Belgian Exposure

So Sunday afternoon on May 9th we took a taxi to the docks and boarded the Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas for a 7 day cruise.  I have to say at the front end of this series of posts that this was really a great vacation.  There were things on-board for all of us to be interested in, and we got to go to great places along the way.  We especially got to spend some time away from the kids thanks to in-cabin babysitting services, not to mention that everything on-board was in English so it made for a very comfortable trip.  We will definitely do this kind of a vacation again.  Below is a map that shows the cruise route.  Spain, Italy, and France in one week...not too bad.

A few pictures of the ship as we explored.  After we took a quick look around and had dinner, Sam and I went to the pool area for a dip.  It actually started raining and we realized after we noticed that we were the only ones out on deck that the pools were actually closed.  Oh well, we enjoyed the hot tub anyway.

This is the hallway that leads to the arcade and the kid's club.  Sienna had to step on each of the lighted portals in the floor every time through the hall.

Our first day was at sea so we had plenty of time to get to know the ship.  The first port of call on Day 2 was in Naples where we had our only scheduled excursion through the cruise line going to Pompeii.  It was a 1/2 day excursion and it was about as long of a "captive" trip as was practical with the kids.  By the time the tour was getting to the end they were pretty wiped out and crabby, but it was well worth the visit.

This was our tour guide.  She let Sam carry the sign to lead the group and was pretty patient with him as he was talking to her about a mile a minute. 

I thought this example of an ancient cross-walk was pretty cool.  Raised "stepping stones" so you didn't have to step into the shit that was running down the street. 

Mount Vesuvius in the background (I think...) 

Typical that Sam and Sienna were much more interested in looking at the ants than the buildings or scenery around them.

Some of the artifacts and "castings".  I didn't realize that the images you see of the people etc. from the destruction of Pompeii are actually a plaster casting of them (since they are long disintegrated).  When excavating  they noticed a lot of "holes" that looked like people and animals so when they would discover one, they would pour plaster into the top and then excavate the ash around it to get a casting of the living when the eruption happened.

Sienna starting to not want anything to do with Mom and Dad.  There's plenty of room here, so  I want to go wherever I want!

Some ancient home decorating still surviving today.

Towards the end of the visit, we went through an ancient brothel.  The "menu" was on the wall with images of the services provided.  You didn't even need to know the local language, just point .... 

We got back to the ship and spent the afternoon on-board.  That evening, we had arranged for the first night of babysitting services through the cruise line.  We were a little nervous having 2 strangers (they have to come in pairs) watch the kids, but everything went fine.  We made reservations to a "mystery" dinner theater at Portofino (the ship's Italian restaurant) for our Anniversary (14 years!).  It was great to be able to go to a show, have a great dinner, and walk back to your room for the night.

Well I am once again ridiculously behind on writing in the blog.  I need to catch up, however I don't want to just blast through some of the experiences of the past few months, so I'll hopefully be able to catch up the blog before our next big trip (to southern Spain in November).

 In May of 2010, we booked a Mediterranean cruise out of Barcelona.  The ship departed on a Sunday, so we took advantage of the timing to fly from Brussels on Saturday morning and get a day to spend in the city.  One day wasn't nearly enough for us, but we got to see the highlights of the Gaudi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaudí architecture in Barcelona.

We spent most of our "tourist time" visiting Casa Batlló which is a  building that was done to feel like it was a living creature.  Again, it would have been nice to be able to take a little more time (the kids could handle about 30 minutes before doing their special actions to "encourage" mom and dad to take them to do something else).  Anyway, it was a pretty cool experience.  You can see the roof line from across the street that looks like the scales of a huge dragon sleeping among the other buildings.

The main staircase going up was like the spine of the creature.

You could even explore the roof where everything was undulating curves and mosaic tiles all around. 

Our hotel was just a few blocks from La Sagrada Familia which has been under construction for nearly 130 years and is expected to have something like 50-80 years still remaining!  We didn't get a chance to explore the inside, but the exterior was most impressive.

 It was also strange that the "rear" of the church has such a strikingly different style even though the entire building was designed by Gaudi.

We made an attempt to have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Barcelona.  I would say it's starting to be kind of a specific point in our travels to try seek out a Hard Rock if there's one nearby.  So far we've been to the one in Amsterdam, Athens, Edinburgh, and Barcelona.  

Unfortunately there was like an hour wait to get a seat and Sienna was having NOTHING to do with waiting around, so we headed back towards the hotel.  We ended up getting take-out Chinese and Sushi from a place not too far from the hotel which was pretty nice.  We didn't get to experience any Tapas while there, so I guess we have a good reason to plan a trip back.  Barcelona felt like a nice, comfortable place to visit and we would go back given the chance.

Of course as a part of our Scottish experience, we were expecting to try out the famous Haggis, but we got a kick out of both the widespread use of Haggis and also some of the other interesting items available.  

Well, below is a picture of the Haggis that we had at a local pub in Edinburgh.  A description of what is inside, seems rather unpleasant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haggis, but both Nik and I thought it was pretty darn good.  I can't imagine it's even close to good for you, but tasty!  We had gotten an intro to haggis the night before when we went to the Hard Rock Cafe and ordered the "local special" of a burger topped with it. 

Below are a couple of the more interesting uses of haggis (or at least the haggis flavor in Scotland). 

This caught my eye as we were shopping one day.  I never thought that genuine Oxtail soup would gain such popularity as to make it a commercially available product.

We spent quite a bit of time in Edinburgh between shopping, walking the streets, visiting tourist attractions, and of course the castle.  All in all we had a great time and our memories of Scotland and Edinburgh are great.  We beat the odds by not having any rain during the whole trip and we would definitely go back.

My attempt at a panoramic compilation of the view from Princes Street up at Edinburgh Castle. 

Views of Edinburgh. 

One of the small alleys near Mary King's Close that Sam and I visited. 

Not your typical street musicians... 

Friends on Facebook can hear what he sounds like here:

http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=1520626202#!/video/video.php?v=1466264386179

Just after this he started playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for Sienna when he saw us standing there. 

We had a little game while in Edinburgh to see how many Starbucks coffee shops we could find, Sam made the rule that uwhen we got to 10 we had to go into that one and get a frappuccino. 

The Whiskey Experience! 

We scoured the guide books left in the apartment to try find a kid friendly "pub" to visit.  I think we were pretty successful and Mom and Dad weren't too stressed out by the time we got through dinner. 

On the way back, we had to take one of the Taxis. They were like a tourist attraction by themselves.  I didn't realize that the seats directly behind the driver faced backwards!

The Castle. 

For friends on Facebook you can see the firing of the 1 o'clock gun.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=1466260346078