HOME AGAIN

I had not realised that I did not blog during the final week away.  I think this is possibly the longest time I have been without blogging.

We arrived back on Saturday afternoon to a rapturous welcome from the dogs.  It was so lovely to see them again and to be home.

I very much enjoyed our trip even though I discovered that my disease has progressed to the point that trips like this are not really feasible any more.  I am not happy about this but what can I do?

The first place we stopped was Koblenz.  We left Calais at around 10:30 in the morning on Monday and arrived at our hotel at about 4 PM.  I did not drive again until approximately 11 AM on Wednesday morning when we proceeded to Dresden once again arriving around 4 PM.  The both of these drives with just over 300 miles each and I really did not anticipate any problems.  However I was left fatigued and in pain despite the drugs. Needless to say this really pissed me off. On the days of not driving all I did was wheel around in Big Daniel and yet even this I found very tiring.  On the Friday we drove 193 miles to Nuremberg and then on the Sunday 150 miles to Mannheim.  I still found it exhausting.

We think that our next holidays we will just go to Mannheim and stay there for the whole holiday.  We have friends in the area and there is also much to see that we have not yet seen.  I admit to finding the idea that I cannot continue with our road trips upsetting but I have to face facts.  I have been planning to visit friends in Sweden with a bitch for mating but I am not at all sure that I can do that now as I am fairly confident that physically it is now beyond me.  Bugger!

I went for my swim this morning the first swim in just over two weeks and it knackered me to say the least.  I was very surprised at how stiff I was. I knew I would not find it easy but the degree of difficulty took me by surprise. I am sure that by the end of the week it will be back to normal.

I also discovered that the spasms I get when I am asleep I also get when I am driving or at any time when I spent too long with my back against something.  I am going to see my doctor about this to see if there is something that can be done about this.  I do not mean in the way of drugs as I know that that will not help.  I need some sort of padding.

This is my German knitting friend Nana. The photograph was taken outside a yarn shop in Heidelberg. This is Lia and myself inside Lia’s house where Lia is helping me wind my balls.