Barcelona, Spain

February 28^th, 2025

This must be a mistake. When I looked out of the window it looked like we were in Barcelona. How could this have happened? It seems like we were here just a few days ago. So much has happened since then. These past 90 days seem to have whizzed by in an instant, yet when I think about the memories I have, it almost seems like a life time.

I looked again, yes, we were truly in Barcelona. We had to get dressed and ready to leave the ship at 7:30 so we could get our 7:45 transfer to the airport.

The ship was meant to be cleared by 7:00, but Nick made an announcement that this had been delayed because the immigration officers hadn’t arrived as yet. This happens way too often. I suppose there isn’t anything that can be done about it, I was just hoping it wouldn’t delay our departure to the airport by much.

Before we go to the airport we have to collect our bags. I wasn’t looking forward to this.

Our original disembarkation letter requested that we put our bags outside the suite door by 11:00 PM. It said that we should leave the ship 15 minutes before our transfer time, then we had to have a face to face interview with an immigration officer in the cruise terminal. After that we should go to the luggage hall in the terminal to pick up our bags, drop off our Luggage Forward bags at their desk, and then leave the terminal and find our driver.

This all seemed to be quite straightforward.

Then we received another letter stating that our luggage would not be in the luggage hall in the terminal, but it would be in The Club. We would pick it up in the Club and take it off the ship ourselves, take it through immigration,  and then go to the luggage hall where we could drop off our Luggage Forward bags.

This seemed like a recipe for disaster. Imagine the luggage from 100 people who have been on a cruise for 90 days all squashed in to the small area of the Club. If there is a 3 bag average for each guest, that’s over 300 bags that you would have to deal with in order to find your bags in the pile.

Then you would have to wrestle your bags off the ship, take them through immigration with you, and then get them down to the luggage hall so you could drop off the Luggage Forward bags. We questioned this, but were reassured that it would work out OK.

However, when I looked out at the sunrise,

I could see that bags were being unloaded directly from the ship. This was all quite confusing.

Finally Nick announced that the ship had been cleared and we were free to disembark.

We went to the Club, and as expected there were bags everywhere. We made our way through the piles of luggage, but were only able to identify one of our bags. Where were the other 5? No one was sure, but it appeared that they must have been unloaded already.

So we left the ship, only having to wrestle with one large suitcase and our carry on bags as we went through immigration. Other guests had all of their luggage with them, and although the crew were trying to help out, it just seemed to be more complicated than it should have been somehow.

There was a long wait for immigration, but we had no complaints. It was still so much better than arriving in Brooklyn. We will be doing that in July, and I am not looking forward to it.

Finally we were through immigration, and lo and behold our other 5 bags were waiting for us in the luggage hall. With assistance from the shore excursion folks, we handed over the 4 bags for Luggage Forward, and dragged the rest outside where our driver was waiting.

Looking back, although disembarkation could have gone more smoothly, in the grand scheme of things, it was fine. All our bags were there, we were able to get to the airport in good time, and the confusion distracted me enough that I didn’t have time to grasp the reality of what was happening.

We had left the Sojourn. Although there will be other cruises, I thought this one would be hard to beat in terms of friends we have made, places we have visited, how much we have learned, and how much caviar I have consumed.

In no time we were on our flight to London, and there was England’s green and pleasant land below us.

We had a short lay over at Heathrow and soon we were on our flight to Portland, saying goodbye to England again, iPhoto tells me this is Camberly – Yately East. Now I know.

The flight to Portland was long and uneventful. We have had problems with British Airways in the past and we always say that we will never fly with them again, but that doesn’t work. Here we are on BA yet again, but have no complaints.

We are staying with our family in Portland for a few days before flying home. In the time we have been gone our grandson has grown even taller and has lost 2 more teeth. It is wonderful to travel, seeing new places, meeting new people, learning about the world, but I am happy to be home for a while. Well a short while – we fly to Cape Town on March 11^th for a friend’s wedding. We wouldn’t miss that for anything.

I couldn’t find a cruise that would get us to the wedding in time, so yes, it’s another long flight, or 3 as it so happens. But that really is fine, I miss the Sojourn, but I am ready for our next adventure!