Discovering Deutschland: Our Epic Mediterranean Cruise

We decided to go on one last big travel adventure before we return home in a few months. And there is no better way to see a different city every day than on a luxury cruise ship. We boarded the Norwegian Epic in Marseille, France and began our 7 day adventure at sea.

Our ship, the Norwegian Epic

Our room

Our balcony

The pool deck

For our first dinner on the ship, we enjoyed duck with yucca fries and warm chocolate lava cake for dessert.

We spent the evening enjoying the entertaining and talented performers at the Howl at the Moon Dueling Pianos Show.

The next day we woke up in Barcelona. For our shore excursion, our tour guide gave us a bus tour of Barcelona, and we stopped several times to really experience the city's best sites.

A large Christopher Columbus monument depicts Columbus pointing toward the New World.

We drove through an area known as La Barceloneta, a neighborhood known for their beach and authentic restaurants. The neighborhood even has their own flag; they consider themselves to be distinct from Barcelona and have even petitioned to be their own city.

The Arc de Triomf was built as the main access gate for the 1888 Barcelona World Fair.

Arc de Triomf

Casa Batllo is a renowned building designed by Antoni Gaudi. His masterpiece is designed in Art Nouveau style. The building has hardly any straight lines, is covered in mosaic tiles and has scales for shingles that look like the back of a dragon.

Our first stop was at La Sagrada Familia. This basilica is one of the most famous churches in the world, thanks to the architect Antoni Gaudi. The construction on the church began in 1882 and still continues today. The hope is that the church will be finished by 2026, the centennial of Gaudi's death.

When it's finished, there will be 18 spires on the church, representing in ascending order of height the 12 Apostles, Mary, the 4 Evangelists and Jesus Christ. The highest spire will make La Sagrada Familia the tallest church building in the world.

The church will have 3 facades, telling the stories of the Nativity, the Passion and the Glory. The nativity facade faces east so the sun rises on it, a symbol of the birth of Christ.

The intricate work

Inside, the church looks different than any other church we've seen so far in Europe. The columns look like the trunks of trees, so it appears as if you are walking through a forest.

The walls are covered in stain glass windows.

The light shining through the windows gives the whole church a colorful glow.

Looking up at the ceiling

The passion facade is drastically different in design than the passion facade. It is plain and simple with harsh lines. This facade faces the setting sun, indicating Christ's death.

We visited a Gaudi museum in the basement, which highlighted his work on the church, as well as his other projects around Barcelona.

The brown parts are already complete; the white are still to come

The church became a basilica in 2010 when Pope Benedict came and consecrated it.

A strange technique Gaudi used in which he hung weights and formed them into the shape of his church upside down to help him with the construction.

An impressive fountain stood in the middle of a traffic circle. Behind it, a stadium once used for bull fighting is now home to many shops.

The Summer Olympic Games were held in Barcelona in 1992. In the picture below, you can see the torch used to hold the Olympic flame.

Our bus dropped us off at the Poble Espanyol, a unique architectural museum that was created for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition. Inside it feels as if you are standing within a real Spanish city. Every street and square represents a different region of Spain.

There are 117 buildings within the museum showcasing the 15 regions of Spain.

This street represented Cadiz, a province in southern Spain. This is the area I lived in when my family lived in Spain.

From the hill this museum was built on, you could see almost all of Barcelona.

La Sagrada Families in the distance

Our tour guide recommended a local restaurant serving authentic tapas, and we were glad we listened to her advice!

My sangria

Two types of chorizo

Mushrooms with bacon pieces

Seafood paella

The Barcelona Cathedral is an impressive Gothic church.

Remnants of a Roman wall and aqueduct still remain standing near the cathedral.

A beautiful courtyard

Placa del Rei (The King's Square) has been the sight of a lot of significant historical events, including being the location where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella greeted Columbus after he successfully completed his first voyage to the New World.

Casa Padellas is a 15-16th century palazzo which was moved to its current location stone by stone in 1931.

An intricate design made of fruit

This arch was part of the Roman entrance to the city. It looks short because present day Barcelona is much higher than it was a long time ago.

We got back on the bus and made our way back to the port and to our ship.

We spent the afternoon relaxing with mudslides by the pool.

We made our way to Spice H2O, an adult-only pool area with a giant TV screen.

We said "adios" to Barcelona and started our voyage across the Mediterranean.

We sat down and watched Germany play Slovakia in a quarter final match of the Euro Cup.

Dinner was impressive as always.

My Peking duck salad

We both ordered the New York Strip Steak Diane

My coconut souffle

Chris' English cherry trifle

Our second full day was the "at sea" day, so we spent it attending several activities the cruise had to offer, including a sushi and teppanyaki demonstration.

Watching the professionals make delicious Asian food gave us a major craving, so we ate lunch at Shanghai's.

We sat at a table on the side of the ship, so we enjoyed an amazing view of the water while we ate.

After lunch, we went back out to the pool area and watched the ice carving demonstration.

the final product

An announcement was made that we were passing between Sardinia and Corsica, so we spent a few minutes watching the two islands.

We found a surprise on our bed when we came back to the room...a classic cruise ship towel animal!

We brought back a little appetizer of seafood from the buffet to enjoy on our balcony.

We watched Spain play Italy in another soccer match, and since we had many Spaniards and Italians aboard the ship, it made for a very lively atmosphere in the pub!

We got lucky and sat near a beautiful window for dinner, with views of the sun setting on the sea.

My swordfish carpaccio and bay scallops au gratin appetizers

Chris' steak frites

My beef wellington

They had both of our favorite desserts on the menu, and we were happy to oblige by ordering them both!

Chris' mint chocolate mousse

My honey creme brulee

After dinner we wandered over to the Bliss Lounge and watched others sing karaoke. Let's just say it wasn't on the same level with American Idol!

After karaoke, we joined the packed The Cavern Club and listened to a Beatles cover band.

The next morning we woke with views of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius from our balcony.

Since we've already been to Naples, our initial plan was to stay on the ship all day and relax poolside. But when we realized how close the city was from our ship, we decided to get off the ship and just explore for a little while.

Piazza del Plebiscito

There's our ship!

Fontana della Immacolatella

We found where the locals went to enjoy the sunny morning. They were sprawled out among the large rocks and a few even braved the cold water.

After we got back on the ship, we headed out to the pool deck for some sun and fun. One of the most unique features on the Epic is the bowl slide, the largest one at sea!

Chris says this picture looks like it could be an ad for Norwegian Cruise Line!

We ate dinner at the Manhattan Room and the dancers from Burn the Floor put on a little show for us.

We enjoyed another great dinner with so many great dishes to choose from!

Chris' lump crab cake with a roasted tomato sauce

I noticed bouillabaisse soup on the menu and had to try it. It's the most famous dish from Marseille and is a fish soup with a tomato and saffron stock. The dish used to be a poor fishermen's meal, but chefs have now elevated it and made it a culinary treat.

My bouillabaisse soup

My salmon tartare with wasabi cream, avocado and rice

We spotted the rack of lamb on the menu and immediately knew it's what we both wanted for our entree.

We had similar minds when it came to dessert and both ordered the tiramisu.

The next day we woke up and got on a bus bright and early for our excursion. Since we've already spent a good amount of time in Rome, we decided to see what the countryside had to offer.

The first little town we traveled to was Tuscania. And when I say little we walked from one end of town to the other in about 5 minutes.

Fontana delle Sette Cannelle

We had a quick Italian coffee at a little cafe before we were back on the bus heading to our next stop.

Our tour guide convinced our bus driver to pull over and let all of us have a moment to take the view of Lake Trasimeno.

Our final city of the day was the most charming and unique. Civita di Bagnoregio is an ancient town that was founded by the Etruscans more than 2,500 years ago. It's actually two towns; Civita is the plateau and Bagnoregio is the town it connects to. Civita was much larger but erosion has caused more than 134 landslides over the years and in about 200 years the entire plateau will be gone. Only 12 people live here year-round.

We hiked across the bridge and made our way up the steep incline to the plateau.

We did a little exploring through the quaint streets and had some impressive views.

We again ate at the restaurant our tour guide recommended, which ironically was the same name as our tour guide, La Cantina di Arianna.

We started off with a 1/2 liter of their house white wine. Only in Italy can you find this much wine served in such a charming pitcher with beautiful views for only 4 Euro!

We knew that truffles were a local delicacy, so we ordered the bruschetta crema di tartufo as an appetizer.

Chris ordered the lombrichelli all'italiana, which was homemade long pasta with eggplant, tomatoes, almond, basil and bacon.

I ordered the fettucine con Fiori di zucca, which had homemade noodles, zucchini flowers, bacon, truffle and marjoram

We ended up chatting with an Australian couple from our tour group. All four of us sat there for quite a while just enjoying the delicious food and company.

Every courtyard and street of this tiny town was impeccably manicured with an abundance of flowers.

After returning to the ship, we cleaned up and went down to the Taste dining room for dinner.

Chris' shrimp and guacamole salad

My escargot en vol-au-vent

Chris' broiled mahi-mahi

My grilled marinated skirt steak

Chris' coconut pudding

My raspberry truffle cake

We woke up the next day in Livorno. Our first stop on our tour was the walled city of Lucca. Known as the "living room of Tuscany", it is much less touristy than many of the other cities in the area.

These Renaissance-style walls are different than most other city walls still standing because they are short and very thick. This is because during the Renaissance time period, the weapon of choice was explosives instead of arrows, so walls needed to be thicker than they did tall.

Lucca is home to a summer music festival and they were beginning to put up a stage in Piazza Napoleone. For such a small town, they attract big performers such as Lionel Richie and Neil Young.

The Lucca Cathedral, dedicated to St. Martin, holds a very precious relic, the Holy Face of Lucca.

According to legend, Nicodemus carved the image of Jesus into a cedar-wood crucifix after helping Joseph of Arimathea carry Jesus' body into the tomb. It was discovered in a cave in the Holy Land and sent off on a boat in the hopes that it would find the place it was destined to be. It initially made its way to the shores of the Italian town of Luni, but no one could seem to grab the boat. Then the bishop of Lucca came and was able to grab it. They tried to put the crucifix in the San Frediano Church, but time after time, the crucifix mysteriously ended up back in the church dedicated to St. Martin.

The Carrara marble chapel holding the relic

The face of Jesus, according to Nicodemus

St. Martin

People used to live in these "towers". Our guide told us that the kitchen was always at the very top, that way if there was a fire, the residents could still escape out the bottom of the building.

This tower has an unusual sight.....trees growing on top of it!

A former arena used for gladiator fights has now been turned into a town square, complete with restaurants, shops and apartments.

The famous composer Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca. He apparently was a ladies man, much to the dismay of his wife!

This little restaurant was one of the restaurants that Elizabeth Gilbert ate at in Italy that inspired her to write the popular book Eat, Pray, Love.

We ate at a restaurant facing the Puccini statue and enjoyed pizza and a panini.

These signs above stores are so intricate and well-made they are considered art and left untouched, despite the fact that most of the shops now don't sell what's written on the sign.

Our tour guide told us that this gelato shop was rated the #1 gelato in the world, according to Facebook.

Chris tried classic chocolate, while I tried lemon.

Our next stop was Pisa, home to the famous leaning tower.

This baptistery is the largest one in the world.

The Piazza del Duomo holds many significant buildings, including the church, the Baptistery and the cemetery. All of the buildings are on the same unstable ground, so they all lean a slight amount, with the tower leaning the most.

Duomo

Our tour guide let us know that because of the Catholic Church's Jubilee Year of Mercy, the Baptistery and church had special entrances for Catholics to use to pray in these holy buildings. We felt like VIP being Catholic because we skipped the long ticket lines and were able to access parts of the church no one else was able to. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take pictures, but being able to take a moment and pray in such a special place was definitely worth it.

Inside the Baptistery, we were able to hear a unique sound. Every 30 minutes, a single voice would sing a single note, then as that note was echoing in the building, they would sing another note. The combined effect sounded like an organ playing. When the girl began to sing, the room instantly fell quiet and everyone took a moment to enjoy the experience.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has been leaning even before it was complete.

The Leaning Tower

Of course we both had to take the classic "holding up the leaning tower" photo!

Many different strategies have been used for centuries to try and correct the leaning tower. They've tried pouring cement underground to reinforce the sand and even using cables to try and pull the tower back up. The tower is tilted far less now than it was in the 90s. Our guide reassured us that the tower would be in just about the same position for many decades to come.

We snapped a few pictures of all the other tourists from around the world posing for the same silly pictures!

Dinner that night included fried brie and steak with a Cognac sauce.

Our waiter found out we were celebrating an anniversary and after our meal we were serenaded by several of the waiters and presented with a special dessert.

We took it back to our balcony and enjoyed it with a bottle of Italian Prosecco. Cheers to three years of marriage!

Our final port was in Cannes, France; home of the international film festival. We didn't get a chance to see Cannes however; instead, we were off to the microstate of Monaco.

Being the second smallest country in the world, Monaco is actually known for a variety of things, including Grace Kelly, the Grand Prix and the famous Monte Carlo Casino.

On the way to Monaco, our tour guide told us about the history of the country, including the famous Grace Kelly. In particular, she talked about the tragic death of the princess. Our guide was watching the TV coverage after the accident happened on September 14, 1982. She remembers hearing about how the car carrying Grace and her youngest daughter Stephanie went off a cliff during a hairpin turn and crashed into someone's yard below. That man was interviewed on TV and spoke about how Stephanie was driving the car and how tragic it was that Grace had died. Within an hour or two, the same man was giving another interview and suddenly told the story different; he said that Grace was the one behind the wheel. Many speculate that the royals did not want Stephanie to have to deal with the international outcry that she was responsible for the death of her beloved mother.

St. Nicholas Cathedral is used for all official royal events, including the wedding of Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier III. Grace Kelly, an American actress, was the best PR for this small principality. Before her, the world hardly knew about the small country or even thought to visit it.

The marriage of Grace and Prince Rainier was a star-studded event, and suddenly all of the world wanted to know more about this glamorous country. Even though Grace is not a natural-born citizen, she seems to be the most beloved Monegasquen.

The tombs of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier are inside the church.

A wedding portrait of the couple

Grace's name in Latin

We stopped to take in the gorgeous views of the harbor and all of the luxury yachts.

The Prince's Palace is still inhabited by Prince Albert II and his wife.

Every day at 11:55 a.m. there is a changing of the guards. We lined up with the crowd to watch the ceremonial switch.

We then took the bus for a 10-minute ride to the other side of the country. We walked up the hill and saw the second sharpest hairpin turn of the Grand Prix race.

You can even still see the skid marks from the tires of the racing cars.

At the top of the hill we arrived at the famous Monte Carlo Casino.

We weren't able to take pictures inside since it's a working casino, but I did manage to take a few of the lobby.

After much hesitation, I decided that it wouldn't be an authentic experience without playing a game at the casino. So I played my whopping 5 Euro chip in a roulette game and ended up winning 5 times in a row playing black/red. Every time I doubled my money I felt like a big winner. That is, until the guy next to me pulled out 4 500 Euro bills to play. Suddenly winning 5 Euro didn't seem so impressive. But regardless, I won money at the Monte Carlo Casino!