My 2024 European Escapade - Wrap Up & Index

My 2024 European Escapade

Wrap Up & Index

Blog Index:

Part 1: Glasgow (Necropolis, Stirling Castle, Kelvingrove Art Museum)

Part 2: Edinburgh (The People's Museum, cat café)

Part 3: Aberdeen, Day 1 (Spey Bay, Bow Fiddle Rock, Cullen)

Part 4: Aberdeen, Day 2 (Dunnottar Castle, Balmoral Castle)

Part 5: Aberdeen, Day 3 & Train (English countryside, British Library)

Part 6: London & Chatham (Historic Dockyards, LEGO Store)

Part 7: London (Museum of the Home, Portobello Road, Westminster Abbey and more)

Part 8: Southampton (Jane Austen breathed here!)

Part 9: Cruise, Days 1-3 (Skagen, Denmark)

Part 10: Cruise, Days 4-5 (Copenhagen, Denmark and Warnemünde, Germany)

Part 11: Cruise, Days 6-7 (Stockholm, Sweden)

Part 12: Cruise, Days 8-12 & Home! (Klaipėda, Lithuania)

Thoughts & Reflections

 Places I'd Like To Visit Again

•Scotland! I want to explore other parts. I could spend more time in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, though. Aberdeen was great, but I don't know that I need to return soon, especially when there's so much else to see.

•The Victoria & Albert Museum, if I do end up going back to the London area.

•Stockholm. I feel like I barely scratched its surface.

•Germany, but I already knew I wanted to see more of Germany. I've been there multiple times now, and yet have seen very little!

Places I Don't Need To Return To In a Hurry

•London in general. I'd rather explore other parts of England first, but I wouldn't mind taking a day trip there.

•Princess ships. I had enjoyed my first foray, but... I don't know. Things have gone down a bit in the last 5 years, and very few on-board activities appealed to me. I'm sure things would've been better if A) I hadn't been sick for 5 of the days, and B) We hadn't missed two of our intended ports. Trying to avoid sickness also limits your choices on board, because you want to avoid crowds... which is nearly impossible. If I do take another cruise in the future, I will take even more precautions. 

Pros: The staff was nice, the food was good, the stateroom entertainment was adequate.

Cons: So many smoking areas! Please, my lungs!

Things I Wish I'd Packed

•More masks. Covid's still with us, y'all!

•A larger purse/shoulder bag

Things I Packed, But Didn't Use

•Swimsuit

Things I'm Glad I Brought

Pretty much everything, but notably:

•My portable USB fan

•A pencil & sharpener

•Ziplock bags -- they are ever-useful!

Travel Hack?

•I bought a bottle of conditioner in London, and still had half of it left when my trip was over. I emptied two of my (almost empty) medicine bottles and filled them with conditioner and brought them home with me. Security at the London airport didn't notice or care.

Things I'm Glad I Did

•I'm glad I went to Scotland, finally. ❤

•I'm glad I was able to visit some of my "missed that last time" places in London (Portobello Road, The Museum of the Home, Victoria Park, Westminster Abbey, the Victoria & Albert Museum). 

•I'm glad I brought the LEGO cats and took photos of them. It gave me a chance to be creative, e.g. always looking for fun places to place them, seeing things from a different angle.

•I'm glad I ended up taking the HopOn HopOff bus in Stockholm, and I'm glad I went to Skansen. 

•I'm glad I got to revisit Copenhagen.

Things I Wish I'd Done Differently

•I wish I'd pre-purchased my train tickets from London to Chatham.

•I wish I'd booked a later flight on the last day so I wouldn't have to worry about transportation/making my flight.

•I wish I'd paid a little extra to select my seat on the flight from Reykjavik to Glasgow, and from London to Reykjavik (the middle seat between two strangers = a barrel of evil monkeys.) 

•I wish I hadn't gotten Princess's Cruise insurance. I should have bought my own elsewhere -- insurance that reimbursed you if you had to miss a port (yes, that exists!)

Overview of Places I Stayed

•Glasgow Marriot Airport (1 night) - Fine, nothing special.

•Ambassador Hotel (3 nights) in Glasgow - Squeaky floor, but otherwise fine. Nice location.

•Arkaig Guest House (4 nights) in Aberdeen - Not perfect, but nice; would stay here again.

•Howard Winchester Hotel (4 nights) in London - Aside from the location, there's nothing to recommend it. Probably would not stay here again.

•The Grapes Pub (1 night) in Southampton - Would stay here again for a cruise out of Southampton; very convenient.

Things I May Have Forgotten To Mention In My Blog

•Nearly every city I visited allowed you to pay for buses (and trains) by merely tapping your credit card when you got on. In some cities, you had to tap it both when getting on and getting off -- in others, only when you got on. It was usually easy enough to figure out, just by watching what other people did. If I ever messed up, oh well... I'd never see those people again. In one or two places, the bus driver asked me where I was going, because the length of my journey apparently affected my fare. In Glasgow, if you rode more than 2-3 times in a day, it would top you out at the day rate (assuming you always used the same credit card) so you never got charged more than the day rate. Overall, I really like how buses work now! Very little need to worry about having enough change or finding a kiosk to buy a ticket.

Movies I Watched While On The Ship

Ever After

Cast Away

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Blade Runner

Back to the Future

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Sound Of Music

The Princess Bride

Mama Mia

Honey I Shrunk The Kids

4 Love Boat episodes

Favorite Photos

Aberdeen, Scotland

Curonian Spit, Lithuania

Balmoral Castle, Scotland

And that's a wrap!