Beautiful Venice

Is Venice, Italy on your bucket list? Venice was at the top of my bucket list when we went in 2009 and after going I added going back to Venice onto my bucket list. Go figure. It’s just like Hawaii for me. I was still new to travel blogging when we went and I posted very little on our trip to Venice. Tonight on a www.TravelingMom.com twitter party on romantic travel they asked where the most romantic place you’ve ever been. I could list 10 off the top of my head, but Venice, Italy tops that list. Here’s a photo tour about Venice 3.5 years later!

  We did tons of window shopping, including strolling through a local market. Venice is known for it’s glass and you can see from these pictures that holds true. The glass art was exquisite, as was the glass jewelry.
 Not every inch of Venice is on a canal, although most of it was! On our last morning we strolled back towards the entrance to the city to catch the bus. We stopped in a couple of shops, grabbed some lunch and hung out eating in this park.
Venice oozes romance, but at night it is so much more romantic.

       
  

Walking around the city is an experience. Even if you do nothing but walk around and hang out in cafes you’ll have a great time.


Oh, and some of the streets are pretty narrow.

• A picture tour of the Venice hotel we stayed at: Hotel Riva, Venice Italy
• Walking along the Grand Canal

Gothic Quarter - Barcelona, Spain

Walking through the Gothic district of Barcelona, Spain not far from Las Ramblas is like taking a step back in time. It used to be known as the "Cathedral District" and it's what is left of the Roman and middle ages. The architecture amazing here.

I enjoyed the Gothic area for many reasons. One because it's a great place to cool off in the hot months! Even when it was 89 degrees outside it seemed only 69 degrees. The buildings are so close together at times the sun can get into the streets making it much cooler. It did open up occasionally in common areas.





Another reason we loved it here was the Pablo Picaso museum is located here.  I saw on some websites that they say to skip this museum.  I on the other hand think it's a fascinating museum.  I think Picaso is somewhat of a sick freak and one of the room in particular will verify this, but other than that one room it's great. (Keep this in mind when taking children here. If your a prude American like me, then you will not want your kids seeing that room!)


We enjoyed the off beat feel and the randomness. It's obviously a tourist area, but it did not have a touristy feel.  We saw these little statues on the way to the Picaso Museum outside of a store.

I can't wait to take my kids to Barcelona someday.

Isle of Skye - Scotland

The Isle of Skye in Scotland was breath taking. When we went we were living in Vegas and talk about polar opposites. We went from no green, to the greenest place I've ever seen. You can drive north from Portree around the top half taking in all of the scenery. There are signs along the way that explain what you are looking at.

Photos of Barcelona, Spain

Photos from our trip to Barcelona, Spain

Scenery around Scotland

 On one of our weekends we drove from Elgin, Scotland over to the Isle of Skye.  These are a few photos we snapped along the way.  Scotland is a stunningly beautiful country.  After living in Vegas for so long it was shocking to see all that green!

Sheep were everywhere in Isle of Skye.

This was one of the cutest towns we came across, Pitlochry.  It's a theater town.  Unfortunately I did not get tickets ahead of time and by the time we got into town the shows were sold out.