I didn't have to get up quite as early this morning since my flight wasn't until 11:40 but my body clock had been trained so I was up anyway. I had breakfast at the buffet on deck and watched the sun rise over Barcelona. I took a few final pictures, got my luggage and headed for the gangway. By 7:30 I was in a cab to the airport where I quickly checked in and breezed through security. The airport provides 15 minute of free W-Fi so I used the time to post a picture of Alex and me on Facebook and the Alex forum and to make one final Tweet.
With 3 hours to kill I reflected on what an amazing week this had been. The trip, of course, had started out as a rare opportunity to see Alex but became so much more. I'd been to places I never thought I would and saw things that I never thought I would see. Along the way I met some of the nicest people around, including the wonderful Evi. It had been a long, tiring 10 days but was worth every minute of it.
I told Alex after her Wednesday night solo show that that hour alone was worth the entire price of the cruise, and I meant it, but what was originally just a bonus turned out to be so much more. Actually standing in some of the places I stood, many over 2000 years old, and imagining what it must have been like provides a perspective that you just can't get reading about them or even seeing them on television. Touristy though they may be, there is still a great and sometimes sad history there.
The places that I visited are but a few threads in the giant tapestry of European history. The background stories provided by the various tour guides are separate yet interwoven. In school, history was a necessary but boring subject to me. Living close to Gettysburg made the battlefield a regular school field trip destination and I regret now spending so much of that time goofing around rather than learning. As I got older, though, I became more interested in what came before, but primarily from a technological perspective than a human one. A renewed interest has been kindled and a greater desire than ever to visit Ireland is building. Before I go, though, I will school myself in advance in order to more greatly appreciate what I will see there.
Well, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed living and writing it. Let's see, Orla is performing in Holland this December. And Evi lives in Holland. Hmmmm.
Sunrise before disembarkation in Barcelona.
My chariot home.
