Christmas Trip 2014 (part 7): Genoa and Home

December 30th was the end of the cruise and we docked back in Genoa. We didn't want to be rushed trying to catch a flight the same day we disembarked so we booked a hotel for the night. It was a pretty quick and easy disembarkation process and we were able to get a cab to our hotel pretty quickly. We arrived at the hotel prior to check-in time and since our room wasn't ready reception held our luggage and we went to find lunch and do some exploring. It was very cold!

Motorcycle and mopeds were everywhere. This is how they parked!

Home of Christopher Columbus

Home of Christopher Columbus

BEST CALZONE EVER!!

This "red line" led us right back to our hotel!

December 31st we flew from Genoa to Istanbul. Since we had a 27 hour layover we got a hotel in hopes of ringing in the new year in comfort. While the hotel was quite comfortable the weather was NOT. It was cold and rainy. We stayed up until midnight and went up to the hotel balcony and watched about 2 minutes of fireworks before we froze and called it a year/night!

Statue of Christopher Columbus on the way to the airport in Genoa

Hubby as Santa in the airport in Genoa

You can't really see them but this is a picture of the fireworks for New Year's

Yummy food we found in Istanbul

January 1st we flew from Istanbul to Abu Dhabi and stayed 1 day with friends. Then hubby took me back to the airport so I could fly back to the US to pick up the kids. Because of the weather in Abu Dhabi we were delayed in our take off. Then because of the delay the flight crew couldn't legally fly the entire way to London so we had to land in Vienna and wait (5 hours) for a new flight crew to arrive. Because of this I missed my flight out of London to Phoenix and I had to spend the night in London. Normally this is not a big deal but there wasn't time to enjoy London and I missed my kids! I finally made it to Phoenix 26 hours late but safe and sound. I spent a couple days enjoying Arizona and then the kids and I headed home. Gratefully it was an uneventful trip home with the kids!