We saw Tenement House, an Edwardian flat that has been preserved since 1910. I loved reading the letters from Miss Toward discussing the chimney sweep and coal deliveries, it brought the place alive for me. She even wrote about how she had saved up the 25 pounds to have an electric light installed. This move was too modern for the National Trust however, so they retrofitted the lamps back to gas lighting when they adopted the place in the 1990s.

The flat itself was ingeniously designed – a much better use of space than our little apartment. For example, the favourite bed was tucked into a niche in their warmest room – the kitchen. It also had a series of pulleys that permitted two washing lines to be lowered, the sheets to be hung, and then hoisted up towards the ceiling and out of the way. An expert guide stood in each room, answering our questions and pointing out interesting aspects of the flat.

We also took a tour of the Glasgow School of Art. Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh when he was 29 and completed in 1909, this enormous building is a practical yet whimsical fusion of Art Deco and Art Nouveau architecture. Huge glass windows dominate the studios, while the library is a geometric forest of timber and light. We finished up our explorations with afternoon tea at the Mackintosh-designed Willow tea rooms.

The ship let us off early so that we were able to catch the 8:57 train, getting us to the World Heritage listed Colosseum by 11:00 am. I had pre-purchased tickets on the web, so we were able to smugly walk past the long line of people waiting to buy tickets and get inside reasonably quickly. We had both pre-loaded Rick Steves’ audio guide onto our iPhones, and we listened to it as we walked through this immense structure. I enjoyed this particular commentary of Rick Steves’. Hearing the trumpets blare and his vivid descriptions, I could very easily look down into the centre ring and imagine the horrific theatrics that were played out in the second century CE. The underground passages that served as the backstage were also visible, giving an insight into the mechanics that were required for such a spectacle. To think that right on this spot, wild animals were brutally tortured, or that condemned men were placed in costumes and forced to act in a elaborate plays that would end in their death. This is the place where an estimated million animals and half a million people were put to death for entertainment. Although, having just seen the enormous bull ring in Malaga, I wondered how much has really changed in 1900 years.

I told Adrian that we had no time to stop and eat, so we grabbed a pizza and toasted sandwich to eat while on the metro. Our next stop was a visit to the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta. The order ruled over Jerusalem, then Rhodes, then Malta until it was ejected when Napoleon I captured the country in 1798. After the loss of Malta the Order settled permanently in Rome in 1834. The Magistral Villa is located on the Aventine hill, and hosts the Grand Priory of Rome, the Embassy of the Order to the Holy See and the Embassy of the Order to the Italian Republic. The Order still claims sovereignty, and thus the villa has extraterritorial status. I was able to peek through the keyhole and see St Peter’s basilica through the avenue of trees. That was our next destination.

After returning to Italy, it was time to cross another border into the Vatican City, and experience Adrian’s 100th World Heritage site (my count is around 50). The immense granite obelisk towers over the square. Originally carved by the Egyptians to honour the sky god Ra, then stolen by the Romans to venerate Jupiter, it now stands with a tiny cross at its peak to mark the transition from one superstition to another. There was a 100-foot tree nearby that was a gift from Belgium, and when the Pope received it he declared “May the Church in Belgium, and especially the Diocese of Liège, continue to be a land where the seed of the Kingdom, that Christ came to scatter on earth, generously germinates”.

Thanks to the terrible weather, the line into St Peter’s basilica was relatively short, and we were soon inside the church. Once inside, I was very impressed by the vast and ornate interior. The floor looked like a rich carpet, though it was really a pattern constructed in marble. Every surface was gilded or embellished in some way. We listened to Rick Steves’ audio guide, which irked me a little. I didn’t like hearing about his very statements about “Jesus’ message of love”, that “things are much more enjoyable here if you become a temporary Catholic”, and “your time here can be awe inspiring and beautiful if you accept and respect things on Catholic terms”.

However, he did touch upon the financing with indulgences, pillaging of the Pantheon, and torture during the Inquisition. He spoke of how the church betrayed Michelangelo, by promising they would be faithful to his plans and then altering them soon after his death. I learnt that the reason that the bronze statue of St Peter near the alter is wearing a toga is because it was probably originally of a Roman official, and later on the Catholics just replaced the head and placed some keys in his hand.

Suddenly it was 4pm, time to head back to the ship. We discovered that the metro station that google maps claimed was near the San Pietro train station did not actually exist, and thus decided it was best to catch the metro all the way back to the Roma Termini station and catch the train from there. By the time we finally got onto a train it was not going to arrive at Civitavecchia until 5:57pm, giving us only a half hour window for delays and getting back to the ship. Happily, the train moved towards the coast without delay, and we made it back onto the ship with ten minutes to spare.

I convinced Adrian that we could also experience Mediterranean culture inside instead of outside. We found a restaurant nearby and had an early extended dinner of pizza, panini, and paella. The waitress made us some refreshing tinto de verano – a mixture of red wine and Fanta de Limón. After dinner, we slowly strolled through the streets filled with lights above, reflected on the stones below. The rain had cleared, the streets were crowded with people enjoying their evening, and we polished off the night with some very delicious gelato.

It was a little unsettling to wake up the next morning and realise that we were in the same location as the night before. This was the only day of our holiday where the sun was shining and the sky was blue. I really felt myself getting into the holiday spirit, soaking in the sunshine and winding down. Sometimes I tend to get very mission orientated – concentrating on moving from one sight to the next, without taking the time to sit down and tranquilize. It seemed that a warm day in Spain was an excellent way for me to finally unwind.

We very wisely caught a taxi all the way to the top of the Gibralfaro castle at the top of the hill. It was originally built out of limestone by Cordoban emir Abd ar-Rahman I in the 8th-century, later rebuilt in the 11th by Badis, the Ziri king, and again in 14th century when Málaga was the main port for the Emirate of Granada. All of Málaga and its harbour can be seen from the castle, and it was a beautiful walk down the fortifications to the Alcazaba fortress at the base. We gazed out at the old Roman ampitheatre nearby. It is currently being restored, and we discussed the dangers and merits of reconstructing ancient sites. Should we use brand-new materials to make the place look exactly how it did in its heyday, or just preserve as much as we can of the old materials and let ones imagination fill in the rest? On our way back to the ship, I had a truly terrible waffle that reminded me that I was no longer in Belgium.

This ship departed Málaga at 2pm, and we spent the afternoon in one of the hot tubs on the top deck, watching the Sierra Nevada mountains roll past us under the warm Mediterranean sun. I felt well and truly relaxed.

This house was renovated by Gaudí for the Batlló family in 1904, and is full of beautiful yet practical intricacies. The whole building feels as if it has sprouted from the ground, with organic lines that flow from one space to the next. The gill-like intricate wooden carvings in the doors can be slid upwards to control the ventilation, and the whole front window of the living room can be raised vertically to let open up the house on a summer’s day. The core of the building is a courtyard of light, tiled with a blue mosaic that darkens as it nears the sky. As the light is brighter at the top, this gives the illusion of a constant shade of blue all the way down. Every room has at least one source of natural light. Even the fireplace is thoughtfully designed, as it has two inside – a larger one for a courting couple, and a smaller one for their chaperone. It is a home that I would love to live in myself.

The Sagrada Família was also designed by Gaudí, and it was the first time that I have ever seen a church under construction. Construction was initiated in 1883, and it is projected that it will finish in 2026. Financed solely by private donations, the building employs 200 people full-time to design, carve, and assemble this immense stone structure. The exterior of the church will have three main sides that depict the Christian nativity, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. Each scene is constructed in a different style. The figures in the crucifixion are carved with strong simple lines, and it was under this scene that we entered the church. While the resurrection scene is yet to be built, the nativity scene was mostly finished in the time of Gaudí. Now lying under a thick layer of soot, it looks like a melted sandcastle with drooping figures and dissolving towers.

While we didn’t think that the outside was very inspiring or beautiful, the inside of the church was quite lovely. The weight of the ceiling was held up by tall columns that split and stretched out like palm trees, with rays of light falling down between their leaves. These curved columns meant that no buttresses or flying buttresses were required, which permits the building to rise up quite quickly with a relatively small footprint. The stained glass is only now being placed inside the windows, and is the only source of colour in the grey stone temple. The most fascinating part of the visit was seeing the church as a work in progress. There were no pews or alters, only construction workers with plans and power tools.

We finished our architectural tour of Barcelona with a visit to the exterior of the world-heritage Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, built between 1901 and 1930. It was designed by Lluis Domenech i Montaner, with intricate mosaics, carvings, and iron works. It only ceased functioning as a hospital in July this year, and is currently being renovated for conversion into a museum.

The old town was an enthralling place to explore. We often found ourselves lost, wandering through winding alleyways to pop out and discover unusual Cattedrale di San Lorenzo or the old city gates. We found a wooden boat with a remarkable figurehead of Neptune moored in the old harbour. Soon it was time to pack up our belongings and board the MSC Fantasia for nine nights at sea, sailing to Casablanca and back again.

Today, we explore Genova before boarding the cruise ship that will be our home for the next nine nights, as it takes us through the Mediterranean.

Russel, Adrian and I met up with Luke, Shyla, and Suma. Sadly Suma wasn’t permitted to join in the road trip, and was sent to a kitty hotel for a few days. Last time they had a pet-sitter come to the house everyday Suma meowed so much the landlord worried that Luke and Shyla had died in their apartment. She is one talkative little kitten.

Then we were off, heading north to Wales. We stopped in Bath for a few hours, admiring the Roman strucutres that were built around the only thermal springs in the United Kingdom. Sadly we were not permitted to dive in, but it was fascinating to walk through the ruins of ancient temples and imagine the lives of its visitors throughout the centuries.

Then it was off to find Hole-in-the-Wall, a tiny town near Ross-on-Wye, down a very long narrow road edged by tall hedges in the middle of the night. If we did not have GPS, this would have been a disaster. It took us longer than expected, but we arrived safe and sound at around midnight. Why were we staying at Hole-in-the-Wall, an isolated activities centre for teenagers? When my mother and I lived in Fowey, Cornwall in 1984, my best friend was a girl named Laura. Through the magic of Facebook we managed to find each other again.

Laura generously offered us cheap accommodation and a guided tour of the area. The five of us had to sleep in bunk beds in a giant dorm, but luckily we did not have to share it with any 10-16 year olds. The next morning she and her boyfriend showed us the “beauty spots” of the area, including a lookout where the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds had set up some scopes where we could watch some nesting Peregrine Falcons. We also spotted a tiny hedgehog out on some important business in the rain.

Back on the road, we drove up to Snowdonia in Wales. The countryside was really beautiful, filled with pastures with sheep and cows. Adrian said that the sheep here weren’t as cute as the Icelandic sheep, and Russell did seem a bit mystified that we would call out “sheep!” whenever we spotted one of the little creatures outside the window. The main export of Wales is slate, and the grey outcrops provided a bit of shelter for these animals during the intermittent rain.

The next day we set off to explore two of the great castles of the United Kingdom, Caernarfon Castle and Conwy Castle. They were both very pretty. In Caernafon I climbed to the top of the tallest tower and learnt about the Princes of Wales. It was so strange to read about King Edward on one wall, and then see the broadcast of the crowning of Prince Charles on the other. With the walls of the great castle crumbling around me, it was so odd to realise that we still have a monarchy and I am still ruled by a Queen.

In Conwy it was fun to walk on the city walls and visit the smallest house in Great Britain. The tiny place was very impressive – a fireplace and kitchen downstairs and a bedroom upstairs. Sadly it has been declared unfit for habitation, as it would have been a fun place to stay for a night.

Then a long drive back to London. Adrian wanted to walk through his Mum’s hometown of Wolverhampton, but I declared that we could only drive through it on our way to Cadbury World in Birmingham. We didn’t have time for the whole “world of chocolate” experience, but we did manage to explore the largest Cadbury store in the world. After all that gourmet praline rubbish of Belgium, it was a delight to be surrounded by so much delicious purple. I managed to find the only place in Europe that stocks Creme Eggs outside of Easter, as well as a luxurious bath robe in my favourite colour.

On our last day in the UK Luke and Shyla went back to work while the rest of us we went off to experience a bit of British culture before our train departed that afternoon. I’m not sure how successful we were in this – as we ended up watching Bruno, flying in the London Eye, and eating at TGI Friday’s. However, we all had fun and it was a good way to farewell Russell before he departed on his 36 day bus tour of Europe.