http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/hoosierdjb/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from hoosierdjb en-us Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:07:50 +0000 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:07:50 +0000 You cannot take a 25 day vacation that includes five counties and two continents and expect to have the family be a picture of health the entire trip. Madrid is where I met my fate. Montezumarsquos revenge I could handle but I wasnrsquot prepared for the flu. While I only had two days where I was really out of it it really derailed any Madrid itinerary we had. I was down and out pretty m http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/District-of-Madrid/Madrid/blog-286225.html Friday night we yes you guessed it did indeed eat babies in Madrid. Delicious delicious babies. An old friend of my dadrsquos from back in the day Carrie Szczerbik is living in Madrid now and she took us a little guided of tour of Madridrsquos best tapas places. Tapas is a type of eating where they bring you small orders of lots of different types of food. Sometimes you pay for th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/District-of-Madrid/Madrid/blog-286223.html Yes its right I Anna D. Butler have survived Kids Club for 1 WEEK I made lots of friends.Freinds from flordiaU.KMalta and New york. Names are Sara Miranda Eloise Jessica and Natasha. The first day I met Eloise and Miranda and ElectricErik one of the counselors. The second day it was Sea Day so that was fun it was Create Your own Crusie ship so when I was ready all the pairs were tak http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-284475.html Ellie We're back in Spain and so far it's pretty good. The place we are staying at is like an apartment because it is so big Our landlord's dog is so cute He is an Afghan Hound and he looks like a big shag rug Last night the taxi driver who drove us from the airport was driving over 150 kmh fast Once we got to the street our hotel was on he went in reverse all the way down the street to ou http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/District-of-Madrid/Madrid/blog-284461.html Very nice day in the south of France visiting the small town of Villefranche. Nowhere to dock so we were tendered ashore in a little ferry boat. Easy to understand why this area near Nice Monte Carlo Monaco gets so many rave reviews beautiful quiet and peaceful. We spent a couple hours ashore while we walked around and let the kids stick their feet in and splash around the cool Medite http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Provence-Alpes-C-te-d--Azur/Villefranche-sur-Mer/blog-284429.html We spent the day today on an expedition arranged by our host host being the guy that runs the riad the small hotel we stayed in. We thought we were going for a nice drive to the mountains. Well the drive was nice. The Ourika Valley is about 70 km from Marrakech and is at the base of the Atlas Mountains. So we're just happy as clams rumbling out there at about 30 mph in our Mercedes taxi http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Marrakech-Tensift-El-Haouz/Ourika-Valley/blog-284219.html Ellie Morocco has an excess of three things people cats and mopeds. There are a gajillion cats around every street corner meowing and begging for food. In the town square in Marrackech there aren't even any stoplights or street lanes Yet I haven't seen a single car crash or even any road rage. There is this huge marketplace called The Suks and it is CRAZY You kind of get used to all of the http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Marrakech-Tensift-El-Haouz/Marrakech/blog-283724.html The cruise has started off really well. The only glitch so far was having to wait out a rainstorm in Barcelona yesterday. We sat in the Barcelona airport for a couple of hours until we knew wersquod be able to board the ship. Sea day is off to a great start. Ellie already loves the things to do and people shersquos meeting the Kids Club and Anna is warming up to it. They each spent an hou http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-281580.html As our first of three stops in Italy we were disappointed with Naples. It was as dirty and smelly and the people as indifferent as rumored. Graffiti and trash literally were everywhere no building or street was spared that we saw. We walked the city for a couple of hours and the best we can say is that the Napoli margherita pizza is without a doubt the best we've ever had. Hey that's s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Campania/Naples/blog-282507.html A forecast of rain most of the day kept us from taking the 2 hour bus ride to Florence. Instead we opted for a quick 20 minute drive to Pisa and we loved it. Great town much smaller than we might have expected. The leaning tower was beautiful not to mention very coolIn our first it's a small world moment of our trip we ran into a woman from Nashville buying gelato in Pisa. Go figure http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Pisa/blog-282504.html Took the bus for the almost two hour drive to Rome today. We had about 5 hours in the city but a midday rainstorm limited us to three things The Colosseum lunch pizza again and Trevi Fountain. The scale of the Colosseum was huge felt as bit as Wrigley Field but built about 2100 years earlier. Trevi Fountain was also much larger than expected and we all contributed the Roman economy by http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/blog-281583.html First stop on the cruise is the island nation of Malta. Itrsquos a tiny brown speck on the map located between Sicily and north Africa. The island had a lot of British flavor to it but the culture is a melting pot of Arabic Greek Italian British Spanish and no doubt others. Apparently none of these cultures or conquerors brought traffic signs with them. We did not see a stop sign or a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Malta/Malta/blog-281581.html Hey it's Ellie After 8 straight hours on the plane we are finally on solid ground Sadly it is raining outside so we can't go to Las Ramblas as planned. That is why I am writing this entry in the airport. We are stuck here until noonI think which is when we can first get on the cruise ship. The ear drops I used for the pressure are now stuck in my ear Whenever I talk it sounds to me http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/blog-279905.html This could only happen to me Lisa.Vacation has officially started as have the mishaps. Sitting next to the ever entertaining Anna a mere one hour into our trip she spilled oh no she didn't her glass of apple juice. It landed all over me my shoes my bag....quite refreshing And being the prepared parent that I try to be I packed extra clothes in our carryon for the girls thinking that I http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Pennsylvania/Philadelphia/blog-279733.html Two days until departure. This is the point in the travel planning process where we are overwhelmed with that what in the hell were we thinking feeling. 25 days together as a family practically joined at the hip playing Planes Trains and Automobiles and Ships in countries where we don't speak the language And with the value of the US dollar being at a historic low Despite all that http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Tennessee/Nashville/blog-279045.html