4th Anniversary Trip -- Cruise to the Bahamas

Every year for our anniversary Brian and I like to go on an international trip to escape from the world for a bit and celebrate. Since we went to Europe in February we didn't want to go on another big trip, but still wanted to get away for a few days, so we ended up deciding on a short, 3 day cruise to the Bahamas. We were able to find a cruise that left on our actual anniversary, leaving from Port Canaveral (only about 2.5 hours from Jax), so we went with that one. It was on Carnival Cruise line, so it was a pretty reasonable price too. This was our first cruise, so we didn't really know what to expect, but we were up for the adventure and just looking forward to getting away together for a few days.

We started the day with a great breakfast at Metro Diner in downtown Jax and then hit the road, complete with a "4th Anniversary" playlist on our iPod.

While the first part of our cruise (before we even set sail) was a nightmare, and we didn't even know if we'd be able to go on the Cruise due to Carnival's mistake, we had a good time. You can read more about the fiasco here, but for this post, I'll focus on the actual cruise.

The ship we went on, Carnival Sensation, seemed a bit outdated. It looked like it was straight out of the 80's. Our room was pretty nice though; we opted for the ocean view room and were really glad we did. We think we would have felt too confined without the window. The bed was pretty comfortable too, so there really weren't any complaints about the room.

You're assigned a dinner time and table that you can choose to partake in, or you can go to one of the buffets. We were under the impression there were only large tables available and we'd have to sit with a bunch of strangers, but we got lucky and were able to get a table for two which was nice. The dining room is pretty bright and noisy so the ambiance isn't terrific.The food was pretty decent; not awesome, but decent. There was a pretty good selection at dinner. All of the food is included in the price of the cruise and alcohol is extra. You're allowed to each bring one bottle of wine or champagne per person on board, so the first night, on our anniversary, we payed the $10 corkage fee and had the wine we brought served at dinner. I also surprised Brian with a "Happy Anniversary" cake at dinner, and since the traditional gift for the fourth wedding anniversary is fruit and floral, I also surprised Brian with chocolate covered strawberries in the room, in addition to the floral board shorts I gave him earlier that day. I purchased the cake and fruit from the cruise's online store where you can purchase different items before you even set sail which is helpful for setting up surprises!  

We set sail around 4pm on Thursday evening and then arrived in Nassau, Bahamas at noon on Friday. We decided at the last minute to book the catamaran snorkeling cruise excursion and were really glad we did. As soon as we got off the ship in Nassau we were escorted to the catamaran and took off. We stopped near Rose Island and snorkeled for about an hour. The water was beautiful and the reef we snorkeled at was awesome as well. On the way back it turns into a bit of a "booze cruise" with music and all-you-can-drink rum punch. Overall we had a great time and are really glad we went.

It was about 4pm by the time we finished with the snorkeling trip, so after we walked around the Straw Market and downtown Nassau. It was a nice little stroll, but there really isn't a ton to see / do in downtown Nassau. We eventually made our way back to the ship in time for dinner. Since there wasn't much more for us in Nassau, we stayed on the ship for the rest of the evening. We went to one of the shows which was somewhat entertaining but a bit hokey, and also went to a comedy show which was actually pretty funny.

The next day was a day at sea so we had a lot of down time which was nice. There's an area on this particular ship called the Serenity Deck where only adults are allowed and they play relaxing music. The main part of the ship where the only pool is located was always crowded with a ton of people, usually had an announcer doing some sort of game with the audience, and had loud hip-hop music playing. Since we wanted to relax, we spent most of our time at the Serenity Deck. It was nice to have this lower-key option. (I realize that made me sound really old, but hey, we love our relaxation!) Both Brian and I felt like the days seemed so much longer during the cruise. It was extremely relaxing which is exactly what we wanted, so that was great.

Brian was concerned he'd get sea sick so he came prepared with Meclazine (comparable to Dramamine but it's not supposed to make you as drowsy) and Sea-Bands. Fortunately, he didn't need either and was just fine. The boat is so big you can't really tell you're on water. The only time that I felt the ship moving was when I was in the shower which was a bit odd.

We were scheduled to arrive back at Port Canaveral at 7am on Sunday. They offer different options for debarkment, one of which was a later departure time based on your cabin section (around 8:30am for us), so we were able to have breakfast on board and take our time leaving which worked out well.

We decided the best word to describe this particular cruise is "hokey". The decor was pretty bad, the shows weren't awesome, there were random pirates who came around at dinner trying to take a picture with you holding a sword to your neck, there were a ton of photo booths with terrible background options, and the "entertainment" was pretty silly. With all that said, we definitely made the most of it and really enjoyed getting away for a few days, disconnecting with the rest of the world, and just relaxing. We certainly won't be sailing with Carnival again, and I'm not sure we'd do a cruise this short where you spend most of the time on board and only go to one port. We're actually already talking about a cruise with our families over Thanksgiving on a different cruise line that will take us to four locations, so we'll see what we think about that experience...

Since we got off the ship so early we decided to take the scenic route home up the East Coast of Florida along U.S. 1 and A1A. Brian knew of several nice State Parks along the way so we pulled into a couple of those. We also stopped at a couple of local markets on the route and managed to find some boiled peanuts for the trip which makes any drive better! I think it took us a total of 6 hours to get home (including lunch in St. Augustine), but we really enjoyed taking our time exploring new areas since it's not something we get to do often.

And that's another anniversary trip in the books! I can't believe we'll be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary on next year's trip...

Europe Part 2 - Hannover, Hameln, Berlin & Potsdam, Germany

After spending three and a half days in Paris, we arrived in Hannover, Germany where Bridget's husband Karl was waiting for us. We explored Hannover a bit before heading to their home in Hameln. In Hannover we experienced our first sausage dog from a walking cart and our first German beer!

We then went to Hameln (about an hour or so drive from Hannover) where we got settled into their super cute apartment for the night. The next day we visited Karl at his work, explored downtown Hameln, and had a very authentic German lunch. We loved downtown Hameln; it's such a neat city and is exactly what we pictured Germany to be.

Hameln is where the story of the Pied Piper originated, so throughout the day the large church in downtown rings it's bells and the story of the Pied Piper is told through animation so we were able to see that while we were there.

Later that day we loaded up the car and headed to Berlin for the next two nights. Upon arriving in Berlin, we checked into our hotel and then headed to the Hackescher Market in the Mitte area in East Berlin. We stumbled upon an awesome Spanish restaurant where we had dinner and rang in my birthday. It was a fantastic meal with great company and it couldn't have been a better start to my birthday!

The next day (on my actual birthday) we explored more of East Berlin. It was freezing (we even had a few snow flurries), but somehow we managed to see the sites. We saw the The Berliner Fernsehturm (German for "Berlin Television Tower"), which is also known to the locals as the "toothpick". We also saw the Berliner Dom, the largest protestant church in Europe, which was beautiful!

We then made our way to the Brandenburg Gate (the former city gate), Checkpoint Charlie (the crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War), and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. The museum is in basically an older house and is kind of disorganized, but it has a lot of cool artifacts, photos, etc. in there. After, we found a cool bar (Schwarze Café) where we had some great German beer to celebrate my birthday!

The next day I think was even colder, but we still ventured out to see all we could. We explored West Berlin, which is completely different than East Berlin. West Berlin has a new, modern feel while East Berlin is a lot older and feels more industrial. This of course is because West Berlin got bombed badly during World World 2 and had to rebuild. 

In West Berlin we got to see the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It was cool because it has a ultra modern section that was added to the original church that was bombed during WWII, but still partially stands.   

On the way out of Berlin we stopped in Potsdam, a really cool , older city less than an hour from Berlin. It was neat to walk around to the different areas in Potsdam, one of which is known as the Dutch Quarter. We also got an awesome beer stein in Potsdam to serve as our memento from Germany.

After exploring Potsdam we headed back to Hameln where we had another nice dinner together, packed up and got ready to catch our flight the next morning. We had a fantastic trip. It was so great seeing Bridget and Karl in their new home and explore new cities with them. They were fantastic hosts and we really appreciated their hospitality. We can't wait to see them again soon!

You can view all of our Germany pictures here.

Europe Trip Part 1 - Paris

As I'm sure most of you know, one of my very best friends and her husband moved to Germany for her husband's job, so Brian and I decided to visit! When we looked into flights we realized we'd have to layover in Paris, France, so we decided to spend a few days in Paris on the way to Germany.

I was lucky enough to spend a week in Paris in college during a study abroad program and since then have been dieing to go back and take Brian with me. We were dating at the time I was there and of course all I could think about what experiencing the romantic city with him!

When you have such fond memories of a place it's a bit scary to go back for the fear it won't live up to those wonderful memories. But I'm happy to report, Paris was just the way I remembered it and certainly lived up to my high expectations. It was even better being there with Brian and showing him all the things I love about the city.

Similar to our flight to Spain, we left Saturday afternoon and arrived in Paris around 6am local time on Sunday. Our goal is always to try to sleep on the plane so we're ready to go when we arrive, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to work out so well. Especially on this particular flight because Delta apparently offers free beer and wine on flights across the Atlantic (even in coach!) and they had really good movies, so we took advantage of all the above!

We sucked it up when we arrived though and tackled the city! We took the RER to the Latin Quarter area where are apartment was, and started our adventure with an overpriced breakfast in front of the city's most famous Cathedral, Notre Dame. This appears to be a trend with us; we did the same in Barcelona -- we started with an overpriced breakfast by la Sagrada Família. Even though overpriced and not usually spectacular, it's always nice to start the trip with a meal with a great view!

We couldn't check in for a bit so we walked around Notre Dame and visited a little park on Quai St Michel with the oldest living tree in Europe that's still standing (dating back to the 6th century). The person we rented the apartment from told us about the park and tree; he said as a young boy growing up in Paris he'd visit the tree and tell it his secrets. He also said if you hug it, it's supposed to bring you good luck. So, we of course both hugged it to try to get our very own good luck and so far, we can't complain!

We eventually made it to our super cute little apartment right in the middle of the Latin Quarter. Our goal of this trip was to take a relaxing tour around the city and live like a local for a few days. So instead of a hotel, we found an apartment on http://www.homeaway.com/. Here's the link if you want to check it out. We'd highly recommend this place, and the owners were fantastic to work with. The apartment was awesome and the location was perfect. It was close to the Seine River, in the heart of the Latin Quarter, and close to the major metro stops so it was easy to get anywhere we wanted to go.

After we got settled in, where else would we go but the Eiffel Tower! We got a couple of baguettes from a local sandwich shop and hopped on the metro to head to the Eiffel Tower. We enjoyed a great lunch in front of the beautiful monument and it felt great to be in Paris!

We then went to Musée d'Orsay, one of my favorite museums. When I was there in 2005 I saw a painting that reminded me of Brian and me, and we stumbled upon it together which was really neat. I loved showing Brian all of my favorite things in Paris; it was so great to have him there with me. During our tour of the museum the jet lag really started to set in and we almost fell asleep on a bench in the museum. Luckily we were able to power through, went to dinner, and made it until about 9:00pm local time.

The next day was Valentine's Day and what I'm pretty sure will be the best Valentine's Day of my life! We started the day with a trip to the Pont de l'Archevêché bridge, where couples put locks and throw the key in the river. We brought a "love lock" and Brian surprised me and had it engraved with "K&B 2-14-11". After locking it on the bridge and throwing our key in the river, we took a leisurely stroll around Paris (trying to get the feel of being a local), and eventually made our way to the Eiffel Tower where we exchanged Valentine's Day cards and listened to "our song". I got Brian two Valentine's Day cards, one of which was the exact same card he got me! The second was actually one my boss found for me with the Eiffel Tower on the front; a must-have for a Valentine's Day spent in Paris! We then took a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower around sunset; it was beautiful! We saw a couple of proposals which was neat.

 

After the Eiffel Tower we headed back to the apartment to change and head to dinner. We wanted to make it to the Louvre before it closed, so we ended up grabbing a quick dinner of baguettes and sprinted to the museum. One night a week the Louvre stays open late, so we wanted to go then and have the nighttime Louvre experience. Unfortunately after we rushed to get there, we noticed we were the only ones there, and eventually realized we had the wrong night! It was closed the following day, and we were leaving too early the next day, so unfortunately we didn't ever make it inside the Louvre. Oh well, I just see it as an excuse to return to Paris! :)

After our failed attempt at the Louvre, we decided to try to make it to the Eiffel Tower before the start of the next "light show". (At night every hour on the hour for about five minutes there is a light show which is really neat to see.) So we hopped on the metro and headed that way. The metro tickets confused us a bit -sometimes you could use the same one for more than one trip, and sometimes you couldn't. So, we just kept trying the tickets and used them until they wouldn't work anymore. On this particular metro ride, Brian used an old ticket and said it didn't work, but for some reason it let him, so he threw it away. I used a new one, handed my ticket to Brian to hold, and we were on our way.

We got off the metro at the Eiffel Tower stop and were trying to leave when we ran into the Paris police who were checking metro tickets. Uh-oh! They had a machine they ran the tickets through to make sure they were legit. They ran the one I had used through and it was fine, but then they wanted a second. Brian and I knew he threw his away and didn't have it, so we tried to show them a new one. They didn't want that one, but wanted the one we had used to get in. After going back and forth for a while, them tempting to fine us 25 euros, and my unsuccessful attempt to summon fake tears, I randomly found an old Metro ticket in my pocket, handed it to them, and said a prayer. Thank God, it worked! At this point we had missed the light show and decided to head back to the apartment because Bridget was scheduled to arrive soon. After all of this, we managed to get on the metro heading the wrong direction! It was a mess of a night, but eventually we ended up back at the apartment.

We weren't able to get in touch with Bridget before we arrived in Paris, and didn't have a cell phone that worked internationally, so we had no clue how she was going to get to the apartment, so we were a little worried about her. We gave her the apartment phone number so we waited to get a call there. After having some french wine, cheese, fruit and bread while we waited, Brian poured another glass of wine and was about to head downstairs to see if he could see Bridget coming. (The road we were on wasn't drive-able, so she had to walk to the apartment.) About that time, we heard heels coming up the stairs and a knock on the door - low and behold - it was Bridget! Apparently I had sent her the directions / codes to get into the apartment building, so somehow she managed to use the code to get in the main door, use another code to get a key to open the gate, and then found her way to our apartment. Very impressive! So we celebrated with a crepe and a walk along the Seine River.

The next day we started at our favorite little cafe near our apartment (La Boulangerie de Papa), went inside the Notre Dame Cathedral and then hopped on the L' Open Tour hop-on, hop-off bus and toured the city. We saw a lot of the main sights including the Sacré Coeur, one of my favorite cathedrals. Sacré Coeur is set on the top of a hill in the Montmarte area and is simply amazing.   

After our busy day touring we went to a local store for more french wine, cheese, bread and fruit and enjoyed all of the above at the apartment. We then ventured to the Eiffel Tower (with a bottle of wine in tow) to catch the light show we missed the prior day. We had a fantastic time talking, laughing, and hanging out in front of the Eiffel Tower; so much so that we were there through two light shows! By the time we were ready to head back to the Latin Quarter we saw that our metro stop was closed. When I was in Paris in 2005 the same thing happened and we got ripped off by a cab taking us back to our hotel, so I wanted to avoid recreating that experience. So in my broken, very limited French I asked a street vendor about another metro stop. He pointed down the street and we saw people walking in that direction. We decided to give it a try and followed the crowd. Luckily it lead us to a metro station so we hopped on. We had to make a transfer and we were scared the station was going to close before we could hop on so we were rushing to find our train. I accidentally led us in the wrong direction that took us up an escalator that led us outside of the metro station. There wasn't a down escalator so we thought we were out of options. About the time Brian said, "Well, we can't go down the up escalator so we need to...", Bridget said, "Yes we can!", and started running down the up escalator. I followed, Brian passed me, and so Bridget and Brian were waiting at the bottom cheering me on. Finally we all made it, got on the right metro, and successfully made it back to the Latin Quarter. (I know my writing does quite do this story justice, but it was quite hysterical.) At this point pretty much all of the restaurants were closed except a Greek option, so we settled for a Greek dinner on our last night in Paris.

The next morning we ate at our favorite little cafe again and then hopped on the RER and headed back to the airport (CDG). I recommend leaving plenty of time to get to the airport. After you arrive, you have to transfer within the airport which takes a decent amount of time so the whole process if pretty lengthy. I think we allotted for 2 or so hours and we cut it kind of close. But in the end we made it on the plane just fine and were off to Germany!

You can view all of our Paris photos here.