The Beginning....

I had intended to keep a blog of our honeymoon travels as we went along, but it turns out I was having too much fun relaxing with my husband to worry about posting. So, alas, we're back in the states and I'm going to do my best to recap our honeymoon adventures for you. Lucky for me, my wonderful sister has already written a blog about the 2nd half of our honeymoon, which was spent with her, Rory and River in Germany.  (To read her blog, click here.)  So I'm going to focus primarily on Italy - or more specifically, Tuscany - with a little stop over in Munich on our way there. Note, blogging is a time consuming process, so I will be posting our adventures in stages; to ensure you as many details as possible.  So let's just start with the beginning, shall we?

It all started on the morning of June 6, when we drove up to DC to catch our plane to Frankfurt. Nothing too exciting to report about the plane ride, so we'll just skip over that part. Once we got into Frankfurt, we jump on a train - or 3 trains - to get to Munich. You can get to Munich from Frankfurt in about 2 hours, if you want to spend 4 times the cost to take the ICE train. We decided to save our money and take the regional train, which ultimately took 6 hours. This was Ryan's first train ride, though, so we wanted to enjoy every minute! And we did! The hardest part was trying to stay awake - nothing a little hangman can't cure. :)

When we got to Munich, we were exhausted from the travels and starving, so we headed straight for a beer garden. After enjoying some delicious brawts and wheat beer at Seehaus, we walked through the lovely Englischer Garden and watched locals play "football" in their underwear and try to balance on their slack-lines. The park was awesome and clearly a favorite hangout for locals.  Ryan and I would have gladly laid on the grass and taken a nap along with the others, had time permitted, but we had to trek on.  Working our way back to town, we took a quick look at the Residenz and the Hofbrauhaus, on our way to the Marienplatz and Glockenspiel.  This was a very quick trip through Munich - only about 4 hours - so I'm sure there are many other wonderful things about the city that we missed, but it turned out to be a perfect amount of time for us with the onset of jetlag.

Try to refrain from making jokes...

His first German beer.  I'm pretty sure Ryan's been waiting for this moment his whole life.

Everyone enjoys a beer garden!

Apparently there's a new fad in Europe of locking padlocks with couples' names, etc, on them to bridge gates and fences.  There were hundreds of them, and we didn't just see them in Munich!  Ryan and I wanted to get a lock for us, since it was our honeymoon, but we never did it.  Boo.

Glockenspeil

Marienplatz

By this time, we needed to start heading back to the train station to catch our train. Munich was loads of fun, but by this point, we were ready to crash, and even the claustrophobic sleeping cabins looked heavenly to us. Before we knew it, we were waking up in Italy...

When we got to Florence, we checked our bags at the train station and headed out for some breakfast.  Not knowing exactly where to go, we followed signs to the Duomo, which is essentially the town center.  However, when we got there and stepped into a cafe on the piazza corner we noticed that a cup of tea cost 7 euros!  We knew that eating out in major Italian cities could be expensive, but this was ridiculous!  So we decided to get away from the tourist trap we were currently in and venture deeper into town.  When we walked into a cute little cafe that was playing Me and Mrs. Jones (the final song played at our wedding by my wonderful uncle Bruce), we knew we were in the right place.  And we got a coffee, a tea, and 3 pastries for 4,30 euros!  Take that, tourist trap!

Once we were fueled up, we started our adventure around town.  Neither one of us was interested in spending our time in museums and instead preferred to walk around and get a feel for the city.  Well walk around we did!  In fact, we did so much walking on our trip that my beloved cowboy boots actually have holes in the soles!  Since we were already familiar with the area, we started out at the Duomo, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore.  Those Europeans really know a thing or two about awe inspiring architecture!

We didn't go into the main part of the Duomo, but did decide to climb the 436 stairs up the dome for an amazing view of this gorgeous Tuscan city! 

Found some other honeymooners to take our photo for us.  :)

The rest of the day in Florence was spent doing lots and LOTS of walking.  We walked through beautiful piazzas, with marble and bronze sculptures.

 

Ryan developed an obsession for brutal sculptures, which you WILL see more of (and Torture Museums, but we'll get back to that later).  Who did I marry? LOL.  (j/k baby.  I love you!)  We walked by quaint little shops with amazing looking desserts and gelato.

We walked to the Ponte Vecchio, which was beautiful on the outside, but filled with jewelry store after jewelry store on the inside.  Boo commercialism.

After crossing the bridge - and not buying any jewelry - we walked all over the other side of Florence.  Up hills.  Down hills. Through walled streets and passed fancy houses...

 

until we finally made our way to Piazzale Michaelangelo, where we enjoyed the view and ate our yummy lunch of salami, cheese and crackers.  (Little did we know that this would become our staple diet for the next several days.)

Our lunch bench.

When we left the Piazzale, it was time for us to head back to the train station to get our bags and then find the rental place to pick up our car.  By this point, my feet were killing me, probably the holes in my boots, and I couldn't wait to get to the villa.  But we almost had a mini disaster when we got to the car rental place.  Our actual pickup time was 9am.  At this point it was 4pm.  Why are we so late, you ask?  Well, when we made the rental reservation, we weren't sure what our plans were and we assumed (you know what they say about assuming) that since our rental was paid for, they would hold the car for us through the day.  Turns out, that's not the case.  When you rent a car with Sixt, they expect you to be there when you say you're going to be there or they give your car away and you still have to pay for it.  Well, after checking my reservation and looking at me and saying, "Nine o'clock, madame.  You're too late!", the woman behind the desk walked out into the garage and left my husband and I looking at each other like, "Now what?"  But then she came back with some keys, a "dirty" car, and the guilt of possibly leaving someone the next day without their rental and sent us on our merry way.  To the people who reserved the car we took... I hope we didn't ruin your travel plans.  Something tells me it all worked out.

Getting out of Florence by car was an adventure all on its own.  For those who have never driven in Italian cities, all I can say is: NEVER take your eyes of the road, there are too many cars, bikes, and people around you to get distracted for even a second; don't assume that because your street has one lane the other drivers will drive as if there is only one lane, they WILL pass you on both sides; and finally, you must be a fast learner, drive like you know what you're doing or you might get run over and will definitely get honked at.  Oh, and make sure you know how to drive a manual.  Luckily for us, the woman at the car rental place gave us some helpful directions on how to get out of town to the superstrada, and before long, I somehow got us safely out of the Florence madness and on our way to the beautiful hills of Tuscany. 

For more on our honeymoon adventures, stayed tuned! I'll try to get everything written throughout the weekend.  Big hugs and love to all of you!

xoxo,
Mr. and Mrs. Jones

p.s. For those of you who didn't make it to the wedding, my sister also wrote a sweet little blog about that.  Check it out here!