Back from 18-day Europe Trip! Biggest Takeaways

My daughter and I returned from our 18-day Europe trip a few days ago. We both are a little under the weather right now or I would have started posting sooner. Re-entry is hard! Overall, we had a great time. I will be writing more detailed posts over the next few weeks. But for now, here are my biggest takeaways:

Biggest Surprise: Amsterdam

We’ve visited several European cities on this trip and on previous trips, and while they are all different, in some ways they are quite similar. So, I was really surprised at how different Amsterdam felt from the other European cities. Being in the center of Amsterdam didn’t even feel like we were in a city at all. The canals and the bikes create this quiet, laid-back atmosphere that we didn’t expect. We quickly fell in love with Amsterdam.

We also toured some nearby towns that were equally as charming.

Had I known how much we would love Amsterdam, I would have allocated more time in the area.

The cruise was like hitting the “easy” button

After traipsing around 3 countries on our own, getting on a cruise ship for a week was like hitting the “easy” button. It was nice to stay in the same room for 7 nights and wake up in new ports. We would be much more exhausted from this trip had it not been for our time on the cruise.

MSC: We didn’t hate it!

MSC cruise line seems to get polarizing reviews. The folks at Frequent Floaters had a very bad cruise on MSC. I booked this cruise because of the itinerary and price, and I went into it with low expectations. I’m happy to say that we did not have a bad experience on MSC Euribia! There was really only one thing that we didn’t like, but many things we did like (full review is forthcoming).

Fjords were the highlight of our cruise

While our cruise also visited Copenhagen and Alesund, the highlight for us was visiting two Norwegian fjords. The mountains, the water, the cute farms and houses along the way…

We can do hard things

This was the first time that my daughter and I have done an entire international trip by ourselves without the rest of the family. We were in smaller cities where nobody spoke English, and we had some tough moments. We made some mistakes and ended up in the wrong town and at the wrong hotel. Google translate couldn’t translate everything on restaurant menus. Yet, we still managed to figure out buses, trains and taxis to get where we needed to go. It wasn’t always easy, but I realized that we are capable.

Thank goodness for miles and points!

I’m so thankful that we could use miles and points to reduce the cost of this trip and make it possible for us to have these experiences. Exploring Europe with my daughter is a memory we won’t forget.