Trip Report Our 19-Day Mediterranean Adventure – Greece, Turkey and the Search for Free Wifi

Finally, right? It seems like I’ve been waiting forever to start this, but really we’ve only been back three weeks! And in that time I’ve lived in a hotel for two weeks and driven across the country from Washington DC to our new home in...wait for it...Las Vegas! For some reason I have chosen now, surrounded by boxes that need to be unpacked, as the time to start my trip report. Stalling maybe? :D So here it goes!

What: A massive 19 day (13 days on the cruise with 6 more including travel time and extra days in Europe) trip extravaganza. A 12 night Mediterranean cruise with a day in London beforehand and a few days in London and Barcelona afterwards. So yes. This is going to be a long stinking trip report. Oh, and I took 5239 pictures. On my camera! That doesn’t even count the Instagram/iphone photos you’ll see scattered throughout the report.

Great day in the morning.

Why: Because cruises are awesome mostly. But also because I was able to do a last-minute 11 night Med cruise back in April of 2010 with my daughter and some other family and friends, so this was a makeup cruise for my son and husband. It worked nicely as a graduation trip/present. :)

When: June 13-July 1, 2013

I booked this cruise the day it came out, back in January of 2012.

As time got closer we realized it was going to get crazy. My daughter was going to have to miss the last day of school, my son was graduating from high school the Saturday before the trip, we had a house full of family that whole weekend and a big graduation party on Sunday, he then left and was coming home one day early from his senior trip to make it on time, and we were moving across the country to Las Vegas so our household goods were all moved the day before we left. Then the kids were traveling with their youth group to Scotland 3 days after the cruise ended, so it really didn’t make sense for us to come all the way back home and we needed to stay in Europe for three more days before we dropped them off in London Heathrow. Got all that? Yes. Like I said, a little crazy.

Totally worth it though. :)

Who: Us! Here we are a few days before we left! This picture is a celebration of the whole Whiting family – but mostly Chase. The high school graduate. Also appearing in this photo are myself-Tammy, hubby-Stephen, and daughter – Ally.



My parents! My parents were on our last Med cruise, and have been in several of my trip reports. They had quite the trip in store for them. Here they are in Monaco:



My in-laws! My in-laws were also on my last Med cruise, as well as a few other cruises with us, so they may look familiar if you've ever read one of my reports. Here they are in Palo:



My brother-in-law! Scott has appeared in a few trip cruise trip reports as well. He’s the oldest of three boys with my hubby falling in the middle. Here he is in Mykonos:

 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After our tour we were starving! We ate at the little café next to the stadium.

The tour was great by the way. One of the highlights of the trip for Stephen and Chase. :)

Afterwards we walked back to the metro stop. Our next destination was La Sagrada Familia. I’d been before but we didn’t go inside last time. This time, we were going in!





We bypassed a very long line because we had purchased our tickets already. Buy your tickets online before you go!



Inside. W.O.W.



The ceiling:








http://tammywhiting.smugmug.com/Tra...71547_bLSNvb#!i=2747239969&k=N2CLv9f&lb=1&s=A






We had a great app (free!) that we used inside. It was like having our own tour:

 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 16: Travel to London

We slept until around 8 and all met for breakfast. Well, all of us that were left. We were down to Dad, Mom, Chase, Ally and myself.

Las Ramblas was already alive this morning.



We walked to everyone’s favorite – Dunkin Donuts! Yum!



And that is where the pictures for today end! We did nothing! Well we sat in the airport all day. Here’s how it went.

We went back to the hotel, got our bags and waited for our shuttle which was about 30 minutes late. That would have been okay if a very loud alarm had not been sounding the whole time.

At least we thought it was an alarm. Turns out it was a protest. Several people were blanketing the tiny bank next door in flyers and sounding horns. They put stickers on the ATM, the windows and the doors. It was unbelievable how loud it was!

Finally we were off. When we arrived the line was ginormous! We tried to check in on the kiosks and go to bag drop but couldn’t get it to work. We stood in line for a while and Dad told someone the kiosks weren’t working. They told us to get in the bag drop line so we did. When we got to the front we found out why the kiosks weren’t working. Our flight was cancelled! Air Strike! Didn’t we get the text messages?

#hazardsofnotturningonourphonesinEurope

We left and walked to customer service. We weren’t very hopeful and were making plans for where to stay that night while we waited in line there.

While we waited in line, that line grew huge behind us too! But what do you know, they put us on a flight that night! Unfortunately we had 8 hours to kill and weren’t landing until 11:00. But beggars can’t be choosers. And that’s what we were – beggars!

We would have gone back into Barcelona if we could have done something with our bags. But we didn’t have any good options so we went through security.

The Barcelona airport is interesting. Once you’re through security there’s a large shopping area with restaurants. To get back to the international gates though, you have to go through customs and there isn’t much back there.

We ate some pasta for lunch and shopped a little. Then we still had about 7 hours to kill! We decided we might as well go through. The customs agent tried to talk us out of it. She kept saying “Long time!” “No coming back!” and so on. We assured her we were okay.

So we sat. And sat. We all used our 1 hour of free internet and I bought internet on my iPad and we passed it around.

Oh, I forgot I took an Instagram photo! This sums up our day:



One very important thing we did? We finally booked a hotel in London. Yes for that night. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!

Finally we were off. We arrived late, but our hotel was near the airport. There are two things about riding in a car in London that threw me off. One - we were on the wrong side of the road. Two – the dividing line was not only white, it was dotted. I can’t tell you how many times I thought we would be killed only to realize we were exactly where we should be.

We checked in at the Doubletree and went to bed!
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 17: London

We all agreed to sleep in this morning and we woke up fairly late. Breakfast was included and was over at 10:30, so we were up by then. Breakfast was good but two of the offerings were baked beans and mushrooms.

No. No. No.

Our hotel was about 2 miles from the nearest Underground station so we caught the bus right outside. At the Underground we bought two day passes that included busses. Including the bus we just got off. Oops.

Here’s the Underground! Mind the Gap, people.





We decided our first stop was Wimbledon! Not that we had tickets to the championships, of course, although I did look on Stub Hub and we could have purchased them for a mere 350 pounds.

We really just wanted to see what we could see and maybe even check the queue for the grounds.

Look at the awesome Underground stop for Wimbledon!


We started walking. I was a little worried about Mom and how much walking we had planned for the next two days. She held up pretty well though!




We found the queue and it was – wait for it – 6 - 8 hours long. Hours! :eek:

There was no way we were spending one of our two days in London waiting in line. So we walked around.

The queue was long but it had lots to do apparently!


 
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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We got back on the Underground pretty hungry. We decided to go downtown to find some food, but at one stop I realized we were right next to a mall. I told everyone to jump off and we did!

No, not so we could shop! Because I knew shopping malls also meant food. We found a pizza place that was expensive, but very yummy. Here’s the view from the table:





After eating my parents got some Krispy Kremes to go in the mall.


http://tammywhiting.smugmug.com/Tra...96242_ttdwFJ#!i=2777637237&k=x8kBSsW&lb=1&s=A


There was also a Ben and Jerry’s but we passed.

Back to the Underground!



We have a lot of pictures of us sitting and waiting for public transportation.

 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We got back on the metro and got off on another whim. This was the stop for Harrods!

So. Glad. We got off.

Harrods was bar none, the most amazing store I have ever been in. I’m pretty sure they had every single thing a person could ever want.

They had a hovercraft for Pete’s sake.

There it is up ahead. Look at that! What store looks like that?







The first floor had food and chocolate for days:




http://tammywhiting.smugmug.com/Tra...96242_ttdwFJ#!i=2777642328&k=3bMHrGL&lb=1&s=A

http://tammywhiting.smugmug.com/Tra...96242_ttdwFJ#!i=2777642328&k=3bMHrGL&lb=1&s=A



http://tammywhiting.smugmug.com/Tra...96242_ttdwFJ#!i=2777643947&k=Fjw8ffc&lb=1&s=A

http://tammywhiting.smugmug.com/Tra...96242_ttdwFJ#!i=2777643947&k=Fjw8ffc&lb=1&s=A

http://tammywhiting.smugmug.com/Tra...96242_ttdwFJ#!i=2777643947&k=Fjw8ffc&lb=1&s=A


 

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