It’s a Wrap
We’re back home, happily recovering from our last round of travel. Here’s a look at some of the standout moments – good and bad – from the last several weeks.
Favorite destination
Caanan: This is like picking a favorite kid, but I have to go with the coast of Spain. It was pretty much perfect.
Kent: I agree, but I also can’t forget that I got goosebumps from the plane when we were approaching Croatia. That coastline – all dramatic and green – is sensational.
Favorite ritual
Kent: For some reason, coffee became even more of a necessity than it usually is in our world. It shows up in a lot of our pictures. Those European hotels know how to do breakfast, so – at times – it was paired with champagne in the morning (gasp!). By the way, we loved Croatia but found most coffee there just awful.
Least favorite ritual
Caanan: In Marrakech, we stayed in the middle of all the hubbub. It was definitely the way to do it, but we needed detailed written directions every time we set out to navigate our way through the confusing streets to a specific destination. I hated that. I also didn’t like that we had to be fastidious about not getting overcharged at restaurants. We may be pathetic hagglers, but we won’t be ripped off when the price is in print, yo.
Most memorable moment
Caanan: Well, here’s a sort of a good/bad memorable moment. This picture was taken shortly after we realized we were robbed. I like that you can see the strain behind the smiles. BUT… this food stand is the place that we had about the best fries I’ve ever had. They had aioli drizzled over the top of them.
Biggest surprise
Caanan: On the topic of food. I was surprised by how healthy we ate in Morocco. We quickly lost interest in the non-vegetarian items so ended up eating vegetarian tajines most of the time. We’re usually mindful of staying healthy on the road, but we nailed it in Morocco. We quickly undid that back in Spain.
Favorite meal
Kent: This is a total cop out answer, but I love what this picture represents. In Spain, we got directed to a local hotspot for pizza. Here’s a shot of us racing back to the room, key in hand, with two pizzas (and a bag of pastries on top).
Least favorite meal
Caanan: It sickens me to say this. Once again, we made the mistake of trying to find decent Mexican food. We can’t live without it, so we attempt to find it nearly everywhere we go. In know, I know… when will we learn. After we sat down and ordered a margarita at this place in Barcelona, they informed us that they were out of guacamole. I died a little that day.
Favorite day
Kent: This one’s easy for me. Morocco was sensory overload. The day after we returned to Spain, the weather was perfect and everything was, once again, easy and familiar. We just wandered around the oceanfront. I remember thinking – right when this picture was taken – that I wanted the day to last forever. Total peace.
Favorite activity
Caanan: Our runs, where ever we are, often lead to some cool places. In Croatia, they regularly seemed to take us to the tops of mountains/hills where the best views awaited. Overheated and drooling over the water in the distance, we were always eager to return to the bottom and jump in for a swim.
More to the picture moment
Caanan: I bring clippers to shave my head. What you can’t see in this picture is that the back of my head is jaggedly shaved. The shaver stopped working not long after I started cutting my hair. In this picture, we were on our way to replace it.
Kent: I was obsessed with getting a shot of this hot couple lit-er-al-ly twirling through the street making out. It was like an International Delights commercial. This is the best shot I got. Pathetic. You can’t even see her long hair flying in the wind.
Least favorite activity
Kent: We can tend to push things to the limit when we travel. We like to explore far and wide, so we – at times – get a little lost. That’s actually fun. It’s not fun when we’re too lost (or when we can’t figure out how to drive the car!). I remember how happy I was when we found this spot in Lisbon. We had been lost for a long time, and this viewpoint allowed us to figure out how to get back to the ship before being left behind.
Not what you think moment
Kent: In Florida, before jumping on the ship, we had one of our trademark transition day arguments. We were trying to come up with a clever picture to go with the post we wrote about it. We thought it would be fun to stage a photo of us fighting. Passers-by did not, however, know what was going on, so they did not find it nearly as amusing as we did. Oh, and we never did use the picture.
Favorite photo
Kent: I like what this picture represents. That, with today’s technology, we could be working from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is incredible to me. We are lucky to have such freedom. I also like this picture because our time at sea is woefully underrepresented here.
Caanan: My thoughts always go back to our photos of the sunsets we enjoyed in Dubrovnik.
Welcome home, guys. I always enjoy your posts.
Looking forward to Croatia here.
Thanks!
Coffee paired with champagne?!? Actually, I’m intrigued…
And Caanan, why didn’t you post a photo of the BACK of your head?
Champagne is pretty good anytime with anything.
I (Kent) can answer that… He wouldn’t let me take a picture of the backside of his head. He actually wore a hat because the unfinished haircut made him look like a crazy person.
Fantastic roundup of food and adventures – looks like it was a wonderful trip. All the photos are great, but I especially chuckled at the pizza boxes (and pastries) takeaway – that’s something I would certainly do as well!
Good to hear… because if YOU say that, we know it’s okay
My husband and I have a hard and fast rule when we travel regarding Mexican food; never eat it outside of Mexico or Southern California. It’s almost always a disappointment.
Here’s a tip, and this holds true especially well in South East Asia, if looking for something different from the local cuisine, look for Italian. We’ve found Italian expats who have opened restaurants all over the world, and for the most part the food has been excellent.
I would really love to hear more about Morocco and Croatia, two places I’ve been considering for next year.
I know that our RTW Mexican food obsession is stupid. However, we luck out every so often. The real problem is that it’s especially stupid, from a budget perspective, to stray from local cuisine. What can I say… after about 4 weeks, I need nachos.
Let’s share Morocco and Croatia stories in person.
Ok I’m going to say it – you haven’t seen Spain till you’ve seen Andalucia. There, I said it. Next time.
Gladly!
Holy shit! This post is a brick load! Okay, one of my favorites since you are posting a lot of great shots and some live action ones too. Digging it. But, I have to say: we freakin love morocco!!
I am all for sensory overload! I love it! If I didn’t have to hear the early morning calls to prayer, I’d live here!
You’re already down there? Time flies!
Glad you are having a great time. It’s a blast to feel like you’re in a totally different world, isn’t it?
I am excited to adventure with the food here in Morocco. The food in Spain…..bleh! Was not a fan. I am hoping they are more veggie friendly here in crazy land. I do love this land!! We miss you guys, glad you made it home safe and sound. Thanks for sharing your favorites and not so favorites!
Ya, as the post says, we ate really well (healthy) in Morocco. We lived on veggie tajines and veggie couscous. I’m sure you’re liking the ability to have food you love. Any luck running? We did well with it in Marrakech.
AH, so many comments on this one. First of all, I loved most of Spain, all of Portugal (that I saw), and ditto for Croatia. I never go to the coast of Spain but I loved the Algarve coast in Portugal (you should check it out if you loved Spain). Lisbon was one of my favorite cities.
As for Marrakech, I’ve heard a lot of the same things. Glad you had moments that you enjoyed there because Morocco would be awesome to visit. Sadly, I didn’t make it there on my trip to Spain ad Portugal.
As for getting lost, I hate that as well. Drives me nuts. Given that I lack a sense of direction, this is inevitable.
As for Mexican food, I don’t like it in the US so not hard for me to avoid when traveling
The coast of Portugal is high up on the list. We HAVE to stay away from Europe for at least a few travel cycles. Too expensive
I wish I could learn your distaste for Mexican food, but I can’t.
Overall it sounds like you had a really great trip! I can’t imagine voluntarily opting for vegetarian food, but I’m glad it worked for you. As for the Mexican food, I actually had decent Mexican food in Siem Reap, Cambodia last year, better than I’ve had so far in Germany. Crazy!
So interesting you would say that. I almost said to Kristina (above) that we’ve heard the Mexican food is good in Cambodia. Cambodia has incredible food (and is one of her top travel destinations), so I thought she would KILL me for saying such a thing. Thanks for doing it for me
Wow, it looks like you had a wonderful trip. I love that you shared these fun little moments!
Thanks, Jenna! By the way… we didn’t have food as good as Italy, but we still had a lot of great food.
Looks like a fantastic trip. So much blue sky and sunshine.
Good point. There WAS a lot of blue sky and sunshine.
Wow! Just wow! I want to copy the exact itinerary you guys went on! I have always wanted to go to Croatia!
Croatia is worth getting on the list. I see you’ve been to Machu Picchu – that’s on OUR list
I like the way you guys travel. It’s not always perfect, but there’s usually a bright side. We do pizza around the world, too. Can’t help it.
Pizza = the universal go-to food.
Great round up, guys. Caanan’s hair misfortune reminds me of a time I tried to cut my own hair in university. It went badly, I had to shave it all off, and I ended up wearing beanie hats for two weeks straight until a respectable stubble grew back.
I also want a margarita, PRONTO.
We ALWAYS want a margarita. I guess we know what we’re doing if we see you in here the US next year!
Love that the two take-away pizzas and pastries made your favorite food moments – you’re my kinda guys
As for Mexican food – we’re on the same quest, and have to say that it’s almost impossible to find good Mex food in Europe (except for London) – surprisingly, we had some decent Mexican food in South East Asia and in India though (even approved by Jaime! 
)
Wow, approved by Jaime – that’s high praise. If we can find decent Mexican food in India, we will be very happy guys.
BTW – those two pizzas were the bomb (excuse me… DA bomb).
You guys photos keep getting better and better! Looks like you had a great trip (apart from being robbed!)
Thanks, Roy – Yes, we’re working on the photos!
I love the round-up. It sounds like you had an amazing time, overall.
We did, Amanda. But, really, how couldn’t we have had a great time. Robbed or not.
Ooh, I don’t know how I will survive if the Mexican food is bad everywhere overseas. Great trip, nice recap!
Thanks, Scott. We’ll be interested to hear what you find up in Alaska. I don’t think we had decent Mexican up there. Hold up… I take that back. Excellent burritos can be had in Fairbanks.
how inspiring! i love the full recap of positives and negatives…and the purty pictures.
Thank you. There really was A LOT more good. By far.
Sounds like a fun few weeks! I like it that you cover some of the places that are relatively close to me and were not on my bucket list. Your photos of the Dubrovnik sunsets are stunning. I’m tempted to go for these colors.
Some of the best sunsets we’ve ever witnessed.
Glad you like Dubrovnik – I thought it was so cool.
The sunset photo is awesome – nice red sky with horizontal streaks — beautiful!
BTW – I was never impressed with European breakfasts. Where we were, it seemed like they cater mostly to the German travelers, so breakfast was normally cold cuts and cheeses and fish. These were the breakfasts as the hotels. While I love smoked salmon and little gherkin pickles and an array of cheeses, I don’t want them everyday. They try to do scrambled eggs for Westerners, but I think they every figured out how to do them – they were always very soupy.
We’re always so happy when we have more than oatmeal and or a bagel.
On this round of travel we had some great breakfasts included in our stays. Selections of food that, truly, could accommodate any taste. AND champagne
That sunset will certainly be hard to forget.
Dying that you drank coffee and champagne together! That might be the only way I’d ever get talked into drinking coffee lol.
I love this wrap up… I love what yall mentioned you didn’t like about Morocco… I hated that to so very much. It was a nightmare many times trying to get back from somewhere…lol. I love that yall followed a couple that was kissing all over the place.I love the last photo.
Wow! It sounds like you guys had an unbelievable time. I miss Croatia after reading about it and seeing your photos. I want to go back!
Beautifully summed up! I missed your later posts as I was on a trip to Japan, so reading this pretty much does it for me:)