Wendy's Platter…travels

February 17, 2026

Note: Click on any of the photos to get to the blog entry!

“What was your favorite thing in Europe?”

Plenty of things pop up in my head: the food, the plethora of cultures, the history prior to the past half a millennium, the art and music, the architecture. But with this trip to Europe, my favorite thing was sharing the experience with many beloved family members who met us there.

Sharing the awe of Sintra, Portugal with our children and grandchildren; floating above the Loire Valley in a hot air balloon with my cousin Tim, my nephew Tom, and my husband; meeting up with friends we had met two years earlier on a tour in New Zealand, for a new adventure in Brussels, Belgium; sharing speechless moments with nephew Skylar from our hotel balcony in Gibraltar as we gazed across the Straits of Gibraltar at Africa, and gorging on baklava with my niece Elena in Istanbul.

Looking back at the trip, not just the photos or blog entries, but analyzing what it took for us to make this trip, was it all that we hoped it would be?

Expenses

Budgeting:

My first off-the-cuff budget, about a year before the trip, came out to $40,500. That seemed insane but I really didn’t want a budget that was under-planned. Not willing to give up on the idea of the trip, I started getting more serious about looking at lodging and transportation costs. I realized then that there were serious discounts to spending more than a day or two in each place.

Re-looking at the itinerary, I decided to stay longer in certain areas to take advantage of the savings. The added benefit was that we could immerse ourselves in an area, plus use it as a base camp to explore our surroundings. The time saved in not packing and repacking could be invested in either rest or exploring.

With my new itinerary, I revised my budget down to $25,700. Now the trip seemed in reach.

Actual expenses:

With the exception of a few cash tips for hotel staff, etc., we used our credit cards for most purchases. We have two credit cards, neither of which charged a fee for converting currency. While traveling, one of our cards lost its ability for “contactless” payment which meant we couldn’t just “tap” our card. This only proved to be a problem at toll road booths. On the toll roads, this slowed down not only our progress, but also those cars stuck behind us who, no doubt, had time schedules to keep, unlike us knuckle-headed tourists. We just switched to our other card and used it for tolls.

Back home at my desk after the trip, I was able to download all the transactions into a spreadsheet and separate them into appropriate categories. The categories chosen by the Citibank and Capital One algorithms did not match my choices, but with Google sheets, I could quickly make the changes.

Spending the time to go over the expenses from the comfort of my office chair did two things. It allowed me to remember the transactions and really understand how much it cost us. And it also allowed me to compare my early pre-trip budget with the actual expenses.

One could argue that my M.B.A. from UC Berkeley gave me the financial expertise to create an impeccable budget…but more than realistically, I just got lucky. When the final numbers were in, the trip expenses were $24,994.64. Under budget by $705. Damn I’m good!

We did what we wanted and never really denied ourselves an experience or meal at a special place. That said, we were modest in our travels. We wanted to be in the middle of the middle. We weren’t looking for expensive restaurants or high-end hotels.

Nonetheless, one of our favorite stays was the Rock Hotel in Gibraltar which was built in 1932 and had all of the perks and charms of its British heritage [see Euro Days 70-71 of 100]. Although it was one of our most expensive stays, at $240 for the night, the view and breakfast were unbeatable. At the other end of the spectrum was our first night of the trip (not counting the overnight air travel) in a tiny hotel on the Black Sea in Turkey, not far from the Istanbul airport [see Euro Days 1-8]. It was the least expensive lodging at $44 for the night and had a certain exotic charm, if you squinted a little. Our one month stay in Thiers, France [see Euro Days 35-36, 37, 38, 39-42, 48-51, 52-54, 55-57, 58-59] was only  $24 per night. Our entire 28-day stay in Thiers was cheaper than our 7-day stay in our tiny studio apartment in Paris. But Paris was worth it[see Euro Days 9-12, 13-15]!

Time is money

For this trip to Europe, I was concentrating on staying in places that would take advantage of the medieval areas of the towns we visited. Although we had a car from the second week on, we didn’t want to be driving within the cities…we wanted to walk and absorb the towns and cities at a pedal level and pace.

As could be expected, the abodes near the centers of towns or in the medieval areas were often more expensive. But the truth of all traveling is, as Ben Franklin reminded us in his essay, Advice to a Young Tradesman published in 1748, “Time is money.”

For traveling purposes, I take the adage to heart. I could easily have found abodes far cheaper in the outskirts of the main cities which we could have accessed with our car and thus save that money for other purposes. However, even though we had the luxury of 100 days for the trip, it was still a finite amount of time. Simple math shows that 100 days will never be enough.

I did some quick calculations to make this point. First, remove two of the days as they are airflight days. Follow my logic and math: if we have 98 days and there are 24 hours in a day, we have 2352 hours to spend on our trip. However…

In a 24-hour period add all the hours you need to: sleep, eat, figure where to eat, choose the right croissant, walk to the patisserie, order the café and wait for the hot beverage to appear, decide whether you need to get laundry done or whether you can “get by” for another day, pick your destinations for the day, try to figure out how Google maps matches up with the streets and roads you are seeing, drive to wherever…then subtract the 1,432 night hours  but use 784 of those to sleep…then divide by the square root of the hyperbola of your driving route…

Let’s just acknowledge that the time on your trip is precious, so don’t waste it by looking for a cheaper parking place.

Lodging

Airbnb was our main source of lodging. We stayed in 16 different Airbnbs for total of 89 nights. In addition we stayed in five different hotels for a total of 10 nights.

Out of the 21 different places we stayed during our 100 nights on the road, there was really only one place that wasn’t adequate and we were there only three nights. That gives me a solid 97% on choosing our lodging. Not too bad.

Clearly the hours I spent pouring through Airbnb, booking.com, and other lodging sites was well worth it. Nick would often walk into our home office, at what he considered the “wrong time,” as I would immediately ask him to check out my lodging “finds” of the moment. As excited as he was about our impending trip, he was not as interested in the details of our housing. That said, he would sigh and take his place next to me and my multiple monitors to look at the potential choices. His questions and comments were always helpful in guiding me towards what was best for us.

Coming up with an itinerary was the first order of business. Getting from A to B has infinite possibilities until you get on Google to find actual travel times, match it to where you want to be and when, and then consider the different options. Using the filters offered in the Airbnb search sped up the process of finding what I wanted. I developed my own algorithms within Airbnb to speed my searches. Want to know my criteria, ask me!

Car

While I poured over hundreds of Airbnb listings, I handed over figuring out the car to Nick. In New Zealand, we had been handed the keys to Nick’s brother’s car for the duration of our 100 days of travel. Our only costs were for gas and one on-the-road repair. It was a steal. But without any relatives to mooch off, Nick had to find the best answer to our 100 days of daily transportation in Europe.

Car rental companies seemed outrageous for the number of days we needed. Although Europe has a great train system, we wanted the “road trip” experience while we were still young enough and in good enough shape to handle it.

Looking at our itinerary, we realized we wouldn’t need a car at the beginning of our trip in Brussels or in Paris. At the other end of the trip, we wouldn’t need a car in Madrid or our last stop in Istanbul. Therefore, we needed a car for 77 days. Nick found the answer. There are companies that lease brand new cars for extended periods. If we paid upfront for the period of time covered by the lease, the car was ours. At the end of the 77 days, the lease company would take back the car (unless we decided to keep it, then we would renegotiate). Any problems with the car would be “easily” handled through their offices.

As it turns out, we put their claim to “easily” handling problems, to the test on the very first day we drove [see Euro Days 16-19.] They lived up to their claim. And handing in the car at the end of the trip, in a different country, was no issue. Although we worried about the dirt and small scratches we had accumulated, they didn’t bat an eye. They took the keys, gave us a ride to the transit system, and wished us well [see Euro Days 93-94].

Our Renault Clio hybrid got great gas mileage (roughly 50 mpg) and had so many sweet bells and whistles. Perhaps our favorite was the coffee cup icon that appeared on the dashboard after we had been driving for a couple of hours, suggesting we take a coffee break. If nothing else, it made us laugh.

When making our budget for the car, I spent time using Google maps to get a true feel of timing for our route and the number of kilometers that we would drive. I also used AI to gather gasoline prices in the various countries we would be traveling through. I came up with the average cost per liter, applied that to the Google route, knowing that our Clio would get about 100 km per 4.71 liters. My estimate was that we would spend about $650 on gas, about $200 for parking, and $200 for tolls.

I was wrong. First, we covered 12,000 km not the 8,800 km I had estimated. Toll roads saved us a great deal of time, particularly when we had longer distances to cover. We spent $640 rather than $200 on toll roads.

And parking! If free parking wasn’t offered at the Airbnb, we sprang for larger parking lots in the bigger towns and left our car there for a few days untouched. The result was more than $500 in parking costs.

In all, the car cost us $700 more than budgeted. Again, not too bad and well worth it.

Food

When going out to restaurants before the trip, Nick and I had gotten into the habit of ordering one meal and sharing it. If we were extra hungry or we knew the portions were smaller, we would add an appetizer or salad…or sometimes a dessert at the end of the meal. We adopted the same for Europe, which also helped keep our food costs down.

On our New Zealand trip, we had quickly realized that going out for three meals a day would quickly break our already fragile bank. Generally, depending on our travels that day, our only meal “out” at a restaurant could be either lunch or dinner. In New Zealand, we often packed lunches (usually PBJs…see NZ Days 39-45) and would stop to picnic along the way. In Europe, we found ourselves more inclined to fresh baguettes, cheeses, olives, and fresh fruits.

Early on our Euro trip, we picked up a small, insulated cooler. Groceries always included the makings for breakfasts: coffee, eggs for me, cereal for Nick, milk, and plenty of fresh fruit. Farmers markets and later in the trip, the Christmas markets, always had regional surprises and often prepared foods.

Ready to walk

Unbelievably…smothered in French cuisine…surrounded by croissants and patisseries, baguettes and brie…and imbibing wines from the self-appointed center of the world’s best vineyards, I lost fifteen pounds in the 100 days on our trip.

Exercise prep for the trip

Fifteen months before our trip, I made a commitment to myself to start exercising. Although I had been proud of the amount of walking I had accomplished on our New Zealand trip, I also recognized that having less weight to carry around would vastly improve my experience. My orthopedist suggested that water exercise might be a good solution. We bought a hot tub…perfect for my husband’s back and perfect for my dive into exercise.

Searching through the many YouTube offerings, I found a hot tub exercise video with lots of stretching and some mild aerobics that I could increase as I needed more of a challenge. Given my previous less-than-successful attempts at exercise programs over the decades, I was pleasantly surprised that I was nearly addicted to my pre-breakfast, warm water exercise routine, which generally meant I was exercised and eating breakfast by 9:00 or 9:30 most mornings.

The most effective exercise of the hot tub routine was the simple one of going from almost sitting to standing in repetition for a minute without using my arms or letting my butt touch the seat. That one exercise probably had the biggest impact on strengthening my thighs enough to tackle the hills and steps I encountered on our trip. It had the added benefit of making me look a lot less like a decrepit old lady whenever I rose from a chair.

Nine months prior to leaving for our 100-day Euro adventure, I realized I needed to really step up, quite literally, my exercise game. At this point, I had a rough itinerary of our trip, and was well aware that I had purposely chosen Airbnbs in the center of the bigger cities so that we would be closer to the attractions and didn’t need to rely on a car (or extra time) to explore the immediate area. That meant a lot of walking. Yes, the big cities have buses and metros, but to get to and from the metro and bus stops required walking. I had no intention of wasting our precious travel money on Ubers and taxis…unless it was the only option.

So, I added walking to my exercise routine. I live in a small rural development close to a couple of county and state parks filled trails through the redwoods, but I needed the convenience of exercising from my house or I would succumb to my natural state of laziness.

The street in front of our house is ½ mile from Highway 36 and is paved. Up and back on a flat, paved road right in front of my house was the easiest solution. I added that to my routine. I tried to do it either twice a day or back-to-back, so that I could log about two miles per day. I was still working as a magazine editor so I didn’t have the luxury of the “infinite time” perceived of most retirees.

During the trip

All the prep exercise paid off as I hit our first destination, Brussels running…or rather walking. I averaged over six miles per day in the first few days, resting only to eat Belgian waffles, moules et frites (mussels served with a side of French fries), and wash it down with excellent Belgian beer. Of course, the scarily indulgent and decadent Belgian chocolate was a daily occurrence.

For me, the fact that I could (sort of) keep up with those I was traveling with (husband, friends, nephews, niece, cousin, bonus families, and grandchildren) was everything. I was game to walk anywhere. I also recognized when I would not be able to “keep up” and I would choose another activity that I enjoyed. I didn’t want to be a drag, and I think, for the most part, I succeeded.

I clocked over 420 walking miles while in Europe with 927,510 steps. Despite days when we stayed in our Airbnbs for writing or laundry, I averaged 9,275 steps per day. Yep, I’m proud.

Weight loss: getting it off, keeping it off in Europe

I have always been overweight or rather, but medical definitions, obese. When a family member confessed that their weight loss was helped with a semaglutide injection, I started to explore that possibility. I brought it up to my doctor who thought I was a good candidate. Unfortunately, Medicare didn’t agree, so if I wanted to try it, I had to pay out of my pocket. I was determined. It was time to put my money into my health.

Nine months before we left for our Euro adventure, I started on a semaglutide weekly injection. The weight didn’t fall off, but my appetite slowed way down. But, I am a foodie and have been all my life. I am addicted to the flavors and social aspects of meals with loved ones. I had to remind myself that I really didn’t need to eat more than a small serving. I didn’t need to finish my plate. I could actually serve myself smaller portions and take more if I want it. It was mind-blowing to me when I understood that I didn’t have to eat all of the French fries or a second piece of cheesecake or a second glass of wine. Satisfy yourself then stop. With the help of the semaglutide compound, I could do that.

Weight loss was slow but steady. By the time we were leaving for Europe, I had shed thirty-three pounds. My goal for the 100-day trip was to hold steady and not gain anything back. To help me achieve that I made a couple of purchases.

First, I had to ensure that my semaglutide medication remained refrigerated. Although I expected that most of our Airbnbs would have refrigerators, there was also the travel time either on an airplane or in the car. I found a medical thermos that was the size of a regular thermos, usually used for insulin, that had a tiny motor, powered either by plugging it in to the wall or by a portable battery that was not much bigger than my cell phone, although definitely heavier. As a backup, the thermos also had a biogel ice pack that could maintain a cool enough temperature in the thermos for the medication for up to 30 hours. The upside was that I could bring my medication and keep it safe. The downside was that it was awkward on the plane flights. I managed.

My second purchase made most of my family balk at me as it added weight to my luggage. Ironically, that weight was a small digital bathroom scale (Renpho) that connected via Bluetooth to an app on my phone. At just under two pounds ,and two-thirds the size of my 14” MacBook Pro, I could tuck it in next to the computer in my backpack.

Being able to weigh myself every morning kept me honest. I originally justified bringing the scale as my best defense against weight gain. But truthfully, with the extra exercise and the medication, I found myself slowly losing weight even with croissants, baguettes, cheeses, pastel de nada, boeuf Bourgogne, tapas, wines, beers, and ports that had become a part of my diet. I actually lost more than 15 pounds while in Europe. Unbelievable to me.

Tours

As a young traveler, I thought tours were…well…dumb. Sitting on a bus listening to someone drone on about this and that did not interest me. I didn’t need to be lectured to. How naïve! With seventy-three years behind me and the experience of traveling as a young hitch hiker as well as an old lady, I have seen the light.

Tours come in lots of forms and we took advantage of almost all of them.

In the countries we visited in the EU, tour guides are licensed after going through mandatory training, exams, and official registration within the country. This includes all tours. We had many excellent guides, such as the guide for our all-day Normandy D-Day tour (through bayeuxshuttle.com. See Euro days 15-19). We learned that our guide had been licensed in other areas of France but had recently moved to the Normandy area and had to pass the Normandy and D-Day exam. Her presentations were highly entertaining, even to me…who, up until that day, had not really understood the immensity of D-Day.

I grouped our forty or so tours into the following categories:

“Free” Walking tours

Free walking tours are listed online on various platforms: Tripadvisor, Guruwalks, Walkative!. Freetoursbyfoot, freewalkingtour,…The “free” walking tours are offered on the honor system in that a tip at your discretion is expected at the end of the tour “if you liked it”…Most of the guides were well-informed and entertaining, and modest when it came to “tip” time. We had only one who made it clear that our gratuity was not enough. The fact that he made us feel bad just validated our low tip. Generally, we would pay the tour guide between $20-$40 for each of us, depending on the length of the tour. We took these tours as often as we found them: Bordeaux, France [see Euro days 43-47]; Lyon, France [see Euro days 48-51], Barcelona, Spain [see Euro days 60-64]; Lagos, Portugal [see Euro days 67-76]; in northern Spain we did tours in Ovieto, Gijon, and San Sebastian [see Euro days 87-89]; in Madrid we did a tapas tour [see Euro days 90-92] and a history tour [Euro days 93-94].

Often the guides gave us plenty of extra information of good places to eat, and other sites to see and encouraged us to contact them if we had any questions while in town.

Guided walking tours

Unlike the “free” walking tours, you pay for these tour when you book it. However, like the “free” walking tours, it is expected that you will tip the guide. For example, our tour guide of Notre Dame was up on all the latest in the renovation of the old beauty [see Euro Days 9-12]. Tips for these tours are more modest, like $5 per person. But remember that in tipping your guides, you should consider tipping appropriately for the each person in your party.

Guided tours with transportation

These tours were the most expensive. The large, comfortable vans were usually, driven by the guides who would often talk about the next stop on the tour as they drove, thus taking advantage of the time they had us captive. One of the most comprehensive was our tour of Gibraltar [see Euro days 70-71].

Included in this group of tours were the “Hop on-Hop off” types of tours. Most of the larger European cities had these tours which allow visitors to pay a single fee for a set amount of time from 1 to 3 days or so when they can get on or off one of their buses at set stops along set route around the city. While the bus is traveling to the next stop, there is an audio component often through the bus speakers or with earphones provided by the bus driver when you get on. The earphones are plugged into audio ports provided at the seats [see Euro Days 84-86].

Of course, another good option is to get a transit pass for a few days. Although there wouldn’t be an audio component to the tour, with a guide book, and following on Google maps, you can figure out the highlights of the city.

A van tour through the Duoro Valley with a lunch in the tasting room of a winery with local products.

Experiential tours

These tours include “an experience”…Learning how cheese is made [see Euro days 13-15] and then tasting it; going up in a hot air balloon over the Loire Valley then learning how to inflate and deflate the balloon [see Euro day 25]; learning about Fado music and trying out the instruments [see Euro days 67-76]. These tours are not cheap but, for me, are the most educational and the most fun. The van and boat our of the Duoro Valley wineries in Portugal complete with food, tastings, and tours was delicious and very fun [see Euro days 84-86].

The local tourist office had a map that we used to discovered medieval Thiers and its hidden passages.

Unguided tours

These tours are almost always free. They are accessed through a link on a website or through the local tourism office. Generally, if we saw a tourist office, we would go in to see what they had. We picked up brochures that looked interesting and talked to the folks at the counter who invariably spoke English. They were thrilled to share information about their area. They always asked where we were from, partly to keep statistics but also to satisfy their curiosity. The tourist office in Thiers was particularly helpful and we explored the area with pamphlets in hand [see Euro days 37, 38, 48-51, 52-54]

Packing List

In our planning stages of the trip, we went right to the guru of travel to see what Rick Steves suggested. As both Nick and I are somewhat seasoned travelers, we agreed with most of his list with minor exceptions. [Here is the address to his list: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/packing-light/ricks-packing-list%5D

On packing, Nick and I disagreed. Pointing out to me that we were headed for Europe where it was likely that we could find anything we were missing or needed, Nick’s answer was to bring less and buy it if and when you needed it. Fair point. And in picking up our packed bags and thus the reality of what we would be carrying, it was smart.

We didn’t need to overpack, but I also knew that shopping took time (reminder: “Time is money.”) My thoughts to packing were to foresee what we know we would need and take it. However, I kept in mind that I would be carrying my bags, which meant that I had a vested interest in minimalizing.

The introduction to list from Rick Steves states: “Whether you’re traveling for five days or five weeks, here’s what you’ll need to bring. Remember to pack light to enjoy the sweet freedom of true mobility. Happy travels!” Rick, of course, knows what he is talking about.

Clothing

Rick Steve’s clothing list for quantities was spot on. Basically, two outfits with a couple of extra swappable tops. If it gets warm, shorts. If you are going to swim or there is a hot tub, add a swimsuit.

Fabrics

You want fabrics that dry fast. Avoid 100% cotton as it is slow to dry.

Merino wool. I would consider it the almost perfect travel fabric for under and outer layers. It is warm but breathable. A tank top as an underlayer also makes a great sun top. As for the Merino sweaters, they are very lightweight and amazingly warm but, again, breathable. [Note-I am not at all swayed by the Merino wool sheep ranch we visited in New Zealand where we saw up close the charming critters that produced the nearly perfect wool. See NZ Days 58-60] Although Merino wool is not cheap, it is an excellent investment and will outlast most of your wardrobe.

Pants

My sister Diane is a pocket freak and lives in cargo pants. Although I often tease her about it, I realized that pockets while traveling are perfect. My sister Betsy pointed me to Pop Fit pants and I purchased two pair, wearing them almost daily. I did bring a knee-length skort that I hoped would pass for either shorts or a “fancier” skirt. The weather didn’t warrant shorts, but I appreciated the modest skort (a skirt with attached shorts underneath) for the few times I wore it.

Shoes

Hoka shoes. Period. Full stop. (I have no affiliation with Hoka shoes. Just a fan.) In March 2023, a few months before our 100-day New Zealand trip, I bought a pair online that on were sale. Apparently, purple was not a hot-selling color for shoes that year. I wore them every day in New Zealand, walking more than 265 miles on that trip. I continued to wear that same pair daily when we returned and for the year plus between our trips. I decided my trusty purple Hokas could even get me through our Euro trip. Other than flip-flops which I wore at the Airbnbs like slippers, the Hokas were my only shoes.

On the bed of our Istanbul hotel, on our last night of the trip, I wondered if the Hokas would make it back to Humboldt County.

About a month before the end of the Euro trip, my two-year-old Hokas were finally starting to shed their tread. My faithful purple pair did make it all the way back home, but just barely. Not once in the more than more than 1,800 miles walked on them (according to the Health app that tracks my walking) did my feet hurt from those shoes.

The purple Hokas are now retired and sit in a place of honor at my bedside. I may have them (what’s left of them) bronzed.

What would I do the same?

1. Watch as many movies about the area or filmed in the area as possible. Read as much history, in the form of essays or historical novels as you can.
2. Check out videos by such experts as Rick Steves but don’t ignore the newbie travel writers and videographers who will often have some fun approaches to the area. However, take what the newbies say with a grain of salt unless you know their credentials.
3. Talk to friends and family about your trip before you go. You would be amazed at how much wanted (and sometimes unwanted) advice they will give you. Or that they have a friend who just returned from (fill in the blank…) and would love to give you some pointers.
4. For me, it worked to have my lodging mostly sorted out ahead of time. I am glad I focused on some of the toughest spots, as it gave me a chance to look for bargains in impacted areas such as Paris.

What would I do differently?

1. Add a day of rest/planning to each week. Although I had lodging planned for the first half of the trip before we took off, once I was there, we had a better idea of where we wanted to be and when. I made plans from the road. That took time, particularly since I was also blogging and needed to write. I actually liked planning from the road, but it was important to add planning time into the schedule.
2. Plan some down time at lodging to relieve any guilt associated with “making the most of our precious time.” Drinking coffee, lingering over breakfast, lunch, or dinner, reading up on local history, or just getting lost in a good novel does wonders to keep your balance.
3. Don’t avoid restaurant prices. That goes for both ends of the spectrum. There are many wonderful restaurants filled at lunch time with local workers…they know where to eat. That said, don’t avoid all high-end restaurants. They have often earned that reputation by folks who know and understand food. Splurge once in a while…but also find the hidden treasure restaurants.
4. For me, I would like to “cook” a couple of meals a week. That doesn’t always mean a full-on meal, but may include take away or prepared foods from the grocer or a farmer’s market. Wandering through the grocery stores and farmers markets were fascinating to me.
5. Wear light sunscreen on my face. It is easy to forget that while traveling you are out in the sun far more than you realize, particularly if the weather is mild or overcast.
6. Listen to your body. If it needs a day of rest, take it. It will pay off for the remainder of your trip.
7. Pay for tours and try to have them at the beginning of your stay in an area. Then use that knowledge to explore on your own.
8. Be brave about trying unknown foods. That said, make sure you won’t encounter items you are allergic to
9. Do more food research to explore what we should be looking for in a specific area.

Epilogue to the Epilogue or the Tale End with a Tail End…

It wasn’t until the tail end of our trip that I ended up with an injury while walking through the streets of old town Istanbul to catch the sunset boat ride on the Bosphorus and up the Golden Horn [see Euro Days 95-100]. I tripped on the uneven cobblestoned streets and hit my left hip directly on the curb at my hip joint. Fortunately, my head didn’t hit the tram tracks just inches from my face.

I soldiered on to the boat despite objections from my niece Elena and Nick. I wasn’t going to miss that boat or that sunset on the day before our last day of the trip. I continued to hobble around and made it safely back to the States.

Arriving home two days before Christmas eve and the holidays that extend past New Years, it took almost a month before I could see a doctor. He scheduled an MRI. Results? I had a high-grade tear in my gluteus minimus and a low-grade tear in my gluteus media. No wonder it hurt. My tail end was a part of the tale end.

With ongoing physical therapy, I am getting back to being able to walk and exercise. After all, I need to be in shape for our next 100 day adventure!

Was our trip all that we hoped it would be? Yes and more…

Wendy and Nick overlooking San Sebastian, Spain on December 11, 2025. (Euro ay 91 of 100 Days)

©2026 Wendy Platt Hill