Itinerary Overview

We’ll be starting our vacation on June 7 with our overnight transatlantic flight on Delta Airlines. The route is Tampa to Atlanta and then Atlanta to London-Gatwick. We’ll arrive in England on Sunday, June 8 around 7am (assuming the flight is on time). Since our timeshare week actually starts on Saturday, we shouldn’t have to wait for our flat to be ready despite the early hour of the arrival.

As usual, we have little planned in advance for our time in London from Monday through Thursday. On Wednesday night, we have tickets to see Hairspray starring Michael Ball (Libby’s all-time favorite musical theatre performer). Other than that, I’m sure we’ll make our usual rounds of the museums, galleries, and exhibitions. Since we visited London during March the past two years, I’m very keen on making my way back to the Royal Academy of Art’s Summer Exhibition.

In addition to art, we’ll probably take a walking tour or two of previously unexplored London neighborhoods. Indeed, London is generally a great city for walking. Of course, a lot of my walks seem to lead me to or through the city’s bookshops… funny that. :-)

On Friday, we’ll depart London a day earlier than usual and head down to Southampton via train to board the Jade for our 14 night Western Mediterranean cruise. Here’s our scheduled itinerary:


Given that we’re experienced travelers in Europe (and have been to some of these locations previously), we’re planning on exploring most of the ports on our own. However, unlike London, we’ve been doing some advanced planning to ensure that we make good use of our limited time on land. The only excursion organized by NCL that we’re currently signed up for is in Vigo for a visit to Santiago de Compostela.

We return to London on Friday, June 27. We’ll be spending 2 free nights are the London Marriott Hotel Kensington before flying home on Sunday. We’re not sure what we’ll do with this extra time, but I do plan to check out the Cy Twombly exhibition that will have just opened at the Tate Modern.