The Final Thoughts and Recap of our Adventures.

 July 15

The last week of our travels involved visiting my relatives in England, and I am not documenting this for the blog.   

We had an early flight from Manchester airport, 7 a.m., so we booked a hotel next to the terminal for the night before. We were able to watch the Euro Football Final, England vs. Spain.  Unfortunately, England came second in the game, but there is no shame in being second-best in Europe.

Our flight was from Manchester to London Heathrow, then on to Chicago, and a final flight to Kansas.  It was a long day but relaxing and uneventful.  We had to go through security three times, which is never a pleasure, but interestingly, Chicago was the easiest.

Our wonderful neighbors Brian and Donna met us at the airport, and we treated them to dinner on the way home, a seventy-minute drive.

We arrived home at 8 p.m. to a warm welcome of 106 degrees, twice as hot as England in the 50s. 

The Recap

I, Rod, will use this last blog to recap our travels this year.  

It is hard to believe, but between February and July this year, we visited twenty-two countries, which took us all the way around the world.  We started by flying to Sydney, Australia, for a few days to recover from the 17-hour flight.  

We then boarded the Oceania Insignia cruise ship and traveled much of Asia and India over the next ninety days, ending up in Dubai, UAE.  

We then flew to Italy to spend a week with our outer friends George and Roxanne, who purchased and now live in a castle in Umbria.   

Next, we flew to Germany for a six-day river cruise by Avalon on the River Danube passing through Austria, Slovakia and ending in Budapest, Hungary.  

Our next adventure was to fly back to Italy and play in a demonstration handbell choir in the cathedrals of southern Italy.   

Our final adventure was to fly to England and spend a month traveling the English canals in our own [shared] canal boat.   

Final thoughts from Rod

The trip's highlights for me were visiting the wonderful cities of Hong Kong, Toyoko, Shanghai, Singapore, Bombay (Mumbai), Sydney, and Dubai.   These are all beautiful cities to visit.    

I was touched by the warm welcome we received when visiting poor countries like India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.    

I did not enjoy the oppressive heat and humidity of all the Asian countries.   

My favorite part of the trip was slowly traveling through the beautiful countryside of England, especially on warm, sunny days and even on changeable weather days.  Full disclosure: England is my mother country, but I have no desire to move back after 43 years in the USA.   

We have loved every minute and are so lucky to have this experience, but 'there is no place like home', especially in Kansas.

Final thoughts from Merry

​Well​, here goes!! My favorite thing in the past five-plus months is hard to determine!! I have so many memories​, and to sift through them all will take me a long time. Terminal E​, ​Dallas, is where it all began…after months of planning. On our way to Australia!! We intended to first visit ​Rod’s ​second cousin for a week before getting on insignia to begin our whirlwind to the places we missed in the World Cruise 2022, which was not a World Cruise after all. 

​We intended to visit those places we had missed, including Russia and the ​Suez ​Canal, when war broke out in Ukraine, and we were again not going where we thought​.

We did get to see a fantastic play at the Sydney ​Opera ​House…RBG​  [Ruth Bader Ginsberg]. It had the overcrowded ( we had seats in the very last row) theatre with not a single dry eye by the time this very dramatic and indeed even funny show was over​, I highly recommend it! 

​Finally, we're on the ship, and now the fun begins!!! In ​Loh Liang National Park, ​we saw Komodo dragons​. That was exciting!!! There were so many fascinating​ places to visit. 

I could go on for several more pages about all the beautiful things we saw, elephants in Sri Lanka.  I was on my own, then a man took many pictures of me with one of the elephants in the long line of the group as then wended their way between the water and the road.  I soon realized he wanted money for the picture-taking and he was almost rude to me about that.

India, I have to mention this:  we had lunch in a home in India---right in the middle of a vast mass of what must have been middle-class homes.  a wonderfull meal prepared by his wife and many stories of family times.  

Finally, we were again in England, on our canal boat floating down the canals and the peace and quiet of the fields of cows, sheep, corn, and miles of nothing with houses scattered far away to see.  church bells tolling, birds flying overhead, and just the countryside quiet.    There is as much countryside along the canals in England, and there is space and farms scattered throughout the countryside in this country.

I conclude with Rod's return to stateside USA, yet I yearn to return.....maybe.'

We hope you have enjoyed our journey.  Feel free to write to us with your comments.   rlloyd@clear-lake.com   merry@clear-lake.com