Europe Detour

Ah, Sintra. Land of castles, misty forests, and—if you’re anything like us—the occasional unavoidable travel fail. Our journey to Sintra was supposed to be the crowning gem of our vacation, a final flourish of fairytale castles and awesome views. And it was… for about 15 minutes. Here’s a rundown of how our Sintra adventure turned […]

We were late in booking accommodations in both Cascais and Sintra. Being late in the season I was confident that we could find good accommodations, probably discounted, since it was last minute. Terri worked on Sintra while I worked on Cascais. There were ample places in both cities and I chose the Evolution Hotel in […]

The drive from Tarifa to Cádiz was easy and we arrived early, too early for our hotel, the Alquimia. It was funky and inexpensive, perfect for one night. Our room wasn’t ready but they held our bags for us. There was also no on-site parking, definitely first world problems. We left to find the suggested […]

If you are into wind sports then Tarifa Spain will be on your bucket list of places to see. The beach is quite long and wide making it an ideal Kitesurfing spot. As the wind came up, numerous kiters were ready to take advantage even though it was a bit cool and blustery. While walking […]

Gibraltar was not a destination but more a stop of convenience on our way through Spain 🇪🇸 to Portugal🇵🇹 . We had not heard anyone say that “you must visit Gibraltar” or that there are great things to do but we thought a stop was warranted. I remembered some history where Gibraltar 🇬🇮 played an […]

Having had our last buffet breakfast aboard ship we disembarked in Malaga, Spain. It has a beautiful old-city port area within the walled space. In the larger cities/towns, the port area is usually a walled area with the newer modern city sitting outside walls. We made it to the airport to pick-up our rental car […]

Although somewhat smaller than most of the ships in Royal’s. Fleet, we enjoyed this ship and its amenities. Everything is relatively close and even though near capacity it was easy to see the shows and there were few lines to wait in. Joining us every night were Mike & Leslie and Bill & Vickey the […]

Messina, Sicily, Italy is better than OK. The architecture and the churches are great. Our issue was with the pet/dog owners! It was often a real challenge to stay clear of the dog poop on the sidewalks and we didn’t see any street dogs to lay blame to. In general, the city just appeared less […]

Coming into Santorini at sunrise by boat is spectacular. It’s a beautiful island with steep cliffs topped by the iconic white Greek homes. There are four ways to get from the waterside up to the city of Fira: Hike the 600 steps up cliff side, free Hire a donkey for €10 Take the cable car […]

We have been exploring on our own until Turkey but since we had not been there before we hired a small group guide. As it turned out, the small group was just Terri and Me, perfect! We found our guide after exiting the ship and she guided us to a Mercedes Sprinter Limo conversion, very […]