Bloggin it - The vaca - itinerary

After my vacation edition of my "What I Wore" post this week I got a couple requests/suggestions to actually blog about our vacation. I am more than happy to oblige. I will have to split this up into a couple different posts because it was definitely one of the longest, most packed in vacations I have ever been on.
Also, in reflecting on it, I am incredibly, incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to see so much of this world and the beauty of God's creation. This was my 2nd trip to Europe and I was just as enamored as I was when I was 18 years old. I adore the history that is packed into Europe and it makes me feel like America is pretty lame, 200 years? psh - what a baby.
Anywho - I went on a Mediterranean Cruise with Brandon and his family. Sadly his little brother couldn't come with due to work commitments and he was missed...

Sorry ladies, he's not available.

Our itinerary was as follows:
Friday afternoon - fly to London from Chicago for a 4-hour layover, from London fly into Rome (I think this may have blended into Saturday somewhere around here) Then, once checked into our Rome hotel, we changed, grabbed some fast food pizza and jumped on a tour bus to get a tour of Rome at night.

Sunday - Boarded the cruise ship!

Monday - Arrived in Sicily. We took the Godfather tour in Sicily.

Tuesday - At sea

Wednesday - Arrived in Turkey. We did a private tour for just our family of the ancient Biblical city of Ephesus and saw the Virgin Mary's last home. This day was probably the family favorite.

Thursday - Arrived in Athens. In Athens we did a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of the major sites. We also did a Murder Mystery dinner on the ship this night.

Friday - Arrived in Crete. We went on a tour called "real Crete" and got to see some smaller villages and marketplaces.

Saturday - At Sea

Sunday - Docked back in Rome, got a bus to the airport, flew to London. Once we checked into our London hotel we, again, grabbed food and jumped into another tour van to hit the major sites of London

Monday - flew home - and gosh it was nice to be back. I am such a homebody at heart, and even though I find a deep joy in traveling and seeing this world, it is always a welcome sight to see the Chicago skyline, hug my dogs, and snuggle into my own bed at night.

Stay tuned for our adventures in Rome and Sicily!