A Wonderful Surprise

At 2:30 last Tuesday afternoon, I got a phone call from Paul while I was at work asking if I wanted to leave the next morning for one night in Barcelona, then a 4-night Mediterranean cruise. Um, yes! Turns out one of his suppliers takes 30 couples (good customers and their significant others) on a cruise every year, and we were first on the wait list when somebody couldn't go at the last minute. I asked my manager, and she said, "Yes, yes, yes, go!", so I quickly rescheduled all my patients for the next few days, then spent the next few hours running around getting travel supplies, packing, etc. The couple who dropped out were supposed to fly from Belfast, so we had to make our way to Belfast by 4:45am Wednesday morning. We flew to Barcelona, spent the day and night there, then got on the ship last Thursday morning. It was amazing!

While in Barcelona we walked around the city, including this market

Enjoying some of the fruit from the market

Boarding the ship, Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas

We departed Barcelona on Thursday around 5pm, and when we woke up the next morning we were in Toulon, France- a main naval base for France.

View of Toulon from our balcony

On the promenade in Toulon

A view of our ship

Friday night was the formal night- Paul even rented a tux on board!

On Saturday we arrived in Ibiza, an island off of Spain, and the ship was docked there overnight. On Saturday we spent the day on the ship and took in an ice skating show, went ice skating, played mini-golf, saw a singing and dancing show, and spent time by the pool. Paul and I got up early Sunday morning and explored the Old City of Ibiza.

The main pool area

Mini-golf- we tied!

At the top of the Old City of Ibiza

Streets in Ibiza

Ibiza harbor

We arrived back in Barcelona early Monday morning, headed to the airport to fly back to Belfast, and got back to Dublin in the afternoon. It was a fantastic vacation, and I would highly recommend a cruise!

View from the bar where we had pre-dinner drinks on the last night

Our dining room for dinner each evening

Sunrise over Barcelona harbor

One last view of the Mediterranean!