses on the hill, we were pretty far up there.

We were all pretty hot and sweaty by the time we got allll the way down to the train station. Luckily the train was air conditioned. The ride back seemed long, and we were all getting pretty tired. The kids wanted to take a taxi from the train station back to the cruise ship even though they knew it wasn't that far.  However, I am super mean and made them walk to save some Euros. It was a pretty grouchy walk, but we all made it back safe and sound.

Me and Preston ditched the kids once we were back on the boat and headed straight to the pool deck and got some free soda and ice cream. It was nice to look down at the city of Messina as we waited for the last few people to get back to the ship.  I felt a little bad that we didn't get to spend much time in Messina, but it was an unforgettable day (grouchy walks to/from train stations notwithstanding).

That night was pirate night!!  Some people on the cruise had brought costumes. There was one guy who had like huge pirate boots, a big pirate hat, and a thigh-length leather pirate coat. He must have had a whole suitcase for that! We did not pack costumes, but luckily the ship provided each of us a free (??) Mickey Mouse bandana.  Here is Dax in his pirate outfit at dinner.

We had a family of three with us on our dinner table, a mom, a dad and a girl Cora's age.  They were super nice, but the mom and the girl were a little shy. The dad was quite a talker. My bunch of introverts usually made me sit by the dad most nights, and then me and the dad had to carry the conversation for the whole table, haha.  It was fun though. 

When the housekeeper turned our room into the night time configuration she would always leave us a cute towel animal. Our towel in pirate night was....something?  I said it looked like a monkey, but it had a pirate bandana, so some people said it was a pirate. Cute, either way. We had gold chocolate coins on the bed. 

After dinner, Cora went off with her teen club friends. Me and Arden and Daxton decided to go do one of the "treasure hunts" around the ship. This one was a Muppet one, we got our first clue at a computer, and then we were sent on a scavenger hunt/detective mission, and the portraits around the ship would activate and give us more clues. It was really fun! 

Me and Dax also went and checked out the little kids' club since they were having an open house, and it was actually really cool!  They had a Star Wars section and I think Dax was wishing he was littler so he could hang out longer.

Later, me and Arden went and saw the "Fly Boys" do another show at one of the 18+ lounges, since Arden was old enough to get in!  We were fan girls of the Fly Boys by now.

After that, there was a pirate dance party on the deck! No fireworks unfortunately. I made Arden and Dax come with me to the dance party, since we wanted to watch the movie afterwards anyway. Me and Arden danced to the music with the crowd of kids, teens, and tipsy parents. Dax stood stoically nearby and looked embarrassed of us. 

The last activity of the night was Pirates of the Caribbean - Curse of the Black Pearl on the Funnel Vision screen on deck. It was was pretty cool to watch a pirate movie and be able to look over the railing at the ocean and remember we were also sailing the seas!  It didn't start until like 11 p.m., so I didn't make it to the end of the movie. I was tiirrreed and pooped out around 12:30 and headed back to our cabin. Arden and Dax hung in there until the end of the show and came in an hour or so later.

Preston had called it an early night and was in full snore by the time we all made it back to the room. Arden had forgotten to charge her headband so she was struggling a little. But we all survived. The next day was a relaxing day at sea!

European Vacation Day 3

I love to go for runs when I am in new places. I feel like it is such a good way to see a place. I was not loving it when my watch buzzed me awake at the crack of dawn, but I drug myself out of bed. It was all worth it when I stepped out the door and was greeted with this:

This street was usually pretty crowded during the days, so I was wondering how runnable it would be. but guys, Spaniards are not early birds. I ran down this street and over to Las Ramblas (which had always been PACKED with people), and even it was gloriously empty. Behold:

I ran down the streets with a huge smile on my face. It was so beautiful and peaceful and so fun to hear the birds and have the place almost to myself on a beautiful morning. I ran all the way down Las Ramblas to the Columbus Monument, than down to the beaches and ran along the water, then back! It was one of the favorite things I did in Barcelona. 

I ran back and showered and we headed out to catch a few more of the sights before our check-in time for our cruise. Unfortunately, we had to get our luggage out of our vacation rental, which was a challenge since we had a few hours to kill. I looked around online for a place to park our stuff, and there was a place kind of close to the cruise ship terminal...we dragged our stuff over there via metro, and it turned out to be a back room in a teeny convenience store. Kind of sketchy, but turned out fine. 

We taxi'd our way up the hill to Castle Montjuic. So cool! It started raining while we were in line for the funicular, so we were happy that the gondola ride up the mountain was covered:

It was cool to see the city from up in the funicular cars, but there were too many raindrops were on the window to take any pictures. The castle was really cool! The green grass and flowers used to be a moat, and there was a drawbridge we walked across and everything. Again, I read all about it and gave the highlights to the fam.

We ended ran around outside and climbed on the cannons and stuff, but didn't end up having enough time to go inside very much, because it was almost time to get on the cruise ship!  We got really excited when we looked down from the castle and saw it (look out at the top of the picture, that is our ship!!!)

We walked back down the mountain to save some $$, and picked up our luggage. I jumped on the taxi app and summoned a taxi to take us to our ship (it was too far to walk, and obviously no metros run over the ocean). We watched our taxi on the app drive around in circles for quite a while, with the kids (and okay, me) getting a little bit antsy about whether or not he would ever find us. But eventually the taxi hombre found us and pretty soon we were next to our new temporary home!

We had to wait in some passport lines (and then some other lines), but eventually we made it aboard!  As we walked into the beautiful main atrium, they announced over the loud speaker, "Welcome, Zaugg Family, to the Disney Dream!" 

Guys, wow!

I looked up and saw this beautiful art deco chandelier and my mouth fell open. 

We wandered around the atrium and went up the grand staircase, enjoying the air conditioning and gaping at the beautiful space we were in:

We got in the elevator to head up to our room, and it was glass so we could still look down on the space, see the princesses?  My kids were a little to old to care about meeting Cinderella unfortunately. Actually, there weren't a ton of little kids on this cruise since it was a European Cruise, but there were a LOT of teenagers.

Here is our room door! We all squeezed ourselves into one cabin. You know, "togetherness."

It was a tight squeeze, but look how cute our or little room number was:

Me and Preston had the main bed, and then Dax took the bed by the big porthole, and the girls were in the fold down bunk beds!  But hey, we weren't in the room that often so it was mostly ok. Preston's snoring was a challenge, but I bought the kids headbands that wrap around their ears and played music, and also earplugs. So they would put in the earplugs and then play music, and that seemed to work. Unfortunately one night Arden forgot to charge her headband...but no one died. 

You can't see in this picture, but behind the far curtains is a giant porthole, that had nice upholstered seat built into it. We saw dolphins from there our first day!

The first thing we did was actually go up to "Cabanas," which was the buffet kind of place, and eat lunch! The food was really good, but the kids were most impressed with the dessert. Look at this cute mousse with a chocolate Princess Tiana! We could eat all we wanted and drink all the soda/juice we wanted (although there was only Coke Zero after the first day when they ran out of Diet Coke). And of course, all the ice cream our little hearts desired.

We wandered around the ship, and on the very top deck was the "sports deck," and we played a game of mini golf! You can still see Barcelona in the background. They also had a basketball court, a gym, a golf simulator, etc. etc.

Finally, the ship pulled away, and the horn played the tune of "When you Wish Upon a Star," and all the characters were there to sing us a song about Sailing Away! We got another free drink and waved goodbye to Spain.

We had to do the life vest drill (no pictures) and after that, we had some time before dinner. The app listed out all of our entertainment choices. There were multiple things to do at almost any hour of the day. There was a movie theater, and a regular theater, multiple clubs that had different entertainments (trivia, other small shows, bingo, crafts, cooking classes, etc.) They also had a teens club just for teenagers. Cora got brave and went to the first activity, and met a fun group of friends that she spent most of her on-boat time with. Dax was too shy to go, and Arden also was too shy to meet up with the "1820" club (for the kids who are older, but not so old that they just want to hang out with their parents). So...they had a big show in the big theater every night, so me and my two shy kids saw the "Fly Boys" show before dinner, which I thoroughly enjoyed. They were like an old school kind of barbershop quartet kind of group, but singing modern songs, like "Livin' on a Prayer" from Bon Jovi, and even "Jump Around" from House of Pain, which was hilarious.

Then we went to dinner! They had three fancy dining rooms, and we rotated every night. We were table friends with a family with a girl Cora's age, they were pretty cool. The dad loved to talk, while the mom and daughter were a little more quiet. My family made me sit by the dad so they didn't have to talk all the way through dinner, my bunch of introverts!  The food was always really really good, and had a four courses...an appetizer, a salad/soup course, main course, and dessert!  I was uncomfortably full but happy each and every night.

After dinner, we went up by the pools to watch a movie. They had movies on the big screen up by the pools all day and night. That night was Cruella, the new one. Me and Dax and Arden watched. We got more free soda, and they had hot chocolate too, which was nice because it was a little chilly on deck with the wind from the ship moving. I had to get some beach towels to use as blankets.

I started getting pretty tired around 11pm, but Dax wanted to stay until the end so I toughed it out. Guys!  I'm on a beautiful boat in the middle of the Mediterranean watching a Disney movie! Here is the view forwards,

and here is the view behind

After that I was d.o.n.e and hurried back to our room, changed into my jammies in our little teeny bathroom and crawled into bed. Preston was already snoring. So I put in my ear buds and put my phone with white noise playing right next to my face and put my pillow over my head and went to sleep pretty quick. Tomorrow: Sicily!

European Vacation Day 2

Day 2! We woke up early to have our first full day of European vacation fun! We headed out fairly early in the morning (at least according to the teenagers) to hit the market a La Boqueria for breakfast. We walked up our beautiful street:

And headed over to Las Ramblas, along with quite a few other people. The girls were willing to pose for some pictures as we walked:

I loved the nice, wide streets, and the beautiful trees. The market was in these huge buildings, and had all sorts of treats of every kind, so many different kinds of fruits, lots of fish, pastries, bread, smoothies, and on and on!  Arden was looking for a specific stall that sold strawberries and nutella in a cup, as a friend of hers had visited Barcelona recently and raved abou tthem. I had a smoothie and others had some pastries and we all got lots to eat for our breakfasts.

After we were full, we got on the metro and headed over the La Sagrada Familia, a beautiful cathedral in Barcelona that has been under construction since the 1800s, designed primarily by Antoni Gaudi. It was incredible to come up out of the metro station, and turn around and see it soaring up into the sky:

We looked around the outside (Dax still not excited for pictures) and the carvings were so beautiful and intricate. We had an audio tour, but pretty much I listened to it and then gave everyone else the highlights, haha:

There were different sides to the cathedral, one side was the Nativity side, that is the side we went in on.

After looking around outside, we made our way into the interior. It was mind blowing! I took so many pictures, these are just a super small sample, but it will still be tedious for everyone but me:

The stained glass windows!

The columns and the intricate sculptured ceiling in organic shapes!

Did I mention the stained glass windows?!?

We got to go up inside a tower, we got to take the elevator up, and then walk down. It was good to see the city from above, and there was a beautiful park with purple trees across the street:

We were behind some statues, and we could see the ocean and everything.

Everyone was really patient with me taking pictures, and it was fun to see things from a different perspective...here is the back of the church from above:

After we walked around outside, we got to take these really cool spiral stairs down. Dax did not love taking them as there was no rail on the inside, and if you look down the middle, you could see allllll the way to the bottom. Which was a little scary, though it would have taken some talent to fall down that little hole. 

I actually loved going down the tower on the spiral stairs.

Once we got down, I had to go over and find one of the purple trees to take a picture of it. I looked it up and I think they are jacaranda trees. Beautiful!!

Here is the back of the church, which pictured the crucifixion. It was beautiful, and I loved the style of the sculptures.

After we got done with the cathedral, it was definitely time for lunch! We found a restaurant pretty close by, and I got some paella, which was ok but not great. I think everyone got enough to eat though. We headed back to our house for a rest. Cora and me wanted to go to the beach, but everyone else wanted a nap, still being a little jet lagged. Cora and I changed and then braved the metro and headed for Bogatell Beach, which we heard was a little more low-key and less pick-pockety than Barceloneta Beach, the main beach. Unfortunately, it was pretty windy and not all that warm. But it still looked pretty! 

The big hotel in the distance is the W that is on Barceloneta beach. There were a few brave people in the water, but not very many. We sat in the sun for a while, and walked along and put our toes in the water and enjoyed ourselves.

After a while, the other people woke up and we agreed to meet over in the Gothic Quarter. It was a fun walk, look at this building with all of the clothes hanging from the balconies! 

I loved walking down these skinny little...streets?  Can you call them that? Once in a while, a car would actually try to drive down them so I guess they were streets.

We met up at Placa Reial, a large and beautiful square with a fountain and palm trees. Dax was still not excited to be getting his picture taken! But we were glad he was with us anyway. 

We had dinner at a place that a guy I worked with who did a semester in Barcelona recommended, Bodi B. It was delicious and huge and reasonably priced and I would definitely recommend if you are ever in town! Though there are sometimes long lines.

Here is Arden's back and another cool narrow street:

We made Dax (and Preston) smile by getting some ice cream!

Okay, last cool little alleyway, but guys!  We don't have these where I live. I could have wandered for hours and hours.

After that, we headed back home for quick rest, and then went to a Flamenco show. Cora was crashing from missing the afternoon nap, so she stayed home from the show. It was actually really good, The guitar playing was amazing, the singing was great. The theater was really small, so after the show the dancers and musicians took a picture with us.

After the show was over, they wanted to give us a history lesson about Flamenco which went on a little too long for our tastes. We went and dropped off the kids, but I knew we were leaving the next day, so i wanted to go and see La Sagrada in the dark to see the star at the top on the tower of the tower of the Virgin Mary lighted up.

There was a pond across the way from the cathedral, and it was cool to see the cathedral reflected in it. 

As we were walking back home, we saw the guy who gave Cora a rose at dinner yesterday, and he was out selling roses again He remembered us, and offered us another free rose since he was on his way home (it was like 1 a.m.), but I made Preston give him a couple of euros. It was the most beautiful perfect rose I ever had. I was pretty tired, but I set my alarm to go on an early run.