Blogs from Oceans and Seas - page 16

Hello Everyone. Let’s start with the good news we’ve been waiting to receive. We finally got the message that our granddaughter (Tessa Brink) had successful surgery on her arm to insert a couple of long nails to align the two bones she broke in her right arm almost 2 weeks ago. The doctors have been waiting for the swelling to subside so they could set the bones properly and she is doing fine. In 2 more weeks she will need more work, but not to worry. She will stay overnight in the hospital, but Valerie will stay with her and they should both go home tomorrow. We are really relieved this is done and that all went well. Now for the bad news. Janet has relapsed into having more stomach distress and had a rough night ... read more

After leaving Vigo we embarked on a 3-day voyage to Livorno Italy. The captain announced that we would be sailing along the Portuguese coast and passing by Lisbon during the night, but too far out to see anything. Then in the middle of the night we will pass through the Straits of Gibraltar, but only visible by the full moon tonight. That is the tour-guide summary of our passage today. We slept in this morning after a very tiring day yesterday. However after a good long night’s rest Janet was feeling better. Her ankles are still a bit tender after all the walking, but she is doing better. By sleeping late Janet missed the Knitters meeting, but we did have a good buffet breakfast about 10:30. For the first time since we got on the ship, ... read more

Today we wrapped up Phase-2 of our vacation. We have concluded our visit to London and have started cruising again. But let’s take the day in order as it happened. We got up at 7:45 with most everything already packed in the suitcases. We went down for the usual breakfast and then said goodbye to the lady who has prepared the food and cleaned the room all week. There are 4 people who do almost all the work in this small hotel, so we have gotten to know her. The menu has been pretty much the same everyday, but it was better than some European breakfasts we have had, and the lady was always very friendly to us. We went back to the room and found an e-mail from Stephanie. She said they had tried to ... read more

Hello from the Queen Mary 2, somewhere still at sea. Today we start with some sad news about our granddaughter, Tessa Brink. We were told that yesterday she fell and broke her right arm – both bones. She currently only has a splint but after the swelling goes down a little, she is destined to having a cast. I thought we had left clear instructions for “nobody to get sick” while we were away, but we should have also said “don’t get broken” either. We hope she starts feeling better soon and she heals quickly. David did the same thing to his left arm when he was a kid and look how he turned out – well that’s not because of his arm. We got up before 8:00 today and went to the dining room for ... read more

The way our bus approached the piers back on Sunday, and how the boarding process occurred, there was no good way to step back and take a picture of the whole ship – especially in the rain. David has cheated and has included a picture from the internet of the Queen Mary 2, just to show what our “ferry” looks like as we shuttle across to London. This morning we slept in for a while before going to the dining room for breakfast. We shared a table with some UK people who were on the return leg of their 14-day roundtrip. In their case, the journey is truly the vacation as opposed to being a mean of how to get to a destination. The other couple will be flying out from Southampton on a small plane ... read more