On With The Show

Why have I felt a tinge of sadness and regret that my short stay in Barcelona is ending? The trip to this Catalan capital was supposed to be a sidelight with the Mediterranean cruise as the highlight of this 17-day European get-away. However, Barcelona wooed me with her architecture, her food, her narrow streets, her museums, her lovely people, her mild weather, her many attractions. I was enchanted by her and I loved it. I love her.

Hence, it was pretty difficult to change gears from sadness of leaving Barcelona to excitement at the thought of the exotic ports, like Alexandria in Egypt the gateway to Cairo, or Piraeus in Greece, the gateway to Athens, that we will be visiting.

The welcome aboard cocktail helped plenty to swing my surly mood to a festive I'm-on-a-freaking-holiday swagger. I went about my business of unpacking - mildly concern that the clothes we brought would not be enough for the 12 days on sea (we brought dirty laundry onboard, the ones we used in Barcelona). Dear husband had reminded me that there is laundry service on board - in the past we had no need for this service as our previous cruises were 3 and 7 days each. We have a habit of underpacking, keeping in mind the need for luggage space for souvenirs and pasalubongs (gifts) weighed more in our decision making. Hence less clothes reasoning that we could always buy it when we need it.

So here we are on to the show!