Leknes, Lofoten (Pronounced Lowfohtin) Islands, Norway — September 7, 2026

We knew the perfect weather couldn’t possibly last. After all, we were in northwestern Norway where rain and storms are a part of life. Sure enough, we woke up Monday morning to heavy overcast skies. It was dry, but rain was threatening on the horizon.

We had chosen an excursion called “Special Summer Cruise Bus Tour of Lofoten” which we booked directly through the provider, Lofoten Lights. Even though we don’t ordinarily like to book big bus tours, we made an exception in this case because the reviews were absolutely amazing. 

The reviews were correct. The tour was fantastic — we had a great guide and the scenery was incredible, or at least it would have been if it wasn’t for the rain. Unfortunately the weather gets 2 stars, and the behavior of one of our fellow travelers would rate ZERO stars, but a little more about that later.

It had started raining by the time we were ready to disembark, so we loaded up with rain gear and headed ashore. Since Leknes is a tender port and no one in our group met any of the criteria for priority tendering we got off the ship very early and had quite a bit of time to kill once we got ashore. Walking around was no fun because of the weather, but there was a souvenir shop so we managed to pass the extra hour we had allowed to make sure we were on time to meet our tour.

The day’s unnecessary drama started when we tried to board our bus. Unbeknownst to us, quite a few “eager beavers” had gathered in the parking lot so they could be first in line when the buses arrived (we were one of three buses on the day of our tour), and one man (I think it was a man but he acted like a child) was extremely upset that he wasn’t first. A mother-daughter duo boarded first, and took seats in the front row to accommodate the mother’s mobility challenges. The man-child and his wife boarded shortly after them, and we were a few people behind.

When it was our turn to get on the bus we were unable to do so because the unhappy man-child was fighting with the daughter! The two people were blocking the aisle screaming at each other, and the man-child kept trying to get the daughter to move so he could claim the front row!😳 I finally went principal on them and loudly told them to stop being ridiculous and get out of the way! I might or might not have told them their behavior was ridiculous and they needed to grow up.🤷‍♀️

Sadly, as soon as people passed they were right back in the aisle going at each other again. The man just WOULD NOT STOP, and I don’t think the daughter handled it well although she certainly didn’t start the argument or escalate it. The situation was bad enough that I thought about asking to be moved to a different bus, but they finally sat down and that appeared to be where it ended. I think the man-child instigator should have been removed from the tour, or at the very least reassigned to a different bus, but nothing was done.

Anyway, enough of that for now. The man-child and his wife will make a brief second appearance later in the day, but the immediate drama had passed and we were off to see what we could see of the Lofoten Islands amidst the rain, clouds, mist, and overall murky weather.

The Lofoten Islands are an archipelago in northwestern Norway, inside the Arctic Circle. We docked in Leknes, which is in the middle of the chain. There is a highway, the E10, which connects the islands by way of a series of winding roads, tunnels, and bridges, and it was down that road that we set out on our tour.

Road/tunnel/bridge maintenance is almost constant in Norway, and we were told we needed to be mindful of times to be back on the bus, because missing an entry time into a one-way tunnel could mean a very long wait. Our first tunnel transit came shortly after leaving the port, and our timing was pretty good. While we waited our guide pointed out the rorbu, or fisherman’s cabins that line the shore. The cabins can be found throughout coastal Norway, although they are not all used by fishermen. Some of them are now vacation rentals!

Our first major stop was at Flakstad Kirke, a very photogenic wooden church situated on a fjord. The surroundings were very rustic, and almost mysterious in the low clouds and light rain. When we left the church we stopped at the nearby Skagsanden Beach, but by that time it was raining harder so most used it as a restroom break.

We made one stop at a beautiful scenic overlook on our way to Å (pronounced O), a fishing village at the end of Route E10 and our turnaround point. The rain held off for that stop and I was able to get some pictures of the idyllic location.

By the time we got to Å the light rain had become a steady, hard rain, and quite honestly it was miserable. We wandered around the town a little, and our friends grabbed some treats from the outstanding but very crowded bakery, and we headed back to the bus.

Our departure time was 12:00, and we had been told we needed to be prompt to avoid delays later. Sure enough, our man-child fighting friend and his wife showed up about 12:10, keeping all of us waiting and impacting our trip back to the ship later in the afternoon.😡

Our next stop was a town (very appropriately) called Reine, where we had an hour in town and the opportunity to have lunch. Reine is an historic trading post and fishing village thought by many to be the most picturesque village in Norway.

We explored the town, and had lunch at Circle K of all places! Our only other choice was a small bistro, but our guide recommended the Circle K since it was good, reasonably priced, and MUCH faster than the bistro.

On the way back to Leknes we stopped at the Hamnoy Viewpoint, but we had a very brief visit since we were delayed leaving Å and were behind schedule. Unfortunately, even the brief visit was too long. We missed our 2:00 window for the one-way tunnel, so we had to wait about 30 minutes before we could head back to the ship.

I thought the Lofoten Islands were beautiful, but the weather and the aggressive, rude, inconsiderate behavior of the man-child on our bus really impacted our enjoyment of the day. I realize the weather is completely out of anyone’s control, but honestly I thought the fighter should have never been allowed to continue on the tour.

We lucked out back at port and got the last few seats on the waiting tender. We were happy to get back to the warm, dry ship and get ready for dinner at Rudi’s and the Orange Night festivities!

Orange is the national color of the Netherlands because of its historical connection to William of Orange. Orange Night is celebrated once on every HAL cruise to honor the cruise line’s Dutch heritage.

We were looking forward to a relaxing sea day and doing a whole lot of nothing before our last 3 ports of the first part of the cruise.

Harstad, Norway – September 6, 2026

Jim and I had struggled to find something we wanted to do in Harstad. There was one tour we were interested in, but it was booked when I started looking and spaces never opened up. We thought about a boat tour to the fjords, but in the end we decided to just do our own thing. Fortunately, I found Røkenes Gård, a farmhouse/inn/restaurant/golf course a short drive outside of town and made a lunch reservation. https://roekenesgaard.no/en/

Before I talk about lunch, I need to back up a little bit. I always hope for good weather and prepare for bad weather, but nothing could have prepared me for the glorious day we had in Harstad. From sail-in to sail-away the day was spectacular. As a bonus, since we didn’t have an excursion scheduled, we were able to have a lazy morning and get off the ship at our leisure.

We used a taxi to take us to Røkenes Gård and explored a little bit before we went in for lunch.

The lunch menu was limited, but we appreciated that it was authentic and both chose to have reindeer burgers and share a slice of honey crusted cheesecake! I didn’t know what to expect, but both were surprisingly delicious.

After lunch, we called a taxi to take us back to the ship, and took a detour to see the outside of the Trondenes Church. It was very pretty, but there were several buses and many other vehicles in the parking lot and the surroundings looked like someone had kicked over an ant hill.🐜 I was very glad we had done our own thing instead of taking a crowded tour.

We were dropped off in town, and we thought we would find our souvenirs and explore a little before we got back on the ship. That part of our day wasn’t meant to be. Apparently NOTHING is open in Harstad on Sundays, not even grocery stores or drug stores. We spent about 30 minutes walking around admiring the scenery, and then we went back to the ship.

Other than having to order a magnet from Amazon when I got home, our day couldn’t have been better. It was a good reminder that not everything has to be a big production in order to have an enjoyable day in port. We ended our day in Harstad the same way we started it — on the balcony soaking in the phenomenal view and un-Arctic like weather.

We had one more port day before we were going to have a sea day to rest, and we were looking forward to more fantastic weather and scenery in the Lofotin Islands.

We were pretty tired from three days on shore and a lot of exploring, so after dinner we went up to our cabin earlier than usual to relax and get ready for a long day in the Lofoten Islands. Unbeknownst to us, there was a bit of a show in the sky that we would have loved to see. We got our names on the “call at any hour” list the next day, but this was the only Northern Lights sighting on our cruise.

Tromsø –> Kaldfjord –> Ersfjordbotn –> Buren –> Sommerøy and back — September 5, 2026

Mother Nature smiled upon us in Tromso, and we were blessed with brisk (to this Texan) temperatures and partly sunny skies. Since we would have been going to our first college football game of the season if we had been home (where it was 100+ degrees😳) I donned my gameday sweatshirt and earmuffs and posted a photo to let friends and family know what the temperature was where we were. Obnoxious, I know!

We chose a small group tour called “Tromsø Arctic Fjords Adventure Tour with Local Lunch” for our day in Tromsø. We booked the excursion through Viator, and it was provided by Aurora 7 Nordic Adventures. Our tour was in a smallish, comfortable bus, the scenery was stunning, and we had ample time to walk around at each stop. The only disappointing aspect of the day was our guide. He was nice enough, but really didn’t say much and didn’t solicit questions either. The guide’s assistant was more enthusiastic and eager to help.

I don’t know that I would consider it an adventure, but we had a very pleasant day seeing some sights that are unique to the arctic. From fjords to hardy flora to white beaches and turquoise water that looked like it would be at home in the Caribbean, we saw it all.

We passed through tiny villages on hilly, winding roads where we saw almost as many cyclists as cars!

Our first two stops were at scenic areas overlooking fjords where we also saw Arctic flora. Many of the plants in the region are characterized by their low growth and mossy appearance. Plants have to be hardy and resilient to survive in the harsh climate.

Our next stop was the picturesque village of Sommerøy. In a vehicle the only way to reach the village is by crossing a one-way bridge.

We had lunch and some time to explore in Sommerøy. The meal was simple — a very hearty, piping hot chili and homemade bread in a comfortable, rustic dining room at the Sommerøy Arctic Hotel. The hotel is right on the water, and overlooks a cove where we actually saw people swimming!

After lunch we took a very short drive to a nearby beach where we found white sand and turquoise seas! On the way to the beach we saw some quintessential Norway scenes.

Once we were at the beach we had a snack and a hot drink around the fire pit, and about 30 minutes to explore and take it all in.

The ride back to Tromsø was slightly delayed, and I was the cause of the delay. There was ONE bathroom at the beach, and since the ride back to the ship was about an hour and a half I thought I should take advantage of it. Unfortunately there was one “gentleman” (one of the breed of pushy tourists who always has to be first) saving space in line for all his friends, so my wait was pretty long. Additionally, I’m not sure what people were doing in the restroom, because when I got in there I thought it was gross, but it seemed to take people forever!

We made one more stop on the way back to the port, because our guide spotted a reindeer. I didn’t take a picture. The reindeer was a little skittish, and didn’t really care for the people chasing after him waving their selfie-sticks.🙄 I did like the barn in the field though!

We didn’t spend much time on shore once we got back to the port. After all, We had to get ready for the Morimoto Pop-Up dinner in Tamarind, one of our favorites.

We spent some time watching the beautiful sail out, and then even after we were seated for dinner I had to keep going over to the windows to capture the scenery!

Up next — Harstad, Norway, a day without a tour!

Honningsvåg (Pronounced Honningsvogue), Norway — September 4, 2026

Sometime during the day on September 3 we crossed the Arctic Circle. We were now as far north as we had ever been!

We decided to throw caution (and maybe a little common sense!) to the winds and take an ATV tour. We wanted to see the countryside but avoid sitting on a bus. At first, we booked an ATV tour that was 5 hours long, but I was a little apprehensive and honestly in hindsight the two and a half hour tour we took was long enough!

The tour company provided protective clothing and helmets, and after a safety briefing and a quick ATV lesson we were off!

To say the area is remote and rugged would be an understatement. It’s beautiful and majestic in a very raw, almost otherworldly way. The scenery reminded me a little of what I saw in Djupivogur, but the terrain in Iceland was created by volcanic eruptions and Norway’s terrain was carved by glaciers.

After we left Kamøyvær, the terrain became even more rugged and the landscape was dotted with reindeer. We saw both brown and white reindeer. I never knew there were white reindeer! We didn’t stop and the reindeer didn’t either, but I managed to get some pictures.

We made a stop at a scenic overlook and then headed back towards Honningsvåg.

We took a very steep, gravelly, and I thought somewhat treacherous trail up to a spot overlooking the ship and town. I was glad to get back to the paved road!😳

Back in Honningsvåg we spent a few minutes getting souvenirs and headed back to the ship.

Our weather during the ATV tour had been mostly cloudy with some sun peeking through, but by the time we set sail the weather was beautiful. We were out on our balcony and had a hard time with too much sun!

We hadn’t made it all the way to the North Cape (the most northern point in Europe that is accessible by road) on our ATV tour, but we were able to see it from the ship.

Next up — a day in Tromso, our second port north of the Arctic Circle.

Touring Trondheim (Pronounced Tronime), Norway — September 2, 2026

We woke to heavy rain and resigned ourselves to a messy day, but Mother Nature changed her mind and we never got wet…there was not one drop of rain the entire time we were ashore!

We chose a Holland America tour — Trondheim on Foot and by Traditional Wooden Boat, and enjoyed both aspects of the tour. My only complaint would be that we had a few too many people (24) on the tour to always hear clearly, but our guide did a great job of waiting for the group to gather before he started his explanations. I did notice the same people always had to be first — closest to the guide, first to get on the wooden boat — you know the type. We did encounter the “firsties” several times during the trip, but I’ll share more about that later.

The walking part of the tour was first, and our guide met us on the pier just outside the secure area. No buses or vans needed! Trondheim is a beautiful university town, so in some ways (bikes and scooters) we felt right at home, and in others (scenery) we knew we were far away.

Our walk took us down St. Jørgensveita in a very old part of town, to Nidaros Cathedral, and on Gamle Bybro (Old Town Bridge) from which we could see the historic wooden buildings lining the Nidelva River. The colorful buildings were once warehouses and are now mostly housing.

We walked through Torvet, Trondheim’s main square, and admired Stiftsgården – Trondheim’s royal residence from the gardens outside. We were not able to get into the palace because the season was only from June 9-August 16, but because of the death of King Harald it probably would have been closed regardless. We were also not able to enter Nidaros Cathedral when we visited as it was open only to mourners wishing to pay their respects.

A short walk from Stiftsgården brought us to the dock where we boarded the wooden boats for the Nidelva River tour of Trondheim from the water. This was relaxing and enjoyable. At the end of the tour our boat dropped us off right at the ship!

A couple souvenirs and a great Norwegian raincoat later we were back on board relaxing and enjoying the abundant sunshine. Interestingly enough, while we were enjoying the sunshine and views, my phone told me it was raining. We really got lucky. Although there were rain showers all around during our visit, they were all somewhere we were not!

We had a beautiful sail out with rain showers around but not on us, and we went to bed early looking forward to a sea day, a “Behind the Scenes” ship tour, and a Pinnacle Grill dinner on Thursday.

Måløy (Pronounced Molay), Norway — September 1, 2026

Our first port of call for the approximately two and a half weeks we spent in Norway was Måløy, a coastal and fishing town located on the southeastern side of Vågsøy island, Vestland county, Norway. We took a Holland America tour to the fishing village of Kalvåg (pronounced Kalvog), which we reached by bus and ferry. Cora, a retired principal, was our guide for the tour, and he was a fantastic host.

The weather wasn’t what we had hoped for, but it was about what we expected — overcast and drizzly. We armed ourselves with ponchos and umbrellas and we were off to Kalvåg! Luckily, even though we had some intermittent light rain the day certainly wasn’t a washout!

The ferry terminal was very close to the cruise port, so most of our riding time was after the ferry from Måløy. The roads were interesting…narrow, winding, and with MANY places where only one vehicle could pass. I was amazed by how well it worked. The smaller vehicles backed up to the nearest cut-out to let the larger vehicles pass, and there was no confusion or frustration.

Of course, there were some other obstacles that slowed us down a little, but even those obstacles moved out of the way!🐐

Kalvåg is a picturesque fishing village on the island of Frøya. Everything in the small town is very walkable, and there didn’t appear to be many visitors in the town on the day we were there. Our bus load probably tripled the population! There is a small art museum in town that features unique local art/artists, but Jim and I preferred to stay outside. We enjoyed wandering aimlessly to take in the beautiful scenery and enjoy the fresh autumn air.

The bus ride and ferry back to Måløy were somewhat more scenic since the lowest clouds had lifted and the skies were brighter.

We made an additional stop at the tiny island of Husevågøy. The only way to reach the island is by ferry, and the ferry only stops there when the signal is lit to indicate a vehicle needs to board the ferry. Cars traveling to/from the island get free passage on the ferry because it’s the only way to get there.

Back in Måløy we walked around the town and added to our magnet collection, but we didn’t linger too long — port number 1 of 20 had been great, but our goal was to pace ourselves instead of going all out—all day—every day so it was time to go back to the Rotterdam!

I went out on the balcony before bed, and I could still see quite a bit at 11:00. Up next — Trondheim!

Holland America Rotterdam Cabin 7189

I wanted to talk a little bit about our cabin. This was going to be far and away our longest cruise (the previous longest was 12 nights, and the only 2 week cruise we had ever taken got cut short by my ankle injury). I was really stressed out about how we would manage four weeks in about 325 square feet (including the balcony). I was especially worried about storage since we’d need some warmer clothing.

As it happened, all my worrying was for nothing. Our cabin had plenty of storage, and some of the organizational things I brought didn’t even get used. When I start packing I’ll probably ditch them to create extra space and weight for souvenirs!😆

What I did use that I found extremely helpful were a set of six fabric cubes, hanging shelves, a hanging shower caddy, a five pair pants hanger (we could have used two), and lots of strong magnets. The hanging shelves were fantastic, and big enough to hold my hair dryer, flat iron, chargers, paperwork, and other odds and ends.

We moved the life jackets to the drawers under the bed and used that space for cubes with winter gear in them. We had most of the chunky wooden hangers removed and used a combination of our own felt hangers and ship’s wire hangers. I really dislike the wire hangers, but they helped free up a lot of space! By doing that, we were able to fit almost all our hanging clothes, all our shoes, several cubes with folding tops and workout clothes, and a bag for dirty clothes in the closets and we hung our coats on magnetic hooks in the corner of the room. We used the built-in hooks near the closets for our backpacks.

Voila! Just like that we’re on day 26 of 28. We haven’t killed each other, we’ve managed to keep things organized and put away, and there are more long cruises in our future!

P.S. I forgot to mention the absolute best deal at sea — the unlimited laundry package. We’ve sent laundry out pretty much every other day and it’s really helped to keep things neat and organized. The laundry comes back in about 24 hours — cleaned, pressed (if needed) and wrapped in tissue in a basket. We’re looking forward to becoming 4 Star Mariners so the laundry will be included, but for now $10/day is a bargain!!!

Rotterdam, NL — August 28-30, 2026

We were determined to do a better job of managing our time and jet lag on this trip, so we had booked a couple shorter tours and decided we’d fill in the gaps as we saw fit once we were in Rotterdam.

I woke up predictably early on Friday, and enjoyed the quiet and coffee in the M Club Lounge. We had made loose plans to go to Delft, but when we learned the Delft train line was down for maintenance we switched gears and spent a couple relaxing hours walking around Gouda (pronounced Howdah). Unfortunately it was so early in the day nothing was open, but it was pleasant walking around and enjoying the cooler weather. Rain was threatening, but held off during our time in Gouda.

We got back to Rotterdam with time to relax a while before our afternoon walking tour to Rotterdam’s most photogenic spots. The tour was at 2:00 for an hour and a half, and as luck would have it it started raining hard at 2:00 and the rain lasted about an hour and a half. I’m not going to share too many pictures because we saw many of the same things on Saturday in brilliant sunshine! The most photogenic spots looked much better in the Saturday sunshine than they did during Friday’s downpour!

We lucked into a fantastic Italian restaurant for dinner. It was just across the street from our hotel and next to the train station. It definitely wasn’t in a location where you’d ordinarily expect to find a great restaurant, but this was everything we love — small, authentic, family-owned, and very popular with the locals. We were lucky to get a table, and we had to share or we wouldn’t have been able to eat there at all.

The weather Saturday started out perfect — It was cool and sunny with brilliant, bright blue skies. We took a food tour through Eat Your Way Around and had a fantastic time eating our way around Rotterdam with our guide Fee (Fay). We started at the Food Hall with Bitterballen, then had Japanese Pancakes, Surinamese soup and plantains, and finally ended with Kibbeling. In between stops we got to see all the sights that had been obscured by rain the day before!

The food tour was great, but unfortunately that was the only part of our day that went according to plan. We cancelled our dinner reservations on the other side of town from the Marriott because of the forecast, and we ended up being glad we did because once the rain and wind moved in it was awful! Dinner at the hotel wouldn’t have been my first choice for the evening, but it was dry and convenient so that was the winner!

We woke up to continuing rain on Sunday morning, so we were leisurely about packing up and getting ready to leave for the ship and our home away from home for the next four weeks.

Bryan to Rotterdam — August 26-August 27, 2026

This trip seemed like it was a long time coming, even though it wasn’t as long a wait as it might have been if the A&M Football schedule hadn’t intervened and thrown a wrench in our plans.

On our last day on the Nieuw Statendam last August Jim wheeled me down to the future cruise desk and we booked a 4 week cruise on the same ship — to north of the Arctic Circle followed by Spain and Portugal, I was a little hesitant about the lack of daylight we’d have in November, but I thought it would be good for chances to see the Northern Lights so we booked it. I also realized we’d never been away for that long — heck, we hadn’t even made it through a two week cruise, but staying longer given the current price of international air travel seemed like a smart approach, so we decided to give it a shot!

A couple months later, while I was still recuperating from my ankle surgery the 2026 football schedule came out. There were three games we wanted to attend in November, and we knew the games in September would be beyond hot, so we switched the cruise to the Rotterdam in September — 2 weeks to Norway and the Arctic Circle and then 2 weeks in the Baltics. As a bonus, friends we met on a cruise 10 years ago were on the first leg the trip, and we thought it would be nice to spend time with them again.

We flew to Amsterdam on August 26 on KLM — we booked early and their pricing was considerably better than United’s. The flight was fine — nothing memorable but nothing really wrong either. We just couldn’t get comfortable and neither of us slept at all on the way over.

Much to our surprise, we were through passport control and had our bags only 15 minutes after we got off the plane!😳 We were so unexpectedly early that our ride service had to reassign our driver. It was the exact opposite of last year’s multi-hour fiasco! We found out one reason it was so fast was Schiphol had suspended the use of the EES Kiosks through September 1 to improve wait times, but now that the machines are in use again the waits are back at 2 hours! Just my opinion, but that is NOT an effective use of technology!

We stayed at the Rotterdam Marriott in a Junior Suite. It was a very nice hotel with a spacious room, a fantastic M Club with a great coffee machine, and a terrible shower. I liked the location right across from Centraal Station and we were able to walk or take the tram to get around town easily.

We didn’t do much the first day. We walked around and did a little toiletry shopping (I had decided to buy full bottles abroad instead of trying to take enough for over a month), and grabbed lunch in the hotel. By the time we finished lunch our room was ready, and we thankfully went up and collapsed for a while.

We walked a little way from the hotel for a great dinner at Bertman’s then went back to the hotel to attempt to get some sleep knowing we’d be awake way too early.

COSTA BRAVA, PALS, AND GIRONA, SPAIN — MAY 16, 2026

What an excellent decision we made when we decided to take a road trip for our last full day in Spain! The tour, our guide, and the locations we visited were fantastic. We booked a day trip with Spanish Trails. It was even better than we expected, and we expected a lot! Our guide, Anthony shared a wealth of knowledge about the area and its culture, history, food, and art. We couldn’t have asked for a better guide!

We were picked up early Saturday morning and drove about an hour and 45 minutes northeast to the coastal town of Calella de Palafuegell. We saw white houses, restaurants, and hotels lining the cliffs overlooking the impossibly blue Mediterranean, and colorful flowers were blooming everywhere. The tranquil white and blue background with an abundance of bright colors created an idyllic scene way beyond what I imagined we would see that day. It didn’t hurt that the weather was perfect — clear blue skies and warm but not hot temperatures made walking and exploring pleasant.

After about an hour in Calella de Palafuegell we walked to Llafranc by following the coastal trail. This was a great way to get from one town to the next, although there were some pretty significant elevation changes.

Our next stop was the village of Pals, a beautiful Medieval hilltop town about 20 minutes from Llafranc. We walked the cobbled streets and explored the village before lunch.

We had lunch at a local restaurant, Antic Casino. They are known for their paella/rice dishes, and it was a very popular, very busy spot.

It was about 1:30 when we got to the restaurant, so we were definitely on Spanish time! The late lunch would come into play later, but at the time it was fine. I was ready to get off my feet for a while, and we were able to sit outside to enjoy the gorgeous day.

The drive to Girona took about 50 minutes and took place under increasingly dark clouds. By the time we got to Girona it was cold, windy, spitting rain, and we encountered wall-to-wall people! We discovered it was the weekend of the annual Flower Festival, and it seemed as if everyone within a 100 mile radius had descended on Girona!

Anthony dropped us off near the bridge to town while he searched (in vain) for a place to park. He never found a spot. Jim and I walked around for a while, but it was crowded and cold, so we lost our enthusiasm pretty quickly. We called Anthony and told him we were willing to call it a day.

So…Girona was the main reason I booked the tour, and it ended up being the only part of the day we didn’t enjoy. I think that had more to do with circumstances than Girona itself, but nevertheless we were kind of relieved to head back to Barcelona. We had a fantastic time, but a long travel day was up next, and we still had to repack and make sense of everything that was haphazardly thrown in our suitcases the night before we got off the ship.

I know Anthony felt terrible, and he offered other things we could go see, but we honestly didn’t think it was necessary. Our day was terrific, even without really seeing Girona. Besides, it will give us a reason to return.😆

We were tired and still full when we got back to Barcelona, so we cancelled our dinner reservations (or tried to), got snacks from the little terrace bar, and spent the evening lounging once we had the suitcases taken of. It had been a great trip, but like all vacations, once it was over I was ready to get home. After all, we would be leaving again in just over three months, and I had some planning to do!