Oh My, I thought I would be writing on the blog site everyday and then……..well, it just isn’t that easy to stay on stop of things when you are adjusting to a new time zone, family outings everyday and evening and lots of moving around. Our learning curve is much bigger than we could have imagined. The weather has been unexpectedly wet and cold. We had two days in wet and cold Paris to wander, eat, drink and recover from our flight before we met Will’s family of ten and drove to Normandy for a week. We had a beautiful house in the country, but we spent most of our time away from the quiet serenity sight seeing all that a tourist should see in that area. Mont St Michel, Utah Beach, American Cemetery, Avranches Castle and the Tour de France as it quickly passed by, to name just a few activities. It was a wonderful whirlwind of family and touring which ended with us back in Paris. WE are enjoying all the French hoopla surrounding the finals of the EuroCup Tournament…. France vs Portugal. Of course we are rooting for France to win so that we can be part of the grand party post soccer match. If France loses, we will get more sleep and that would be a bonus as well. We all leave France Thursday with Will’s family heading home and we will depart for Portugal for ten days. Neither of us have been there before so we are hoping for an adventure or two. We also just need some rest!
Learning Curve Lessons (so far):
Lesson #1: Schleping 50 pound bags and 20 -35 pound packs is not the same as it was in our 20s and 30s.
Lesson #2: Family is important and every minute we could spend with them was worthwhile and memorable. We had to leave the “we want to do our own thing” and go along for all the rides.
Lesson #3: Major abdominal surgery takes as long as the surgeon told me it would to recover. My energy is still compromised and my shorter untwisted intestine has struggled to work efficiently….I am waiting! Listen to the doctor’s orders. Follow the doctors orders. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Lesson #4: Check and double check all reservations…especially dates. We (Bon) blew our first Airbnb reservation by reserving the wrong month and we, humbly, had to chalk that one up to…..stomach surgery?
Lesson #5: We have had to learn more about the visa requirements in Europe when we realized that we are overstaying our welcome by 7 days. It is complicated and Will has been researching this like crazy. Good thing we are flexible and have the means to get out of the country…but where to go???? We are considering Cyprus, Romania or Morocco. Anyone have an opinion?
What we did right #1: We have everything we need to charge all of our electronics no matter where we are and we have already been tested. Thanks to Kyle and Dez for getting us our first Tumi device and we bought more. It seems that having our devices is a necessity not just an addiction.
#2: We were prepared when we left for everything at home to run smoothly, our banking to be simple and efficient, extra slush funds for money emergencies, and good medical and travel insurance.
More from Portugal.
Bon and Will (Day 13)