Today, I made the final part of my journey from Madrid to Los Alcazares.
When I woke up this morning, I felt much better after sleeping well the previous night. When I left my room, I took the key to reception, and as I went back outside the hotel, my cab to the train station arrived. I jumped in, and after a short journey through Madrid, I was at the station. I sat waiting until my train appeared on the station departures board, and I went towards the queue of people going to the platforms.
As I walked towards the queue, a guard took me to one side, took me downstairs in a disabled lift and escorted me through to my train. I boarded my train in the first-class section and found my pre-booked seat. I sat in my seat and read my Kindle as the train pulled out of Madrid. The journey to Albacete was quiet, comfortable and quick.
When I arrived at Albacete, I was transferred to a coach that was waiting and quickly began the next leg of my journey home. Although the coach wasn't as comfortable as the train, the journey was uneventful. I arrived back at Torre Pacheco, got off the coach, and waited for my friend Pat to pick me up from the station.
Pat arrived about 10 minutes later, put my case in his car and took me back to my apartment. I arrived back in my apartment, put my case in the bedroom, got a cold drink and sat in my massage chair. Within minutes, I was asleep.
Summary of my Hawaii and Alaska trip.
I enjoyed seeing many new places and crossing a few things off of my bucket list. I liked Hawaii very much but needed more time in every place I went. I was very disappointed that I could not visit Pearl Harbour and the USS Arizona, but this was out of my hands due to the loss of my luggage for the first six days of my holiday.
I loved everything about Alaska, but it was challenging work for me. I think you need to be a fitter person than me to really see everything you can in Alaska. The highlight for me was the helicopter trip to Mendenhall Glacier.
The NCL Spirit was probably the worst cruise ship I have been on. I wouldn't say I like open dining; I hate having to struggle to find a seat at a buffet, and I don't particularly appreciate having to make a reservation in the majority of restaurants. I much prefer the system of having a designated restaurant and table for every meal, especially breakfast.
A lot of the enjoyment onboard cruise ships is the people you meet and interact with. The people I met on this ship were predominantly American. I have nothing against Americans, and I have a lot of American friends from my time living in America. The majority of people onboard here were the reason most Europeans don't like Americans. They were loud, drunk, obnoxious, rude and inconsiderate. That isn't to say all of them were, but the ones that were are the ones that I remember mostly because of their behaviour and treatment of me, the staff and each other.
Whilst the food onboard the ship was okay, it was nothing special. The bars were all understaffed and very small. Seating areas onboard the ship were tiny, and there were very few places to sit and enjoy some quiet time because of the scarcity of seats and the noisy American passengers. The WIFI onboard was terrible and was not working most of the time. It seemed that every morning, there was a queue of people at the IT desk complaining that their WIFI minutes had disappeared and that WIFI was unavailable.
Would I go back to Hawaii? It was definitely beautiful, and the locals I met were all amiable. I would go back tomorrow if I had the time and the money to enjoy it.
Would I go back to Alaska? Possibly, it was hard work for me, and if I did go again, I would go during the salmon season to see bears and later in the season for the whales' migration.
Would I go on another NCL cruise? Not on the NCL Spirit. I was not too fond of the ship, but possibly on a more extensive and newer NCL ship. I had intended to book another cruise onboard NCL Spirit when it went around Japan later in the year. After this trip, I changed my plans and booked an escorted coach tour of Japan with a European company to avoid both NCL and American tourists.