In honor of my and Mr. L’s upcoming one year anniversary (which is approaching very, very quickly!), I have decided to start rolling out our honeymoon recaps (AKA "Mr. and Mrs. Landrum in Europe") for anyone who is interested in hearing about our fabulous trip. It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I am so thrilled Mr. L and I got to do something so wonderful and enriching together. We’ll cherish these memories for a lifetime, so I’m hoping writing down what I remember now will bring back even more memories in the future as we reminisce together :)
And now, let’s begin!
May 21st, 2010
I almost couldn’t believe it, but our long-awaited and highly anticipated honeymoon trip was about to begin! On the morning of May 21
st, my parents were kind enough to drive Mr. L and I over to the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport from Mobile, where we’d spent the night to save some driving time. We arrived at the airport, then checked our luggage and received our tickets. After a few minutes of goodbyes with my parents, we were off to our terminal and on our flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, where we would eventually be departing for Frankfurt, Germany!
We boarded our super tiny plane and made our way to Charlotte.
 |
| After our plane landed in Charlotte |
We had a small layover at the airport, so after relaxing for a bit and snapping this obligatory "We're in an airport!" self-portrait seen here:
we stopped at Chili’s and had a bite to eat since our tummies had been unsatisfied with plane fare so far.
We really didn’t have that much time in Charlotte’s airport, so to ensure we didn’t miss our flight, we finished up our meal and made our way to the gate. From there, we boarded what happened to be my very first international flight (it was Mr. L’s umpteenth time haha) to Frankfurt, Germany!
I’m not going to lie – it was a long flight (around nine hours!) that was rather boring, even if it was overnight. But we were on that “start of the honeymoon” high, so it didn’t bother us that much! The only thing that did was that we realized we sleep terribly on planes, ugh. So not comfortable!
May 22nd, 2010
In the end it was all worth it when we officially made our landing in Germany!
 |
| "Stop taking pictures, woman!" |
A downside to the flights also had to be the insane 5 to 6 hour layover in Frankfurt International Airport that I somehow thought was a good idea. We did manage to kill time, but man, it was bad! We attempted catnaps at one empty gate, but it wasn’t a comfortable sight in the least. It definitely made me feel sorry for anyone who’s ever had to spend the night in an airport due to flight cancellations or what other reason.
 |
| View out one of the windows in Frankfurt Int'l Airport, right after landing |
After hours of walking around and stretching out on uncomfortable airport chairs catching very little rest, it was finally time to get on our very last flight, this time to Barcelona, Spain. I actually enjoyed this flight! It was during the day, and I loved looking out the window at the mountains, lakes, and overall beautiful scenery below us. Spain is definitely a beautiful country!
 |
| Gorgeous! |
After around fifteen hours of travel time (no idea how long when you add the time zones to it!) we finally landed in Barcelona, Spain. We departed, grabbed our luggage, and maneuvered our way to the front of the airport, where we hopped in a taxi and sped down the freeways to Barcelona city proper.
And let me tell you, by “sped”, I mean SPED! Our taxi driver (and I’m assuming he’s like most in the city) was crazy fast, and a little dangerous at times. I’m glad he was driving and not me – I would’ve been way too scared, haha.
 |
| Those little cars can go! |
After around a twenty-minute cab ride, we arrived at our hotel, H10 Montcada on Via Laeitana in Barcelona.
 |
| Our room! |
I actually liked the hotel. The breakfast was nice (although unfortunately not included, but we only had time to eat it once anyways) and the rooms didn’t feel like dungeons at all. They were very modern, clean, and just what we needed after such a long journey. I only wish the bed had been more comfortable – it was rather on the hard side.
 |
| Desk/TV area |
 |
| Messy bed (we'd already taken a nap!) |
 |
| Messy bathroom (and also already showered after our long travel day!) |
And just what did we do as soon as we parked our rears in the hotel room? What everyone else does after an international flight – we passed out for like five hours. After having very little sleep on the flights over, we desperately needed some shut eye. So that’s what we got!
We ended up sleeping into dinner, so we woke up to have a bite to eat before we went right back to bed. It was a rather sleepless night after that (that afternoon/evening nap probably wasn't such a good idea after all...) but we managed to get some more sleep, even if we were tossing and turning a lot.
May 23rd, 2010
The next morning, we did manage to get out of bed and explore one of the reasons I booked the H10 Montcada – its rooftop terrace.
 |
| Gorgeous city, gorgeous day! |
The views were wonderful, and even though the hot tub was closed, the lounge/bar area was very nice and relaxing.
 |
| The hot tub that was unfortunately out of commission |
We saw many sights of Barcelona without ever leaving the hotel, which was nice since we had so little time in Barcelona and weren’t able to explore the city properly.
 |
| Antoni Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia, perhaps Barcelona's most famous landmark |
 |
| Barcelona's famous "hill", Montjuic -- medieval Catalan for "Hill of the Jews" |
 |
| The famous Christopher Columbus Monument at the foot of La Rambla, Barcelona's most well-known street |
 |
| Barcelona's 4th tallest building, Torre Agbar -- what I referred to as the Bullet Building |
 |
| A television tower in Olympic Park (on Montjuic) built for Telefonica to transmit television coverage of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona |
 |
| Mr. L hanging on the terrace, Barcelona in the background |
 |
| We made it! |
We spent some more time on the terrace watching a show of sorts being put on by a couple of men in a nearby park. They made giant bubbles with these huge bubble wands for close to an hour, and I was able to snap a few photos of them in action, like this one:
 |
| Go, bubble guys, go! |
After watching them for a while we headed back down to our hotel room to pack up our belongings and check out of the hotel. In just a few hours
our seven day Mediterranean cruise adventure would begin, and we had to make it to the port on time!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
P.S. I also wanted to say, wow! Over 1k hits on this blog?! You all totally rock :) Thank you for reading!!
No comments:
Post a Comment