We decided to do this trip last year. It has always been one of my dream vacations and I realized that rather than just dreaming about it, that we should just do it. I looked into it and it was much more reasonable than I expected, so we booked it about ten months in advance. While in Europe, we decided to take advantage of being in the area and visited Lars' family in Sweden, and Morocco. This made it so that I have now been to six continents and Lars has been to five. It also means that together, we have been to five continents. So I think this officially makes us world travelers! Here's what we did on our 12 day cruise and our 20 day vacation.
Day 1: We flew to Sweden and due to the time change it took us until mid of day 2 to get there.
Day 2: We got to Sweden in the afternoon. We had this amazing pizza for dinner. It had shrimp and ham on it and oh man, I was super loving it. Plus, it was great to catch up with Lars' cousin and her family. We talked to them about Brexit, our election, and we talked about some of the differences in benefits between US, Sweden, and a handful of other countries as well. It was so great to catch up with them and chat!
Day 4: Today we relaxed in the morning (and got a few bracelets made for us!) and then went to Gothenburg during the day with Lars' cousin's husband. It was raining and a bit chilly but we were told that it was typical Fall weather and that we got Summer weather at the beach and Fall weather in the city. Once we got back, I was exhausted and napped while Lars went to see Morfar, his grandpa. He was doing really well and Lars was glad he got to visit him for a few minutes.
In the evening, Lars' cousin showed us how to make meatballs. We made sure to write down everything so we could make Swedish meatballs on our own. It was so good and it was so nice of his cousin to show us her family recipe so we could learn. We then went to Lars' aunt and uncle's place (which was right next door) and chatted with them. After a bit, we went back to his cousin's place and talked with them until late at night. We had a great time!
Day 5: Today we flew from Gothenburg to Barcelona, Spain. We got to Barcelona in the afternoon, figured out how to get to the place we were staying, and checked into our airbnb. We then went out exploring. We were staying about a two minute walk from La Rambla so we walked up and down that area and explored places nearby as well. One of the places we found was the Gothic Cathedral.
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| Us at the Gothic Cathedral |
After our walk, we headed back to our airbnb. It's also important to note at this time that before we left, we bought a small data package for both of our phones with the primary purpose being email communication with tours, and Pokemon Go. We both really wanted to catch the regional pokemon for Europe. Later that day, we did. We may have been running along La Rambla to get it, and I may have embarrassed Lars with my squeals of delight when I caught mine. What can I say, we were excited! We were hoping to catch it quickly and we did. We went to sleep very happy with our day.
Day 6: While this was day 6 of our trip, it is also day 1 of our 12 day cruise. We went and grabbed lunch at the local market, then made the mistake of trying to walk to the pier. We thought it wasn't that far away. But it was. It took us about an hour (with a few breaks) to walk from our airbnb to the pier where our cruise left from. But once we got to the pier, it was smooth sailing!
We got right on the ship, went to our room, dropped off our things, and went exploring! There were 13 levels on the ship, which was named Brilliance of the Seas. (Through Royal Caribbean.) We went to the food level first and snacked on some food as our lunch at the market was okay. We then walked around the ship and saw the casino, the many bars, the theater, the cinema, mini golf area, sports area, arcade, pool, adult pool, kids pool, snack areas, dining rooms, and more.
We then watched the ship leave the port and made our way down to dinner. The food on the cruise was awesome. You can order as many appetizers, entrees, and desserts as you want. They definitely spoiled us. In the main dining room, you are assigned a table with several other people. Our table that night had 5 other people. A family of 4 from New Zealand, and a lady from DC who was gifted this trip from her employer. Our dinner time was 6:30 and we stayed there chatting until 8:30. At this point, Lars wanted to go to a raffle by the shops. We visited the shops and saw what was available and did not win the raffle.
We discovered they were playing 'Beauty and the Beast' by the pool so we got in our swimsuits and watched 'Beauty and the Beast' while in the hot tub. It was so relaxing and fun! Then it was bedtime as we had a busy next couple of days.
Day 7: This was day 2 of our 12 day cruise and our first port. We were in Cannes, France. Lars and I had signed up for a 'Discovering Monaco and Monte Carlo' tour so we had to drive through France to get to Monaco. The drive was gorgeous.
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| View on the drive from Cannes, France to Monaco |
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| Another view from the drive |
Once we got to Monaco, we walked through the gardens a bit to get to the cathedral. This cathedral is where royal events like weddings took place. It is also the place where Princess Grace is buried. We then walked up the road to the palace. Near the palace there was also this great view of almost the whole country. Monaco is the second smallest country in the world (Vatican City is the smallest).
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| Palace |
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| View of Monaco from near the palace |
After the palace, we walked around a bit, ate some lunch, and then headed over to Monte Carlo. We climbed about 200 stairs (okay, not really but in the heat, it felt like 200) and reached the Monte Carlo casino. I wasn't allowed in though because I was wearing flip flops. So we visited another casino nearby and walked around. It was so hot that we stopped by McDonald's to get some bottled water and the worker gave us some ice cream as well.
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| Monte Carlo casino |
We then went back to the ship. We relaxed a bit in our room before heading to dinner. The New Zealand family wasn't there anymore. I found out later it was because dinner was too late for their youngest child. But there was a new couple there, they are from Florida. They are great! We loved them!
After dinner we went to the Headliner Show, The 4 Stations. It was a group of 4 guys singing. It started out a bit slow but it got better. After the show, we went to bed.
Day 8: Day 3 of our cruise and we were in port at La Spezia, Italy. This was right outside of Cinque Terre, which Lars had visited a few years ago with his sister. He loved it and so I was excited to visit as well. We took the train to Cinque Terre and started exploring. It was amazing! Seriously, just look at these pictures!
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| Riomaggiore |
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| Manarola |
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| Manarola |
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| Sooo beautiful! |
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| I love this picture! |
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| Monterosso |
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| Enjoying the beach at Monterosso |
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| Vernazza |
We were able to visit four of the five cities. It was a busy day but it was so great! We went back to the ship at this point and it was a good thing we went back a bit earlier as the train we wanted to take was canceled. So we got back to the ship and relaxed until dinner.
After dinner we went to the show in the theater, 'Now and Forever.' It was a show featuring songs from Broadway musicals. It was really cool to watch and we had a good time.
Day 9: Day 4 of our cruise and we stopped in Rome, Italy. Our first stop was Vatican City. We went to St. Peter's Square and St. Peter's Basilica. They were getting ready for the canonization of Mother Teresa and so it was busy with lots of prep. St. Peter's Basilica was bigger than I expected and had a lot of detail as well.
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| St. Peter's square |
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| Roof of St. Peter's Basilica |
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| More of the St. Peter's Basilica |
After Vatican City, we went to Trevi fountain. While we were there we had some gelato and it was delicious!
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| Trevi fountain |
We then went to lunch and the Roman Forums. It was inspiring to hear about how much happened centuries ago. So many important things happened in markets and among politicians here.
That night, after dinner, we went to the Headliner Show, which featured Justin Everette. He was surprisingly good, we liked it!
Day 10: Day 5 of our cruise and we finally had a day at sea! We took our time getting up and then went to a movie in the cinema. Allegiant was playing. After that, we went to lunch. We then had an appointment to look at our next cruise. We did sign up for another cruise next year. I'd love to go on it but we'll have to see. Afterwards, we wandered around the ship, and relaxed in our room. Margarita Madness, 2 for 1 margaritas, was at 5 so we went to that before dinner. After dinner we saw the Headliner Show, which starred Lindsay Hamilton. She was fun and had so much energy. At this point, she was our favorite show.
Day 11: Day 6 of our cruise and another day at sea. So we relaxed like we had never relaxed before! After breakfast, we hung out on the deck and relaxed in chairs until lunch. We tried to go to the cinema again but it was super crowded every time we went. So for most of the afternoon we hung out in our room and watched tv. After dinner we went to another show. This time it was a Headliner Show called, 'Hector is Magic.' Hector, as I'm sure you can guess, did a magic show and it was surprisingly good! I was worried it would be too cheesy but it was actually pretty amazing!
Day 12: Day 7 of our cruise and we stopped in Athens, Greece. Our first stop was the Acropolis. I was glad we went first thing in the morning as it started getting hotter later on. It was so cool to hear all about the Parthenon. It is currently being restored and will take another 10 years to complete. I would love to go back when it's done.
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| Parthenon |
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| Acropolis |
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| View from the Acropolis |
After the Acropolis, we went to Plaka, which is an older area of the city where there is lots of shopping and restaurants nearby. We went shopping and I got a new purse. Then we had lunch. We got a gyro and it was delicious! We then went to the Acropolis Museum for an hour and learned some more about the Acropolis and the Parthenon in particular.
We had a great time in Athens! Once we got back to the ship, we had time to go see 'Zootopia' before dinner. After dinner we went with our friends we met at our dinner table to the bar and then to the casino. We had so much fun!
Day 13: Day 8 of our cruise and our stop was in Ephesus, Turkey. We took the Ancient Ephesus tour and explored the vast amount of ruins in Ephesus, including the Library of Celsus and the theater. It was such a hot day but it was still fascinating to hear about the history of some of the ancient sites we were visiting. There was so much that we couldn't get to it all but it was really cool to see!
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| Ancient ruins in Ephesus |
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| Ruins with Library of Celsus in the background. |
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| Library of Celsus |
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| Theater |
After the ruins was my least favorite part of the trip. The sales people were really aggressive. We left the ruins and were approached by so many sales people, it was so frustrating. We were also told there was a rug demonstration as part of our tour. It was actually just people trying to sell us expensive rugs. Plus, on the way to the ship, there were so many sales people begging for us to come inside their store. I hated that part and as a result, Turkey wasn't my favorite.
We got back on the ship, took a nap after lunch, and then went on deck to admire the view. We got some pretty good pictures.
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| View from the ship |
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| Enjoying the view! |
We had dinner and after dinner had a few drinks. We then played mini-golf with one of our new friends before going to bed.
We watched the ship leave port and got some great pictures. We also signed up for a specialty restaurant package and tonight was our first night using it. We went to Izumi, a sushi restaurant on board. It was pretty good. The best part was the company (we met up with the couple we made friends with) and the view.
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| View of Fira from the ship |
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| Sunset |
Day 15: Day 10 of the cruise and we had a day at sea. Today we decided to spend time at the pool. So we got up and went straight to the pool because on sea days, the pool gets full fast. We got some great seats and spent about four hours just relaxing by the pool. They had poolside Olympics that we watched and while we made sure we had plenty of sunscreen, we did still get a little burnt. We took an afternoon nap and relaxed until our next specialty restaurant dinner choice, Giovanni's. I had lamb, Lars had steak, and we both loved our choices. After dinner, we had a few drinks and then went back to the casino. Dinner, drinks, and the casino were all with our friends, which made it a lot of fun.
Day 16: Day 11 of our cruise and we were at our last port, Malta. We went to the Blue Grotto in Malta. It is a series of caves with the bluest water you've ever seen. We were lucky enough to get to go on a boat tour of the caves and it did not disappoint!
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| View of the port from our ship |
Afterwards, we went to dinner and then went to the headliner show, 'Grafitti Classics.' It was advertised as a comedy string quartet and it was the best show we went to. The guy playing the cello was hilarious. At one point, a girl got up and he stopped the song and asked where she was going. She said she was going to the bathroom so he said they'd wait for her. Then, while she was gone, he had her row of friends change rows with the opposite side of the theater. So when she came back she was so confused and he was right, they did wait for her. It was hilarious!
We then went to the 'Quest Game Show.' Basically, it was an adult scavenger hunt. We just watched but it was fun to watch what was being asked of the teams and how they got everything accomplished. Some people got very inventive and we were constantly laughing.
Day 17: Day 12 of our cruise and we were at sea. We learned our lesson from spending so much time in the sun so we went to the pool but stayed in the shade. We went to a 'Meet the Management' get together. That's where we learned about why Santorini was so crowded. It was interesting, that's for sure. After that we watched an ice carving demonstration at the pool. One of the chefs grew up learning ice carving and made this beautiful sculpture of an angel fish in about fifteen minutes. It was really impressive. Lars and I then participated in a scavenger hunt. After that, we played bingo and we were so close to winning several times! Oh well, we still had fun. We walked around, ordered some drinks, and were just waiting for it to be dinner time. We had reservations at another specialty restaurant, Chops Grille, with our friends. They are known for their steaks. Lars and I, obviously, had steaks and oh man. It was probably the best steak I've ever had. It was so delicious! After dinner we walked around the ship, loving the ocean air breeze, before heading to bed.
Day 18: Today our cruise got into Barcelona. Our departure time was super early but it was at the same time as our friends, so we left with them and shared a cab. They had a hotel that day so we were able to keep our stuff with theirs at their hotel. We then went to breakfast and then our hop on hop off bus was available. We went on all the routes and saw some amazing views of the city. Most noteworthy though, was La Sagrada Familia. It was so much bigger than I imagined!
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| People for size comparison |
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| It's huge! |
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| And it's not even done yet, they've been working on it for over 100 years |
It was amazing to see this in real life. It completely caught me off guard but I loved it! After our hop on hop off tours, we had lunch and then went to the beach with our friends. I love beaches, they are so nice and relaxing! After the beach, we went to dinner with our friends and the food was amazing! I know before this meal Lars had not been impressed with tapas in Barcelona but this meal changed his mind. The food there was the best food we had while in Barcelona. It was then time to leave as our next flight left at 11:45 pm. So we went to the airport to start our final leg of the trip, Morocco.
Day 19: Our flight to Morocco got in at 1:30 am and we got to our riad around 2:30 am. We were so tired! We went straight to sleep and woke up in time for our private tour at 9:30 am. The tour was so awesome! We learned a lot about Morocco, the culture, religion, food, schools, and more. We also found out that we were there on the day of, 'Feast of the Sacrifice.' It's a day where everything is closed as they slaughter sheep and eat the sheep. It is in commemoration of Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son. It was disappointing that not a lot was open as I was looking forward to visiting the markets. But we did get to visit Medersa Ben Youssef, which is the largest school in Morocco. It was also very detailed and was one of the few places on our trip where we could touch the walls.
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| Medersa |
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| So much detail! |
After the Medersa, we walked around the streets a bit and learned more about Morocco. Our guide said that normally these streets are packed but due to the Feast, they were all empty.
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| Empty street |
But we did see some people who were roasting their sheep's head in the street. We actually saw probably about four or five fires where people were cooking the sheep's head. Our guide said that the streets are for the public and so the fires in the streets were not uncommon.
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| Just roasting some sheep head to eat |
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| More sheep heads cooking |
We really liked the tour! We learned so much! At the end of our tour, our guide showed us the main square and let us know that the square should be more active starting at 6 pm, once people are done with their feasting for the day. We got some freshly squeezed orange juice for about 40 cents each and headed back to our riad.
A riad is different from a hotel in that there is a private square that the rooms face in the middle of the riad. According to google, "A riad is a traditional Moroccan house or palace with an interior garden or courtyard." Our riad had a courtyard in the middle.
After our tour, we went to lunch at one of the two places that we saw was still open. I think that these people knew that tourists wouldn't have sheep to slaughter/eat so they opened for tourists. It was okay. Once we had lunch, we wanted to walk around some more but it was too hot and we were tired from not getting enough sleep. So we went back to our riad and relaxed on the roof until our next tour.
Our next tour was our camel ride. We met up at a location close to our riad and they picked us up in an air conditioned vehicle. I remember reading that in the description and thinking it was odd to advertise that but after experiencing the heat and the limited places with air conditioning, it made sense and was appreciated.
They took us to the outskirts of the city in the Palms Grove. They dressed us in traditional Moroccan clothing in prep for our ride.
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| Dressed for our camel ride |
Next up was the task of getting onto our camels. It was a bit tricky, but it was scary for me once I got on because I realized there were no foot holds or anything, just something to hold onto up front. It took about ten minutes for me to get comfortable riding the camels so any early pics you see are me trying not to panic and to stay on the camel. We rode along the Palms Grove, enjoying the view and commenting on how surreal of an experience it was.
Once they dropped us off, we decided to walk through the square and to get dinner. I didn't feel very good, I think I got a little motion sick from the camel ride, so Lars ordered dinner and I had one bite of his meal. The square was a lot busier at night and it was so cool to see the difference! There were so many vendors selling a wide variety of items, like old shoes, lanterns, fruit, kabobs, jewelry, dresses, watches, and lots more.
Day 20: Our flight back to Barcelona left at 1:10 am. We had a long trip back with way too many layovers and finally got back at 11:30 pm. I don't think Lars and I are young enough to be able to do longer than 24 hours of traveling. With the time difference, it ended up being over 30 hours of traveling. It was rough and it has taken us a few days to recover. But I think we're doing great now and are still relishing what a wonderful vacation we had. We thought it might be too long, but the only thing that was too long was the traveling time it took to get there and to come back.
Overall, it was one of our best trips as we went to some amazing places and met some wonderful people! We are looking forward to doing more cruises in the future!
