Part 14 - Back to Reality

Our mega trip to Europe is now complete.  This is not the longest trip we have been on (my previous sabbatical trip was one week longer in duration, and significantly longer in distance driven), but was by far our longest trip outside of the North America.  By the numbers:

• Days away from home: 72
• Number of different places we stayed:  39
• Number of countries visited: 19
• Distance driven:  8,245 miles (13,269 km)
• Number of photos taken: 16,097 (100 GB in size)
• Number of words in the blog:  more than 40,000
• Most northerly point visited: Umeå, Sweden, N 63° 49’, E 20° 15’
• Most southerly point: Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, N 46° 36’, E 7° 54’
• Most easterly point: Vilnius, Lithuania.  N 61° 31’, E 23° 38’
• Most westerly point: Mt. Saint Michel, France.  N 48° 35’, W 01° 38’
• Weight lost - 12 lbs (5.5 kg).  Certainly it was a challenge to eat healthy while traveling, so most of the credit goes to a lot of miles walked, and the added effort to get around on crutches.  For the first time in over 20 years I am under 170 lbs (77 kg).   Unfortunately I don't think if I wrote a "How to lose weight by using crutches" book that it would be a best seller.

Our most favorite experience overall?   I’m not going to even try and get everyone to answer that.  It was hard enough to pick a favorite item for each country, and to compare the wonderful experiences in each country against each other is just not possible.  I will however add my best moment of the trip.  It was in Sweden, when they removed my cast and the orthopedic surgeon said that my foot would heal better without the cast.  While getting around on crutches limited a few things that I wanted to do and made almost everything physically more demanding, I was ultimately able to do more than 95% of what I wanted to do, and minimally limit the impact on what the rest of the family could do.  If I had kept the hard plaster cast it would have significantly limited what I could do, and we would have had to consider coming home much earlier than planned.  I am indebted to Betty and her family for helping me get initial care for my foot, to Birgitta for arranging follow-up care in Sweden, and to the doctors and nurses that helped me.  I am also thankful for my family who carried my suitcase for me, and patiently waited at times for me to catch up.  Thank you! 

Now it unfortunately is time to for sabbatical/summer vacation to end.  I have to return to work, the kids to school, and Karen to the myriad of volunteer activities and household tasks that keep her perpetually busy.  Since I delayed the start of this sabbatical I have less than 5 years until I am eligible for the next one.  Only 1,798 days, not that anyone is counting.  Time to start planning the next big adventure.  Any suggestions?

Update on my foot.  I had a visit with an orthopedic surgeon here in Portland about a week after returning home.  Unfortunately he said that the bone is not healing as well as it should be.  He said he would have recommended that I be in a cast for 6-8 weeks versus having the cast removed after a week which was the guidance I was given in Sweden.  I have to try and be less physically active to allow the foot to heal, and have another Dr. appointment in 5 weeks,  If it has not healed by that time the Dr. will likely recommend surgery to put a screw in the bone.  I hope that can be avoided, but even in hindsight I wouldn't change what I did.  If getting rid of the cast in Sweden and doing a lot of walking on the trip resulted in longer longer healing time and more pain short term that is a trade off I am  happy to have made as it allowed us to continue our trip with with minimal impact to our planned activities and itinerary.