Mon Oct 21, 2024
Hi All! They say all good things must come to an end but we didn’t want this trip to end! It’s always nice having your last day be a sea day so you can pack and get organized for the long trip home. But we made the most of our sea day!
We slept in, which is always good. Then we attended the speaker series with the title “The Spanish Empire – How Spanish Exploration and Colonialism Shaped World History”. Spain used to be part of the Roman Empire but the Muslims (Ottoman Empire) then conquered Spain and became a large empire. But in 1469, Isabella and Ferdinand marry and unify Spain and start to create the Spanish Empire. Interesting factoid… every single queen and king in Europe now is related to Isabella and Ferdinand!
The speaker went thru all the explorers (Columbus, Balboa, Magellan, etc) that helped bring wealth back to Spain and help it become a dominant force in the world. But way too much detail to go into here! And Adam the speaker was one of the best we’ve had on cruise ships.
We then watched a movie called “Great Cities of Europe – Barcelona”. While we both have been to Barcelona and love it, we needed to get back home or we would have stayed a few days. If you’ve never been, put it on your bucket list. Cool parts of Barcelona are the street La Rambla (pedestrian street that has lots of good people watching) and all the buildings of the architect Antoni Gaudi, especially the Church of Sagrada Familia. Great city!
After that we had lunch and started the packing routine. It’s always easier packing to go home than when you’re coming. And with the Regent free valet laundry, we get to bring back almost all clean clothes! YAY!!
We then swung by the Regent Rewards prize redemption room. When we play the various games like trivia, name that tune, etc., they give you points when you win and you can cash those points in for Regent gear. We had 50 points (YAY us!) so Kathy got a Regent windbreaker. LAH-TEE-DAH!
After that we got ready for dinner and had our last meal in Compass Rose. It was sad saying goodbye to our waiter Arsika. He has been one of the best waiters we’ve ever had and he’s served us almost all of the 24 nights we’ve been onboard. Wish we could take him home with us!
For dinner I had to end it on a high note (Lobster Protection Society be damned! Lol) and had lobster, shrimp and scallops (and of course my escargot and added in lobster risotto!). I will miss these seafood extravaganzas!
Since most people are packing and putting their luggage outside their doors, they didn’t have an evening show. But we did go listen to Mark play the piano one last time. We will really miss him too. He is one of the best piano players we’ve listened to on cruise ships and as you know we’ve been on many and always prefer listening to the piano player. We hope to see him on another Regent cruise!
Well we called it a night since we have to get up early to get to the airport and catch our flight. We’re flying from Barcelona to Philly to Charlotte. Wish us luck! I’ll post a final trip update after we get home. Hope everyone had a good Monday!
PS: Today’s pics include some of our favorite crew members!
The Wandering Italian 