A Honeymoon and Compromise

About a month after the wedding, Clay and I packed up our bags, headed to Atlanta and hoped on a flight to Barcelona for our honeymoon. We took a 7 night Mediterranean cruise to various spots in Italy, France, and Spain. You all know that I LOVE to travel but Clay doesn’t quite share that same passion. Most of the time he’s happy to get some time home alone while I go exploring, but this trip gave us the opportunity to see a little bit of the world together and it was fantastic. 

A few nights before we left we went to dinner with my parents. We were talking about the differences in our travel and vacation preferences and my parents told us something that we really liked. My dad said that he likes to take trips and my mom likes to vacation and I think that Clay and I are the same way. When I travel I like to take trips. I enjoy going to new and exciting places and packing my schedule so that I don’t miss anything the city has to offer. When Clay travels, he likes to vacation. He wants to go somewhere calm and relaxing. He wants to lie under an umbrella all day and have someone else take care of all of his food, drink, and activities. 

Cruising is a great way to ease a novice traveler into a European vacation. You get to see the highlights of a lot of cool places but then return to luxury amenities, all you can eat food, and English speakers when the day is done. If you have a reluctant traveler, I highly recommend going to cruise route! It was the perfect compromise for us. Who doesn’t love a cruise? 

Anyway, here are some pictures from the trip. We had a blast. I’m already planning our next vacation/trip! 

Days 1 and 2: Barcelona and the boat

Barcelona. We only spent a few hours in this amazing city but we'll definitely be back.

Our boat had some pretty "cool" offerings, one of which was the Ice Bar!

Relaxing on our balcony. Clay's happy vacation time :)

 Day 3: Sorento and Pompeii 

 This day was our favorite! We had an incredible guide and got to do some pretty neat things.

I mean, just look at this view. I could live here.

Plaster on the walls of a home in Pompeii. It blows my mind that this has been preserved for thousands of years. Amazing! 

After Pompeii, we went to a little farm in the hills. I loved these cows!

Maria taught us how to make mozzarella from the milk of the cows pictured above. Talk about fresh and delicious!

I seriously wanted to move here and work on this little farm. It was perfect.

 Day 4: Rome

Rome was a crazy day for us. How are you suppose to do Rome in one day? I let Clay pick the excursion since he has never been before and he wanted to go to the Vatican and see the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican Museum was crazy crowded and while we did finally make it to the Chapel, everyone was pretty grouchy and tired by that time so we didn't get to fully enjoy it. We had a lovely guide though and actually ran into my friend Susanna, who is also a Vatican Museum guide. Small world! 

Umbrella pines. My favorite.

We had a quick stop at the Coliseum in Rome

Outside of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome

 Day 5: Florence

We were so beat after our Roman adventure that we opted for a nice vineyard tour wine tasting in Tuscany instead of trying to cram all of Florence into a day. We spent the day in beautiful gardens drinking wine and eating cheese. I think we made the right choice.

 

Lovely gardens on the estate. Christmas card, anyone?

At one point, the estate belong to the family who makes Vespas!

Such a romantic little road

 Day 6: Marseille, France

Marseille was a lovely city by the sea with plenty of shops, restaurants, and great walking trails. We stopped in the cutest bakery with a very sweet owner and ate incredible eclairs. They were to die for!

Another Christmas card contender. Awesome view in from the Notre Dame de la Garde

.

 Fun story, we almost died hiking up to the top of this hill. We aren't really outdoorsy people and it was much more challenging than we had anticipated but well worth the view! 

Day 7: Palma Majorca

Our last port of call was an island off the coast of Spain. I was not feeling very well this day so we just got off the boat and wandered around. We actually ended up in a really big mall, which Clay got a real kick out of. It was fun to send the day pretending like we were wealthy Spaniards. I didn't really take any worthy pictures this day. Sorry folks! 

So that was our fun, action-packed honeymoon. Every time i come back home from Europe I start itching to plan my next trip. I'm thinking a visit to Paris to see Sofy is in order soon!

That's it for now. Be sure to check out what I've got going on at Nerd Soup weekly. It's been fun writing for Clay's website and I'm sure you guys are happy I'm not boring you with TV posts.