2 weeks ago I worked early and stayed late so that I could
afford to take the week off for a cruise.
It is not great timing for the business, but we are not here long, the
kids have the week off and we need to take advantage of all travel
opportunities!
Work is going to get crazy for the next 2 months as we move
into major crunch mode and try to get the product launched by June 22nd. I won’t see the family except on Sunday. Not ideal, but if this is going to be
successful, it is what it is going to take.
That Friday we left work at 4:00 pm and drove to Switzerland
through France. We took the exact same
route that we took when we drove to Andermat to go boarding. We even stopped at the same McDonalds.
Probably the biggest thing to happen was Ashton hit the number 1000 in his number line. He's been writing and taping pieces of paper together where he writes consecutive numbers. He couldn't believe that he actually counted to 1000!
We drove over and through the Alps until we arrived at
Locarno about 7 hours later. It is a beautiful Swiss city on
a lake. We stayed in a hotel next to a
castle and basically went straight to bed as it was past midnight.
True to Cahoon vacation fashion we needed to get up early to explore
a city called Lavertezzo up one of the canyons close to Locarno. It was recommended to us by my parents who
had visited there during their trip to Switzerland a few years ago. This place did not disappoint. There is a huge dam that was in the James
bond movie, Golden Eye and while we were driving up the canyon a sightseeing
helicopter picked up a family on the side of the road to take them up the
canyon. The Alps are very steep so I’m
sure it is a very similar view as a helicopter ride in Hawaii, except at the
top of the Canyon you hit super tall, jagged, snow-covered peaks.
We spent a couple hours playing on the rocks in the river,
going over the bridge and exploring the city.
The water there is super, super clear and the rocks are super
smooth. It is a beautiful place. The water was cold so we didn’t swim, but we
sure wanted to. Look on youtube and
you’ll see some pretty amazing diving and it gives you an idea of how pretty this place is.
Ashton found about a gazillion tad poles, so he was pretty happy!
Emilee and Kim exploring the village.
From LaVertezzo we headed down the freeway, through Milan and onto Savona Italy. The suprising thing about driving in Italy are the toll roads. We probably spent at least 200 euros in tolls from France to the Italian coast. We saw this car on the way down totally covered in post it notes!
We arrived in Savona and saw our boat. The kids were pretty excited to go on their
first cruise. We parked the car, another
84 euros, and boarded the boat around 3:00.
The boat is called the Costa Pacifica.
It was a very nice boat. The
cruise was really cheap. I found it on www.vacationstogo.com. Overall we were impressed with the boat, but
the food was mediocre. It was good food,
but not great food.
We were definitely in the minority as English speakers on
the cruise. Mostly Germans, Italians
and Spaniards. All of the programs,
emergency drills, menus, etc. were in 5 languages. Felt like church in Luxembourg! People got on and off at every port, which
was different than other cruises we’ve been on. Meaning they joined the cruise at different
ports. Meaning, everyone on the boat
didn’t get on at Savona.
We went to dinner and the boat headed for Marseilles. The magical thing about a cruise is that you
go to bed and wake up in a new place. So
that next morning we woke up in Marseille, which is a beautiful port city in
the south of France.
We weren’t expecting much from Marseille, but that was
because we didn’t know much about it.
It turned out to be a gem of a port. The cruise wanted 10 euro per person for a
shuttle to the city so we thought we’d brave it and try to get downtown
ourselves. That was the right call. At every port there is nice tourist office
and a free shuttle to get you to public transportation. So from the free shuttle we walked
downtown.
It was palm Sunday, so there were tons of people selling and
holding some type of tree branches. We
walked by a huge Roman basilica and went down to the main port. Lots of boats and cool sailboats. We bought tickets on a ferry out to the Isle
of If, which is the castle where the Count of Monte Cristo story came from.
The island was beautiful white limestone and the castle was
big and impressive. I didn’t see the
sign warning us about the dangerous seagulls, but one of the kids snapped a
picture, which turned out to be important for later on.
We toured the castle and walked around the grounds. At one part we saw 3 seagull eggs in a nest with 2 seagulls just above it on a wall. We wanted a closer look and the gulls didn’t like that at all. They started squaking and acting pretty nervous. Spencer was videoing as we got closer to the eggs, when all of a sudden, one of the birds took flight and attacked us.
It primarily went after Emilee and luckily Spencer’s video
caught all of the action. The video
speaks for itself. We were laughing so
hard, we almost peed our pants!
Ashton caught a lot of butterflys as we explored the island
and then we caught the ferry back.
From there we looked at the fish market, a really cool,
huge, suspended mirror over the square and then headed up via the bus to their
Notre Dame cathedral. Yes, basically
every French city has their version of Notre Dame. It is on a huge hill overlooking the
city. It is very, very visible and
big. The bus was jam packed as it was
palm Sunday. The bus wound its way up
some very, very tight windy roads. I
couldn’t believe he made some of the corners without hitting something.
The cathedral was impressive. Totally dedicated to the mariners from
Marseille. Boats hanging from the
ceilings, pictures of boats, articles from boats that had sunk, etc. You could tell that shipping was very, very
important to the people of Marseille.
The port was very well protected with two forts on either
side of it, so I’m sure in its day, this was an important deep water port for
France.
Once back in the city center, we bought the obligatory
souvenirs (Ashton’s bell, Spencer’s post card, Emilee’s bookmark and Jacob’s
keychain). We have these things from
every city we’ve visited over here.
Ashton has 14 bells now!
We then walked through the Roman basilica. It was the first time we really saw the
difference between the Roman arch-based basilica and a Gothic arch-based
cathedral. We really liked it,
especially the mosaics on the floor.
Reminded us of our mosaic near our front door back home.
Back on the ship we ate dinner, went to bed and headed towards Barcelona!
In Barcelona we caught the free bus once again and based on
the large size of the city decided to buy tickets on the double decker, open
aired hop on, hop off tourist buses.
They go around pre-determined routes to the key sites and you can hop
on/off all day long.
Barcelona is big on being Catalan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_people
and their famous architect Gaudi. He was
a god there!
We drove past his famous buildings, Park Guell, and most
importantly the Sagrada Familia.
Pictures don’t do this Cathedral justice. It is still under construction and will be
for the next 100 years. The line was so
long we didn’t even attempt to get in. I
think it was something like 15 euros per person and the line was wrapped around
the church.
After getting gelato we walked through the Park Guell designed by Gaudi. It took us a while to figure out how these guys would sit there for hours. You'll have to let us know if you figure it out!
After the park we went to find the LDS mission home. Our neighbors are the MTC president and a girl from our ward back home is in Barcelona. We found several references to the mission home at an address that was about a 1 km walk, so we headed off to find it. When we got to the building, it was obvious that the MTC/mission home was gone. They must have moved into a new building when the MTC was built. Jake was NOT very happy with us as we put down our heads and walked back to the bus stop.
On the way we probably had our best meal of the cruise. We found a shop that baked whole
chickens. We got two of them and a few
Fantas and chowed down on the side of the road.
Kim didn’t get to partake as she’s recently found out that
she most likely has Celiac’s disease which is a gluten intolerance. She ate meals cooked by the gluten free
kitchen on the boat. For lunch they
would pack her a gluten free meal. I
don’t envy her as it really puts a damper on one of the fun parts of traveling
– FOOD!
Our next step was the famous FC Barcelona football
stadium. The best player in the world,
Messi, plays for Barcelona and Jake was super excited to be there. We got a couple great pics and a Barcelona
scarf.
We did get some time to transfer the pics from our phones to
my computer. We were running out of
space due to all the pictures we’d been taking. The big problem came after I
had transferred Kim’s, Emilee’s and Jacob’s pictures. I started transferring mine and it took a
long time. I let it run all night and it
turned out the app had hung. The only
way out was to Force quit. When I
brought iPhoto back up all of the pics and videos that we had deleted from
their phones were gone. They were not
very happy with me, but there was literally nothing I could do. I hoped that there was some way to get them
back, but without Internet I couldn’t look up how. Luckily we had my pics and Spencer’s from the
first part of the trip.
The next morning we woke up in Palma de Mallorca. It is a nice little Spanish Island off the
coast of Spain. The most famous thing on
the Island was the only Round castle in Europe.
We took a taxi up the big hill and paid our money to go inside. It was a very well done museum about the
history of the island within the round Castle.
The castle was actually very, very impressive. It was interesting to see the well in the
middle, the roman and gothic arches and the view from the top of the castle.
From there we walked down and caught the city bus to the
center of town. The church there had a
huge line, so we queued up, paid our money and toured the church. Most churches are free, but it is an obvious
trend that they are starting to make you pay to see the church, the treasures
and relics. This church was the first
church where we really saw some cool relics.
Fingers, arm bones, etc. were all saved over the centuries. They had a lot of gold antiques and art on
display.
We ate lunch at an “american” style diner. Fajitas, hamburgers and hotdogs were a
welcome site after a lot of foreign food.
Overall we’ve enjoyed the new tastes, but it was nice to get some good
‘ol comfort food.
Since Palma is an Island we wanted to get some beach time
in. We took the bus past the cruise
ships and down to the beach district. It
was a very short walk to a nice beach.
Ashton was in heaven searching for crabs, fish and other creatures in
the tide pools. The water was pretty
cold, but Jake and Spencer both got wet up to their belly buttons.
The shocker came when a few more people started showing up
and taking off their tops! Meaning, this
was our first experience with a European beach.
The ladies had no issue whatsoever with walking around with no top
on. Spencer and Jake’s eyes were pretty
big when they realized what was going on.
It was hilarious to see us trying to pack up and walk up the beach
trying to not look!
Another short bus ride back to the cruise ship, dinner and off to bed
Ashton has turned into quite the trickster!
Another short bus ride back to the cruise ship, dinner and off to bed
The next day was our sea day. We woke up late, ate a big breakfast and
lounged around the boat. In the
afternoon we went in between Sardinia and the other island. After running so hard the other days it was
nice to rest. I did enter a ping pong
tournament, but got knocked out in the first round!
We actually saw some dolphins! They were small and fast!
That night we splurged and bought Bingo cards. It was the first time any of us had played
Bingo with money on the line. It was
really fun and Ashton seemed to be doing really good. He was only one turn off the first prize
which was a Line. The next prize of 500
euros was blackout. It got pretty
exciting when Ashton only had 3, then 2, then 1 spots left and no one had
called Bingo. I knew the stats were
playing against us and they did when on the next turn a guy in the back got
Bingo. We were disappointed, but had a
great time!
I was pretty happy with kids on the cruise! They had great attitudes and got along
well. I was also super excited that they
wanted to get up early to go see the ship come into port and dock. I can remember doing that on my first
cruises, so it was fun to see them be curious about the same things.
The big day we were all looking forward to was Rome. We bought the cruise bus guided tour excursion
because the port is an hour and a half from Rome. We wanted to see both the Coliseum, the Forum
and the Vatican. To do that all in one
day is impossible unless you have tour tickets that skip the lines. So we left about 8:00 am went on a bus to
Rome. Rome was pretty dirty and 50s
looking until you get right down to the downtown historic area. Then all of a sudden you are in the midst of
a 3000 year old civilization.
Just down the street from the Coliseum is the Forum. That was the downtown, political and economic
center of the city. It is amazing to see
how civilized they were and how much of their inventions we use today. The Senate, Senators, Citizens, Laws,
Democracy, etc. It is hard to believe
that the Romans were so far advanced compared with the American Indians. We thought that Mesa Verde was impressive
until we saw Rome. Not even a
comparison!
From there we had a pasta lunch and headed to the
Vatican. That is where the tickets
really paid for themselves. There was a
HUGE line as they were getting ready for 500,000 people to swarm Rome for
Easter Sunday. We walked through the
Vatican Museum and wound our way down the halls to the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo didn’t disappoint. He was absolutely amazing. 10 years painting the chapel, 18 years
building St. Peter’s Basilica. David,
the Pieta, the Michelangelo stairs in front of the Rome City offices, etc.
If you look at the actual painting of the Judgement there was a guy in
purgatory that had a snake eating his male parts because he had ticked off
Michelangelo. (see above in the lower right hand corner)
They told us that if we took pictures in the Sistine chapel that would be our fate. Well, unbeknownst to us Spencer now is doomed to hell to have a snake eternally eating his private parts!
They told us that if we took pictures in the Sistine chapel that would be our fate. Well, unbeknownst to us Spencer now is doomed to hell to have a snake eternally eating his private parts!
This pic sealed Spencer's fate!
It is absolutely amazing to think that is the room where the
conclave takes place. It is not that
big, but it is beautiful and obviously very important to the Catholic church.
Next we walked into St. Peter’s basilica. It is HUGE!
The largest dome and cathedral in the world. The Pieta sculpture is on your right as you
walk in the building. Even a novice can
see the difference that Michelangelo’s sculptures are waaaaaay better than
anything else you see.
Even Ashton was taking pictures in St. Peters!
We were all in awe at the size and beauty of the building. The story is that the Vatican was a swamp where Peter’s crucified body was thrown after his death. Constantine “found” his bones 200+ years later and started the first church on that site.
Ashton selfie in St. Peters.
One of our favorite things was the Tomb of Pope Innocentius. You can read in this Wikipedia article that he was the first Pope to supposedly to be incorrupt and preserved. So he’s in a glass class in one of the chapels in the main hall of St. Peters. Totally foreign to us, but pretty cool nonetheless!
Waiting for white smoke!
The big question on the cruise was whether or not we were
going to go sea kayaking at Cinque Terre or ride a bus to Florence and Pisa.
We all wanted to go sea kayaking but felt that we are only
going to be here once, so let’s go to Florence and Pisa on a guided tour. So we splurged one more time and go the cruise
boat tour. It turned out to be the right
decision.
We got on a bus early the next morning and drove 2.5 hours
to Florence. Florence (Firenze) was
amazing. The city is not especially
beautiful, but the history is. It is
incredible that Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dante, Machiavelli, Donatello,
Galileo, Amerigo Vespuzzi, etc. are all from Florence. This is really where the Renaissance
started. Florence was a rich city based
on the textile trade that allowed a whole host of people to create amazing
things.
The cathedral there was very pretty and different as it was
all built from marble. There are marble
quarries in the mountains just north of Florence where most of it came from. There was only one bridge in Florence that survived
WWII. Our guide said that there is a
famous picture with Hitler and Mussolini on the bridge and the Ponte Vecchio was the only bridge Hitler didn't blow up in the city.
Our favorite site was Sante Croce, which is where most of
the Renaissance guys are buried. It was
incredible to think you were just feet away from the bones of Galileo, Michelangleo,
etc. Jake was in heaven!
Florence is also the city where the story Pinocchio got started. It was a story to get the people of Italy to be better after unification.
After exploring the city and thinking I got pick pocketed,
we jumped in the bus and headed another hour and half towards Pisa. Also, since Barcelona our gelato consumption
started to increase. Ashton has a one
track mind when it comes to gelato!
Pisa was better than we were expecting. We expected to see the tower, take a picture
and go. It turns out that the tower is a
bell tower for a cathedral and baptistery.
Everything is huge and made of marble.
It is amazing that this little city had such a famous worldwide
landmark.
We were all totally amazed at the size, how much it was
leaning and how pretty it was. Marble
can make some really cool buildings. The
tower moves about 10 mm per year, so a few years ago they rolled back time 400
years and straightened it about 40 cm.
It is leaning an uncomfortable amount because the foundation is
basically on sand. It has done that
since the beginning.
Back on the bus and back to the ship for dinner and good
night’s sleep. I love sleeping on the
inside cabin of a cruise ship because it is so dark and the engine puts me
right to sleep.
The cruise went by really quick and we were all a little
disappointed to be disembarking in the morning.
We arrived in Savona and after breakfast we were in our car
in less than an hour and headed towards Venice.
I had rented 2 hotel rooms for two nights because Monday was a bank
holiday in Luxembourg.
So we got to Venice about 2:00 in the afternoon on
Saturday. We really didn’t know what to
expect from Venice. We expected a few
canals, sort of like Brugge. We were
totally wrong.
Venice is an old, famous, previously very wealthy city built
on a marsh in a bay. The buildings are
all built on top of wood pilings driven into the marsh. Rock is then placed on the pilings and the
buildings built on top of the rock.
Totally crazy!
The only way to get around is walking and by water bus. We spent about 120 euros on passes for 36
hours and headed towards San Marco square.
This is one of the most famous square’s in Europe. Unfortunately the basilica wasn’t open
because of Easter. We were really hoping
that is would open up on Sunday because it looked incredible.
We did the obligatory gondola ride for 80 euros. It was actually really cool, relaxing and fun
to explore the little canals. We had no
idea that Marco Polo was from Venice. We
went right past his Grandpa’s house.
Venice is really in decline.
The city sinks 5 inches a century and the ocean level rising is causing
havoc. This means that in November the
streets and shops are all flooded with a foot of water. They are trying to save the city, but at some
point it will not be worth it. It really
is too bad because it is very cool and has tons of history.
On Easter morning we slept in and rode the city bus into
Venice. The churches were open and the
Basilica was unbelievable. The entire
church was covered in mosaics. Literally
the floors, walls, ceilings were all down in Mosiac. It is breathtaking. We paid the money to see the 4 horses that
they got as booty from a war. The
statues on the front of the building are reproductions, but we saw the
originals in the upper floor of the church.
They are actually really old, like 4th century BC.
We decided to wind our way through the streets and try to
walk back a few kilometers to the bus station.
After hours of wandering we finally made it out. It was at that point that Kim said, “Where am
I going to buy my picture?”. She thought
we were headed towards St. Mark’s square where the artists were at, but that
was an hour boat ride away.
After some tense moments we all decided to support Kim in
her effort to try and buy a picture.
After an hour boat ride, an hour searching and an hour boat ride back we
were all glad to ride the bus home, get some pizza, gelato and get to bed.
The next morning we got up early and started the 11 hour
drive home back to Luxembourg. It was
pretty uneventful except it was difficult to get through the tunnels in
Switzerland due to all of the traffic.
We did get to see a cool Lamborghini and Ferrari get some gas by us at a
gas station in Switzerland. They lucked
out and got to race through a tunnel. It
sounded awesome!
Overall we had an amazing time and are glad we took the
time, money and effort to take cruise.
The kids have realized that they love traveling and it definitely opened
their eyes to a whole world of history and culture that they never knew
existed.
Reality of work hit hard when we got home and I didn’t sleep
a single minute the next night. We’ve
got a big task in front of us and now it is time to get to work!
After such a long blog, you’ve probably forgotten about the
lost photos, we’ll, it turns out that iPhoto is pretty good about not losing
your photos. I was able to read how to
fix the database on the Internet and the pictures and videos showed up. So, not sure you’ll want to look at all of
them because there are about 4000 of them, but here you go! My kids now love me again!
Links to all the pics and videos of the trip! Enjoy!
Lavertezzo
Savona
Marseille
Barcelona
Palma de Mallorca
Rome
Florence and Pisa
Venice
Links to all the pics and videos of the trip! Enjoy!
Lavertezzo
Savona
Marseille
Barcelona
Palma de Mallorca
Rome
Florence and Pisa
Venice
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