It has been almost 2 weeks since our return from Europe but it only feels like a few days. I had grand expectations as to what I would be able to accomplish while we were there. Boy was I wrong. I hoped to have some time each night to reflect on the day and post a quick blog post. If you follow us you can tell that was an epic fail. These tours are jam packed with things to do and its pretty fast paced.
Each night ended around 10pm or later and we had early wake up calls for breakfast and departure for the day's adventures. I was usually dead tired when we returned to our hotel room and if we weren't meeting with the Tour Director to discuss the events of the next day I was crawling into bed to get some sleep so I would be able to enjoy the next days events. It was fun, it was educational, and it was exhausting all at the same time.
As you can see from our plan for Barcelona that was done around 11pm on March 17th. We started our day at 7:30am breakfast and were going until our 9:30 pm meet up for the bus ride back to the hotel. We got back around 10:30pm and got to sleep in for breakfast at 6:30am the next day so we could make our 8am Covid tests. Then we had a plan for a group breakfast of Spanish churros but that did not materialize as the testing took a little longer than expected. While we waited for the tests to be administered some folks from the Arizona group requested some assistance getting some tickets to do the La Sagrada Familia tour with us at 11:45am. We had about an hour to explore a little on our own. I spent that time looking for a place to by Bluetooth headphones so I could listen to the guided tour of La Sagrada Familia from the phone app, as my headphones broke on the plane and my new phone does not have a headphone jack. With help from our TD we figured out the subway to get to La Sagrada Familia and the group made our way through the tour which was spectacular and we were all glad to have the opportunity to see the inside of this magnificent cathedral.
We also got a surprise and were able to look into the crypt and witness a real wedding. People gathered around shortly after I snapped this photo and there was cheering as the couple were pronounced husband and wife.
Another unique opportunity that our small group got to experience in London was catching up with the guard on our walk to South Bank to for our time on the London Eye. We heard the band again and waited to see where they were going as we thought the barracks were in the other direction. We caught a great sight that looked like it came straight out of the movies.
We were able to give our students a very unique experience and something I feel they will cherish for the rest of their lives. I hope they have an itch to go out and explore the vast world that they are a part of and that they encourage others to seek out opportunities to travel.
I am glad to have gone with these great students and I hope to connect with more students to provide them with unique experiences that change their world view. I know for the future that I will have to focus on reflective blogging or try to get some students with loads of energy to write for our page while we are on tour.
To see more photos from our trip check out our social media, which I was able to keep up with, and our galleries on the Current and Past Tours page. I hope you enjoy living vicariously through our adventures.
Adam
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