Our 4 am wake up call has come (8 pm Thursday night) . The journey home has begun. See ya at Regina Friday night, hopefully! Adios, au revoir, goodbye!

Today has been wonderful! We had a free day where we got to set our own schedule for the most part. We had breakfast with the group after a sleep-in until 8ish. Our group and Antonio, our tour director, took the metro downtown where we did a little shopping, had lunch at the Barcelona Hard Rock Cafe and then took a walk to the Christopher Columbus statue of him pointing towards America. We booked a cruise that took us around the harbour and down the coast of the Mediterranean Sea for about an hour and an half. It was a little wavy but a fun time. It was a boat full of EF kids. Tonight we will have supper at 9 and then get ready for our 4 am wake-up call to start the trek home. It has been an incredible trip. Ten full days of exploring, nine hour flight from Canada, eight hour flight from Munich to Toronto, seven special and well-loved students, six silly adults, five umbrellas purchased, four bus drivers we forgot to tip so we went on the cruise instead, three countries, two thousand years of history witnessed that makes Canada look like an infant equals a once in a lifetime experience with one fantastic group!

Kerri’s pedometer count today was 16852 which is 7.1 miles.

Our tour director was such a good person to have with us. Antonio was a real treat! 🙂

We woke on the train this morning to sunny Spain! We are hoping that it is warm outside and we can put our ski-doo suits away. The weather has not been overly warm. We must be blessed as we got to experience the coldest Easter that England has had in the last 50 years.

We had breakfast on the train, which was not overly nutritious, but we experienced it. We boarded the bus that took us for a city tour. We saw the Mediterranean Sea, some beautiful views and some really old churches. One was built in the 13th century! We had a tour of “old Catalonia” and saw the steps where christopher Columbus was received by the Queen of Spain when he returned from finding America. Pretty cool we had an entire group picture taken on those steps We spent some time shopping before having lunch at 2 which is the Spanish time for that. We just finished supper, which was served at 9 at our hotel tonight.

Kerri’s pedometer tallied 18000 steps today which is 7,5 miles.

Tomorrow we will enjoy our last day of Spain with a free day where we get to plan the day. We are looking forward to visiting the beach and dipping our toes in the Mediterranean

Bonjour or bonsoir, depending on when you are reading this post! Today had us visiting the extravagant home of a slough of Louis’! Versailles was an interesting view as it was absolutely beautiful with its many gardens and grand rooms. We proved that we weren’t that far away from home when we ran into the travelers from Milestone. I heard a squeal from Justine as she hugged her friend, Darby Shindelka. I even got a hug. It was kinda like a scene from a movie as they met. We spent the afternoon with some shopping in the Italian district of Paris, while some went to Invalides, a museum of WW1 and WW2. Supper had us enjoying flammekueche, a very flat pizza type of dish. It was good. I am typing this as we wait to board the night train to Barcelona. Update from the train: our quarters were tight but cozy.

The orange jackets have been a fantastic hit. Kerri and I have discussed that if this trip was to be done again, we would strongly suggest that they are a must. It makes traveling must less stressful to quickly be able to identify our students. We have had other leaders comment on what a good idea they were.

Highlights of the day:
* Amy was happy to be able to sleep in today until 650. Honestly this is a great holiday, but very hectic!
* Victoria is very excited about her new lightning bolt leggings.
* Kerri loved walking through the gardens at Versailles.
* Leah is ecstatic over the scarf she found.
* Janet loved getting a chocolate crepe today on the street. She got a chocolate one, as they didn’t have any bananas
* Jeanette loves the extraordinary rooms of Louis. She just wishes she could have had to give public births like Louis’ wife had to.
* Allen loved the fact that he got to wake up next to wife this morning as on the train to,Spain he gets to share a room with our guide and two strangers. FYI the rest of us got to bunk with each other.
* Carter liked seeing the train workers at the station ride segways around.
* Jack loved the gardens of Versailles
* Alexis is just happy to leave Paris and the language of French behind. I am not going to tell her they speak Spanish in Barcelona.
* Jada really enjoyed her nap on the bus and almost witnessing our bus whack a guy on a bike.
* Justine was pretty excited to see her good buddy Darby. Shocker.
* I am happy that we haven’t lost anyone on the subway as that is a bit stressful. Thank goodness for our orange jackets.
* pedometer count today is 14000 or about 6 miles