Our final destination on our European vacation was Barcelona, Spain. It took us 7 hours to drive from Nice, France to Barcelona but we all survived. It was also nice to have a really cool hotel room waiting for us…after we found it. The only down side to our hotel was that it was off a main road and Barcelona vs. Madrid in the Champion League was happening during our stay so we didn’t get much sleep.

Barcelona has some really crazy cool buildings. Antoni Gaudi was the architect for many of the Dr.Suess looking buildings.

La Sagrada Familia ... still 30 years away from being completely finish

Casa Batlló aka. House of Bones

This was how we saw Barcelona. With really only one day there and with kids, this was the best option

After 2 weeks in Europe, this is what the Farley boys looked like!

We had a wonderful time seeing another part of the world and being together with family. And luckily we didn’t kill each other or get into any accidents.

More photos of Barcelona

Another famous area on the French Riviera…Cannes. We walked from our hotel in Nice to the train station where we then took a train to Cannes. The kids really enjoyed riding the train and kept switching seats…good thing it wasn’t crowded.

When we got to Cannes we headed towards the beach so we could walk along the Promenade de la Croisette. More specifically we went to the Carlton Hotel.

350 - 5,000 EUROS for the night

Another thing that Cannes is famous for is the International Film Festival…so that was our next stop.

Cannes International Film Festival located behind us...we were there a month too soon

And the last thing that we really wanted to see in Cannes was The Île Sainte-Marguerite. The island is most famous for its fortress prison (the Fort Royal), in which the so-called Man in the Iron Mask was held in the 17th century.

The island is approximately 3km in length (East to West) and 900m across.

Museum of the Sea & prison where the man of the iron mask was held

And to finish our time in Cannes we walked around and enjoyed the scenery and sights.

Sandy beaches in Cannes...and this sand sculpture was pretty cool

Jedi Master Kalani

More photos of Cannes

We stayed at a Hotel in Nice, near the French Riviera for 3 nights. Again, the French Riviera was a place that I had heard about, but never thought that I would visit. We spent a whole day just enjoying Nice and it was nice!

Seafront of the city

A park above the city with cool features and a playground for the kids

War Memorial

We rode this train to see the sights and hear information about Nice...and no one had to carry a sleeping child

These two brave the cold and got in the water...they stayed there for a couple of hours

No sand to bury his sister in...so he used rocks (the only thing on the shores of Nice)

More photos of Nice

After church in Italy, we loaded up the car and drove towards Nice, France. On the way we stopped at Monaco…”a Sunny Place for Shady People!” Monaco’s total area is 2.05 km2 (0.79 sq mi) and is famous for Monte Carlo Casino and The Grand Prix. We had a great time visiting the Monaco Oceanographic Museum (Jacques Cousteau’s Aquarium) and walking around the streets.

Monte Carlo...where some 35,000 people live

Grand Prix: one of the most important and prestigious automobile races in the world

The Oceanographic Museum in Monaco rises from the cliff side rock

Many personal items of Jacques Cousteau

Palace guard marching to his new location

More photos of Monaco

We wanted to see as much of Europe as we could possibly do in 2 weeks with 1 car, 4 adults and 2 kids. So, we made the 5 hour drive from Zurich, Switzerland to Genoa, Italy. And interested thing to point out is that we paid 40 Swiss franc to enter that country, but never had to pay tolls on the highways. Once we entered Italy and drove through France and Spain we had to pay tolls again…and boy did we pay a lot in tolls since we drove everywhere!

Italy was a bit different for us since none of us speak Italian. We had French and Spanish covered, but couldn’t communicate with the Italians in their own language. Luckily between speaking French, Spanish, English or our own form of charades we were able to survive for the 24 hours we were in Italy.

We stayed at a pretty cool hotel in the heart of the city of Genoa. My favorite part of the hotel was that they had a kids room set up so Mason and Kalani could act like kids and play with toys. I wish more hotels would have something like that.

Kids being kids at the hotel

Famous elevator in Italy because it goes both horizontal and vertical ... think Willy Wonka

Castello d'Albertis

City of Genoa, Italy

1 pizza fed 1 person. Can't go to Italy without having PIZZA and it was yummy!

Gelato for dessert...YUM

Another fun adventure in Italy was attending church on Easter Sunday. The LDS ward in Genoa has rented out a floor of an office building. We met wonderful people who spoke English, Spanish and French. With my Spanish background I could understand about 50-60% of the things being said. It is so nice to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because no matter where you go in the world, the other members of the church have the same beliefs and standards and the gospel is the same.

More photos of Italy