On Tuesday, November 6, Kevin and I flew back over to Europe. This just happened to be election day and I was very disappointed to be stuck on a plane while the election results were coming in. I was hoping we would get some updates throughout the flight, and although we didn't get much information, I was pleasantly surprised when the captain announced President Obama's re-election over the speaker about 30 minutes before we landed in Madrid. Our layover in Madrid was very short and we arrived at our first destination, Barcelona, around 2:00pm on Wednesday. We were able to check-in right away and proceeded to nap until about 8:00pm. We went down to the hotel bar for dinner and went back to sleep around 1:00am.
We woke up around 7:00 on Thursday morning, ate breakfast, and hopped on the shuttle to the ship at 8:15am. We finished work around 10am and took a taxi back to the hotel. We did some work on the computer before taking another 4 hour nap. Jet-lag really sucks! We left the hotel around 6:00pm and went into the city to do some shopping and eat dinner. We ate at our favorite Irish pub and went back to the hotel around 10:00pm.
On Friday morning we flew from Barcelona to Venice. We landed in Venice around 1pm and went into the city around 3:00. We walked through the Jewish Ghetto and along the main shopping area until we got to the Rialto Bridge. I snapped a couple photos and then Kevin and I went to a pub called the Devil's Forrest Pub. This pub is awesome because they have a live web cam! It is so cool for our friends and family to be able to see us live, halfway across the world. I guess with Skype and FaceTime this is not as big of a deal as it used to be, but I still think it is awesome! We had a couple drinks and then walked over to St. Marc's Square. We took a few photos and then went to one of our favorite restaurants for some gnocchi in a Gorgonzola cream sauce. It is so delicious! We were pretty tired so instead of walking back to Piazza le Roma (where you catch the bus), we took a water bus through the Grand Canal. We have done this before, but it is always a fun experience. One of the coolest things about Venice is that there are no vehicles on the streets. You can drive or take a bus to Piazza le Roma and then you either walk or take a water bus/taxi to your destination. It is a very neat experience! We got back to the hotel around 10:00pm and fell asleep pretty quickly.
This is a "street sign" in Venice.
This was taken using the Panoramic feature on my phone. Turned out pretty cool!
Sitting in the Devils Forest Pub. Screen shot on my phone of the webpage. If you ever need some entertainment visit devilsforestpub.com.
In St. Marc's Square.
The Rialto Bridge from our water bus.
Sitting on the water bus.
We woke up
around 8:30am on Saturday and went to the ship. We got back to the hotel around
12:45 and had to check out at 1:00pm. Our flight left at 5:30 so we spent some
time in the lounge before we flew to London, through Amsterdam! We almost
missed our flight from Amsterdam to London, but thankfully we just made it and
were the last 2 people to board the plane! We apparently got out of Venice just
in time because it flooded the day after we left! It would have been neat to
see the flooding, but I am glad we didn't have to deal with another natural
disaster in Venice! If you remember back in April 2012,
we got stuck in Venice for 9 days because of the Icelandic Volcano Explosion.
We were happy to get out when we did this time! It was a great, quick visit!
We arrived in London around 8:15pm on Saturday evening. We
waited almost an hour to get through customs and got to our hotel around
9:45pm. We dropped our bags off and then went to get some food in the lobby. We
went to bed around midnight.
We left our hotel at 7:00am on Sunday morning and had a heck of a time getting to the ship! We stayed at a hotel near the airport and knew we had a bit of a journey ahead of us, but nothing like what we experienced. We took a double decker city bus to the closest underground station but got off the bus too soon. This set us back a little but we found our way. We then took the tube to Waterloo train station where we got on a train to Southampton. It took us a total of 5.5 hours just to get to the ship! We were incredibly grumpy! Fortunately we didn't have too much work to do on the ship and we were back in London around 5:00pm. It was a very long work day! We were going to go back to the hotel and drop off the tool bag but when we realized we would be traveling for another 4 and a half hours we decided to suck it up and carry the bag with us! We went into Picadilly Circus and did some shopping and then ate dinner at a Thai restaurant. We went back to the hotel around 8:00 and got to the hotel around 9:30. It was a very long day, but I was so glad we got to spend some time in the city! London will always be one of my favorite places to visit!
Mandatory photo in London.
We flew back home on Monday. We flew non-stop from London to Dallas and then on to Colorado Springs. It was a relatively simple travel day! It is crazy to think we visited 3 different countries in 6 days! It was an incredibly quick trip, but we made the best of it!
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