Adventures

On the morning of Day 18 (Friday) I learned, via a phone call, that the plan for our extraction, in the company of a nurse companion, involved a 3-hour ride by car to Valencia, a 3-hour flight to Frankfurt and a 9-hour flight to Miami. This thrilled me not at all. I believe the term … Continue reading »

Jett passed her blood test and was released from the hospital. But it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. It was a day of telephone calls, text messages and trips to the reception desk. There was a problem getting the insurance paperwork sent to the hospital, due to a miscommunication of the email address. Ultimately, … Continue reading »

Jett remained in the hospital on Day 16 (Wednesday). I survived a night on the hospital room sofa (more like a weight bench with very little padding). While she received 2 more units of blood, I went exploring, more to get information on ways to get out of the city than to sightsee. But I … Continue reading »

It didn’t take long, once we were off the ship and in the hospital, to figure out that our cruise was over. The doctor said that Jett would be admitted for a minimum of 3 days of treatment and possibly more. That meant that the earliest we could reboard the ship would be in Monte … Continue reading »

Malaga. This is a beautiful little port city with some great ancient fortifications and very interesting downtown and port areas. But it will always be associated in my mind with illness and loss because the day that started so well ended in disappointment in the infirmary. Jett’s illness was unabated in the morning and we … Continue reading »

I am told that Columbus embarked on his trip to the New World from Huelva, Spain, the port city for nearby Seville. I hope he had better weather than we did – cloudy and cool, with a little drizzle. The gloomy weather was compounded by Jett’s continuing illness, which is now less fever and more … Continue reading »

Day 12, Saturday, was the day of our scheduled trip to Fatima. But Jett remained too sick to leave the cabin, so I went alone. Well, not alone, exactly. I was accompanied by three other couples and a very nice young tour guide and driver. On the 90 minute trip north to Fatima he kept … Continue reading »

On Day 10 (Thursday) we awoke with the ship docked in Funchal, Madeira, an island off the coast of Morocco which is owned by Portugal. We had nothing planned for the day, so after a leisurely breakfast we left the ship just to feel solid ground after more than a week at sea. I had … Continue reading »

The days are starting to blend together. The big event for me on Day 8 (Tuesday) was my first beer on board (not counting the beer tasting on Day 2). I read on the aft deck for much of the afternoon, finishing Speaking in Tongues by Jeffery Deaver (described in the previous post). I worked … Continue reading »

The sun returned for Day 6 (Sunday) which proved to be the most sedate day yet. We seem to be falling behind the clocks, which advanced another hour (3 hours in total now). We rose too late to make the Sunday brunch in the dining room, which began at 11:30 am. Instead we had our … Continue reading »