Thursday 15 January 2026
No, we’re not still in Italy, even if the most recently published blog post suggests that. When we were on the European continent and then back in London for six weeks we actively decided to concentrate on the adventure and save the blog writing for when we returned to Medina thinking we’d have plenty of time then. However with celebrating the holidays with family members, doing a some of our favorite holiday activities in Medina including decorating our apartment and setting up a simple HO train layout around the tree, getting caught up on wellness checks, doing all sorts of stuff to get ready for a trip that includes visits to at least sixteen foreign countries, purchasing a new car, getting new phones, and eyeglasses for Karen, we didn’t have as much opportunity as we’d expected. Oh yeah, there was also getting suitcases packed and ready for pickup two weeks before setting foot aboard ship. Today we ventured out into Lake Effect Snow to run some last minute errands including an unexpected trip to the dentist and a stop by the library to print out the Namibian visas that we couldn’t apply for until today. We visited some of our favorite places in Medina before heading home to finish packing and to eat some Reubens we’d gotten at Jane’s. Tomorrow the journey begins. We’ve booked a ride to Cleveland for an overnight stay at Hotel Cleveland and a 5 AM ride to the Amtrak Station. The Lake Shore Limited will deliver us to Penn Station in Manhattan. We’ll make our way to The Lodge Red Hook in Brooklyn for a two night stay before boarding Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 on Monday for a 108 day Full World Voyage. If you want to know where we are in real time you can follow the Queen Mary 2 on Cruisemapper.com or get the Cruisemapper app for iOS or Android . From this point our intention is to stay current with our posts as well as work to catch up on the backlog. Just know that you might get a post from Switzerland one day and one from Panama the next. That doesn’t mean we’re zigzagging across the globe but just publishing out of order. Thanks for understanding. And thanks for traveling along with us in spirit. We love sharing the adventure with you!
Travel safe, looking forward to seeing your trip progress on Cruise Mapper!