Actually, we’ve been home for five days now, but it’s only in the last couple that I’ve started to feel vaguely human again. I picked up a nasty cold on the flight back from Rome (I couldn’t complain, though, since ours was pretty much the only transatlantic flight to leave Rome that day, albeit four hours late — stupid Icelandic volcano), and combined with a nine-hour time change I’ve felt absolutely wretched for most of the past week. The boys also have runny noses and there was one night this week that Justin was up all night with a sore throat, so it’s been loads of fun. But everyone seems to be on the mend now.

I can now conclusively say that I enjoy cruising. I’d been wondering if it was the mode of travel that bothered me — I didn’t particularly enjoy the two cruises before this one, but that’s because I didn’t like the destination (Alaska and the Caribbean are just not for me). Cruising in Europe was amazing. I did a camping tour of Europe just after finishing college, and I remember being annoyed at having to unpack everything (tents, air mattresses, sleeping bags, cooking gear) even if we were only staying in a place for one night, and then having to pack it all up again in the wee hours of the morning so we could spend another five or six or seven hours on the bus. Granted, it wouldn’t take much to beat that, but being able to eat a meal, enjoy a show or sit by the pool while the ship moved on to a new port was pretty darn cool. I’ve even got my eye on another cruise, this one to Scandinavia, a couple years from now, but we’ll have to wait and see how things work out.

Enjoy the pictures in the photo gallery!