Mediterranean cruise and European adventure - Day 16 - Travel and Final Thoughts

Travel Home, Final Thoughts, and Recommendations

It was a little funny being in the same city as Roger but across town at different hotels. He was over by Victoria Station near where we had stayed on the first leg of our journey and was feeling better but not completely well. He had some anti-nausea pills from the doctor he visited and that helped him quite a bit.

Emmaline and I got up and had a quick breakfast in our hotel. It was very basic with some croissants, toast, fruit, granola, juices and coffee, but at £5 it was a good deal. From there I decided we would get a cab back over to the entrance to St. Pancras station. The walk was only about 10-15 minutes, but the morning was chilly, Emmaline was tired and I knew I’d be pulling both suitcases. I was left with cash I didn’t feel like messing with changing back anyway and decided it was worth the £10 to just take the cab over there.



I had looked at the schedules online and I thought there was a 7:20 train, but when we arrived at 7:10, there was only a 7:40 train listed and we had just missed the 7:10 train. So we waited at the station 30 minutes for a Thameslink train to Gatwick.

We arrived at the airport, checked in, met up with Roger, grabbed some snacks with the last £10 bill I had and then proceeded to board. The flight home felt like it went relatively quickly. I watched a movie (an obviously heavily edited “Shape of Water”) and a couple of TV shows (Paul Hollywood City Bakes and a David Attenborough documentary about bioluminescence) and all three things were excellent. I also wrote my trip report and a business plan for my new endeavor as a fitness trainer. Emmaline watched movies and TV shows and played some games. Roger watched some stuff and listened to some music, I think, and relaxed. The food, I thought, was better than the flight out and I was actually really surprised how quickly the time went.

In the end, we were very pleased with our experience on Norwegian and I would definitely fly them again. The price was very reasonable - the flight in Premiere Class being the same price as a coach ticket on British Airways (and included two meals and two bags for each of us). The extra legroom and seat recline was definitely worth it, especially on the way out so we could rest.

It’s interesting that we ended up in London primarily because it was easiest to make that our point of entry/exit from Europe but in the end, I’m so glad we went there for several reasons. First, it was very nice just to have one long flight that first day. I really feel like we were fresh and ready for action quicker than we might otherwise have been if we had to have a layover and then another flight later in the day to Barcelona. Same with coming home - it went really quickly.

Now, obviously we incurred some extra expenses, so it definitely was not cheaper this way. Our transportation around London was much much more than I budgeted for (train tickets to/from the airport are not cheap and were the biggest portion) and food in London was fairly expensive. I did get some good deals on hotels, with the exception of the hotel Roger ended up staying in for his extra two days that he stayed due to illness: it was ridiculous, but it was all I could find last minute that wasn’t too far away for him. Hopefully our trip insurance will be picking up the tab (along with the change fee from Norwegian, which wasn’t horrible, but still an extra expense).

But the extra expense aside, we had a great time in London. We loved the Tower of London and the Harry Potter experience was also amazing. Roger enjoyed his time at the Imperial War Museum as well. I would love to go back there and spend more time and perhaps venture further out in the UK as well.

We also enjoyed visiting Barcelona. I was much more impressed with the work of Gaudi than I anticipated I would be. There are a few other things we would have liked to do there (Monserrat and Montjuic being two of them) if we had had more time, but I’m happy with the things we selected. I’m particularly glad we went on our little walking tour. It was a lot of fun exploring on our own.

The cruise was fabulous. We love cruising with Disney and always have a great time. We made some great new friends and I loved being back on the Magic. The new restaurant, Rapunzel’s Royal Table is fabulous and we had a lot of fun there! Though, Roger and I both commented that we felt the food overall wasn’t quite as good as past cruises. I’m not sure why or what was up with that. I know that if I hadn’t had my Indian dish every night I might not have been satisfied. I wasn’t as into some of our non-rotational menus and we were bummed that there were no “regional inspirations” like we had in Alaska two summers ago. Those dishes were always some of our favorite ones.

Our time in Rome was so lovely and I’m really glad we had a point to point cruise (or in the cruise industry they call it a “repositioning cruise” no matter if they are actually trying to reposition the ship or not). Even though we had been to Rome, it’s been many years—we were there in 2005—so things are always changing and there are always more things to see.

Of our cruise excursions, we all agree that our private tour out of Marseille into Provence was a highlight of our trip. We also quite enjoyed seeing Herculaneum in Naples.

Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome was definitely a highlight of the trip for me. Uncrowded but riddled with history, it’s quite an underrated attraction. I’m also glad we did the Colosseum with a tour this time. We learned so much and our guide was fantastic. The Underground portion is much hyped and it was fun, but honestly, not critical. Just being in the Colosseum is amazing.

Finally, there is Geneva. What an amazing city. I can definitely appreciate why Dru lives there. The city was clean and modern, but with history all around as well. The lake and mountains are gorgeous and the people were some of the friendliest that I encountered in all our travels. It was so wonderful to see where Dru lived and meet her husband but I wish we had arranged more time in Geneva. There was so much more to see. We will definitely have to make the time to get back there.

All in all and Roger’s illness being the exception, obviously, we had a fantastic trip. I’m so glad we went and I think Emmaline had a lot of fun and learned a great deal too. I think her age (9 going on 10) was the perfect age for the history and culture of the region. Though, at some points, especially near the end, she started to get what I dubbed “old building burnout.” The Mission books definitely helped to keep her interest. If traveling to Europe again, I will definitely seek them out and if they don’t exist for the city in question, I would for sure try to make up my own scavenger hunt using the internet as a guide for some research. I love research and planning almost as much as actually taking the trip so it wouldn’t be a hardship.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our travels. If you have any questions or you’re planning a similar journey, I’m more than happy to answer questions or provide recommendations for places we stayed, things we did or food we enjoyed. ¡Adios! Au revoir! Ciao!


Recommended Lodgings, Restaurants and Treats

In the event you’re planning a trip such as this, I’m going to list links and very quick review of the places we stayed and excursions we took. I’ve also included a couple of restaurant and treat recommendations for some of our favorite places.

London
Premier Inn London Victoria - Basic but clean hotel about 10 minutes from Victoria Station. Our family room was set up with Queen and Twin beds next to each other. Breakfast was an extra charge, but it was reasonable (for London) and a wide variety of tasty options.

Giraffe - Our favorite little casual restaurant in London. There are several locations and we ate at a two of them and both were great. Really good for kids.

Hub Premier Inn London King’s Cross - Tiny little room, but just fine for two people. Very clean and modern with a really cheap but limited breakfast. However, what they did have was very good. Very close to King’s Cross, St. Pancras and Euston Station.

The Belgrave (Pimlico) London - Tiny room that worked well for one person, though likely has 2-person rooms as well. Clean, modern, nice bathroom. Grocery and plenty of restaurants nearby. A bit far from Victoria Station if hauling a lot of luggage, but there’s a bus stop just a few feet away that was helpful going back to the station.

Barcelona
H10 Universitat - Clean and comfortable family room. When we arrived the sofa bed was already made up and ready. The other room had a king size bed. There was plenty of storage and even a little balcony. It was close to a metro stop and the Aerobus (airport transfer bus) line.

Teleferic Restaurant - We enjoyed our dinner here. I thought the food was tasty and reasonably priced. They had both tapas and a regular menu to please all appetites.

La Pastisseria - We had incredible pastries at this little shop around the corner from Teleferic.

Marseille
Be A Guest Tours - One of our favorite days of the cruise and one of our top excursions. We had a lovely day with Cedric. His custom tour was so much fun!

Nice
La Femme du Boulanger - One of my favorite meals the whole trip. Basically toast with stuff on top and a side salad, but mine with mushrooms, some kind of cheesy sauce and sun-dried tomatoes blew my mind.

Genoa
Gelateria Profumo - We all agreed that this was probably the best gelato we had the whole trip.

Florence
Gusta Pizza - Incredible pizza in Florence. Not much in the way of atmosphere, there are only 7 different options on the menu, and the line was out the door, but really delicious. Cash only!

Naples
Pompeiin - Our tour guide was so passionate about the ancient Romans. We had a fantastic day with her in Pompeii and Naples.

Rome
AirBnB in Rome - The location was fantastic, about partway between a metro stop and a bus stop that went pretty much anywhere we needed, there were lots of restaurants and a small grocery store and the Colosseum could be seen right out the window. Our host was great and it was nice to each have our own room.




Ristorante Tema - We found this restaurant when we were in Rome in 2005, ate their twice and knew we had to come back. It didn’t disappoint. Everyone enjoyed their meal quite a bit.

And in case you want to see all the research I did prior to our visit, I have a huge Google map with restaurants, treats, wine shops, attractions, hotels, public transit stops and more. We didn't visit all of these places, but all of the restaurants noted on the map are marked "kid friendly" (on Yelp).