We acknowledge that our carbon footprint hasn’t been great during our almost two years of travel. Still, when possible, we’ve been trying to avoid planes, and instead default to trains or ships.
To travel between Tanger and Barcelona, we booked a cabin on a Grandi Navi Veloci ship. When the vessel was originally constructed, it was probably designed to feel like a cruise. However, most of the cruise elements seem to have been gutted, at least for this journey. The two pools were empty, aside from cigarettes butts. The beauty salon had been converted into storage. Many other rooms were just blocked off and closed, or converted to prayer rooms.
Luckily, we weren’t expecting a cruise experience, so we weren’t at all disappointed. Between the calm seas, our comfortable cabin, and the tasty food in the cafeteria, we had a very easy trip. (I should point out that our financial privilege probably contributed significantly to our comfort, as it often does – many people were sleeping in the hallways, not in cabins.)
We enjoyed the playroom, which was not gutted – thank goodness, given the number of kids on the ship.
However, what Theo loved most was following a slightly older, much more daring boy on a winding exploration of the ship. (I trotted after them to keep Theo from doing things like following the boy into the empty pool, further breaking the already non-functioning piano in the lounge, and/or falling over the side of the ship. None of those things happened. Yay!) In the last eight months or so, Theo has gone from being mildly interested in other children to being completely fascinated by them.