Ready for a Trip??

During the summer of 2004, we decided to book a cruise on the Queen Mary 2 in May 2005 with some days spent in London pre-cruise before we started our crossing from Southampton. I love cruising, I love doing transatlantic ocean crossings, and I love England. What could be better? I deserved this trip after my surgery, or so I thought.

Surgery was late October, the brace would come off in late January, and I should be good to go by late May. Well, I can't really sleep on a plane, the flight was about six hours long and the trot through Heathrow after we landed was l-o-n-g. It didn't worry my back, but my right leg was bothering me. That, plus I was just plain tired from lack of sleep. The car ride into London from the airport was yet another ordeal, since there seemed to be accidents and backups wherever we went. It took us twice as long to get to our hotel in London from Heathrow as it normally does.

After finally catching up on our sleep, we went out sightseeing. Once again, I think I was a little premature with this. I thought I could do more walking, thought I could put up with the increasingly numb and painful right leg issues, but it was very tough. I took my medicines for pain and did the best I could to enjoy myself in London. Things were better when we got on the ship, even though it was the largest passenger ship afloat. I did a lot of walking, but on my schedule and at my leisure. In hindsight, I would have waited a few more months to do this trip.