Maggie was actually in Scotland from March 23 - March 27, but we just got the photos so this post is a bit delayed. She loved Edinburgh, and claims Todd and I would as well. She puts it as one of her top 3 ports, including Lisbon, Portugal, and Croatia. She enjoyed walking around the Royal Mile and seeing the cafe where J.K. Rowling began the Harry Potter series. It was closed due to a recent fire inside so she couldnt go in, unfortunately. But she thoroughly enjoyed the city, the hostel and Edinburgh Castle. She also hiked Arthurs seat. But her favorite activity this port was high tea - she said it really made her feel like a princess!
Shes found a good traveling trio with Lesley, Meghan and herself. Shes that this trip has taught her to be far more accepting of peoples quirks than she used to be, so thats growth.
Her best day on the ship from the whole voyage happened after Scotland when they conducted their Sea Olympics challenges! Each part of the ship is divided into a different colored sea - Maggies hall is Yellow Sea, and the have, Red, Black,
Orange, etc. The 7 in multiple events as part of Sea Olympics in some fun and zany contests. Maggie participated in trivia (where she did very well) and a spelling contest where you had to spell words like optimistic and indivisible BACKWARDS without stopping! They also had a frozen contest, a dance contest, and others. She was very proud of her in 4th place (out of 7, lol). But most importantly, it was just a fun day where the students essentially decided they were not going to bother with any of the COVID protocols which, as Maggie explains it, have stolen the ship time from them this voyage. It was a beautiful sunny day, she had friends on almost every sea team enjoyed rooting all of them on, and just let loose and had the kind of fun she had been so looking forward to on this trip. It was truly a gift of a day.
After Scotland they headed for Copenhagen, Denmark, which was swapped in as an alternate port in lieu of Poland. While Maggie enjoyed Copenhagen, she did not enjoy the prices, finding Denmark to be very expensive.
She did, however, enjoy their hot dogs, apparently! She saw the little mermaid statue, a tribute to the Hans Christian Anderson story, and spent most of her time just strolling around the town and relaxing with friends. Even their hostel was expensive, so no plans to go back to Denmark, Im afraid.
Today they put into port in Sweden. Unfortunately, Maggie fell ill with the flu Friday, had her worst day yesterday, and is still recovering today. But shes headed out tonight to see the new Fantastic Beasts movie with friends, as that should be a fairly outing since she is still not fully recovered. Unbelievably, they disembark from the entire voyage in 10 days! April 20 is the day they get off in Germany. Maggies latest plan, always subject to change, is to buy an unlimited eurail pass and tour around Europe and the United Kingdom by train before meeting her uncle Brian in Liverpool, England and then flying home. Well see - weve learned that Maggies plans change on a whim, so nothing is finalized until it happens! But its nice to know that well probably see her again in a month or so -
So, one more port in Sweden, then on to Germany and then her own wanderlust for a few weeks. Well try to squeeze in a few more posts if we can. Thanks for tagging along.
