join the johnson journey: kickin it with the kings!

During the first weekend of October my best friend Leigh Anne from Georgia came to visit us with her husband, Will. They came to Hamburg first for a few days over the weekend! On Saturday we just walked around for a bit near the Rathaus and the Alster lake then we took them to Hofbrauhaus with a bunch of our friends. It was so fun taking them around at night around Hamburg. They got to meet all our friends in Hammy & I really enjoyed showing them our city. On Sunday we woke up late and went to Altes Madchen. Then we headed around to the Harbour even though it was a drizzly day. It ended up clearing up a bit and the sky was absolutely gorgeous over the Elbphilharmonie! After we finished up walking around we grabbed an amazing dinner at the Portuguese restaurant that we love so much. A top notch day with top notch friends!

hanging with my pals in hammy!

checking out the Elbe tunnel

hamburg meine Perle

On Monday, Leigh Anne and William headed to Rome and we stayed back in Hamburg. Then on Thursday morning we met up with them in Naples, Italy. We started the mini-trip off with some amazing pizza. We then headed up to the top of the hill to check out the medieval fortress! Leigh Anne got roped into chatting with some Italian dude who was trying to sell all of us stuff. However, I will say that the cameos were gorgeous (and handmade) and Leigh Anne bought one!! From up top of Naples, the views were unreal and we snapped some selfies in front of Mt. Vesuvius! We headed back down the hill and went to see the veiled Christ sculpture. Unfortunately you cannot take pictures of it so you'll have to take my word that it is worth checking out. There is another statue in the same small church that is of a fisherman with this net and it is SOOOO detailed and awesome!!! I even liked this sculpture more than the veiled Christ one. After we walked around for a bit more, we went to grab some drinks at a craft beer pub then out to eat... for...more...pizza :) I swear we ate more pizza on this trip than should be humanly possible.

speckly... but the Alps! <3

pizza #1

a straight road in the middle of a huge city

my bestie for life

On Friday we woke up bright and early and headed to the beginning of the trail to walk on the Amalfi coast. It was so much fun to spend a few hours outside walking around and seeing the gorgeous Mediterranean Sea (in the sixth country!) Well.... it was more than a few hours. Our feet were really hurting by the end. We were tempted to take a bus back but sucked it up and kept on walking! The scenery was never-ending and just plain beautiful. We made it to Positano in the early afternoon, and ate some yummy food. Then we grabbed a bus to the actual city of Amalfi. In Amalfi we checked out the dock on the sea and took some more amazing pictures of the sun setting and then well... we ate more pizza, hehe. :) We went into a church in Amalfi that was very pretty as well. After dinner we headed back to Naples to catch zzz's because it has been a long day.

the color of this water...

holding hands and taking on the world...

so dysfunctional !

positano

beautiful amalfi

On Saturday morning we headed straight to Pompeii and to meet up with our tour guide Marco. Marco was great!! Full of facts and a passion for history. He is an archeologist by trade and enjoys sharing all his knowledge with others. We found him through a company called Pompeii and Almalfi Coast Tours and I would definitely recommend using him if you want a professional guide! We spent a few hours with him checking out all the nooks & crannies of Pompeii. Then once we wrapped up our tour we decided to keep discovering it ourselves for a while. We then headed to Sorrento for the rest of the day. We got some yummy food overlooking the water and had to get some gelato one more time. After we finished eating we headed back to Naples. We went back to our favorite craft beer spot and enjoyed our last few hours together. It was so so much fun to hang out with our friends in Europe and have such an amazing traveling experience together.

On Sunday morning, Leigh Anne and William headed back to Georgia! So sad :(. Nick and I slept in a bit and then we headed to climb up Mt. Vesuvius. We took these army-type cars most of the way up and then hiked the last bit. It was through a company called Busvia del Vesuvio and I would highly recommend using them as it saves a lot of time and effort if you do not want to hike the entire thing. You literally could see down into the crater and the views out to the sea were also incredible. I was not ready to leave Italy but alas it was time to head back to Hamburg. And then back to work on Monday morning. It was fun to see this part of Italy as I had not before except for Pompeii and it was many a year ago.