We are still 10 years behind you and truthfully it gets harder every year. E-bikes and river routes it will have to be.

We have now decided it is impossible for us to ever use bikes on trains again. With my mobility issues I can’t be any help with getting the bikes aboard. And at 87 to deal with two bikes and all our luggage seems rather a bid ask for Ken

Thank you John for your kind wishes.

Wishing you and your family the very best.

Wow, you have travelled more widely than I knew, and made a tour of exotic hospitals. Interesting, but not the kind of tour we would plan in advance!

An interesting topic, Steve. It's wonderful that the hospital makes it possible for you and Dodie to be with Joni.

Here in a nutshell some of our hospital experiences while traveling. Once in Siem Reap, Cambodia for severe deydration and diarrhea (a luxury hospital for foreigners where you had to pay a horrendous sum up front before they admitted you - later Janos' insurance covered it), Thailand for a sprained back (competent and free), India for a bronchial infection (where we saw the most outdated x-ray equipment you can imagine). The details would be interesting but that would be too much for a comment. At home I have been in the hospital in nearby Starnberg more often than I can count in the past year. The place is beautifully situated, light and airy, friendly, costs covered by my health insurance and the food is edible (not the case in many hospitals). We are always extremely thankful for our medical care here in Germany.

There are still leftover bits of Covid protocols, like social distancing, but even the hospital has signboards indicating only optional use of masks. There are some who prefer to mask in public still, but mostly not.

Interesting to note the people are standing far enough apart, but no one is wearing a face mask..and this IS a hospital…

Oh! Wonder Bread ! Ugh. Case closed. You are correct..it is not edible.

Canadian, American, Wonder bread are all equally bland, unflavorful, nonnutritious overprocessed garbage bread to us. Give us a chewy baguette or a wonderful seedy brotchen any time.

Yes SF sourdough is nice, and we remember fondly Dodie (also a baker) discussing technique with a counterpart at Boudin Bakery. But in North America, Wonder style bread is the real standard. You might be able to eat it with peanut butter and jam, but mostly not. By the way, the Wonder style bread in Mexico is from the company Bimbo, and their graphic mascot is a white teddy bear that resembles the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

What is (wrong) Canadian bread? Never having been in Canada or knowing what you speak of, I would really like to know!
However, as a native of San Francisco, CA, I grew up on Parisian Sourdough bread. Spoiled child that I was. ;)

I didn't mention that, at that time, we weren't allowed to leave the ward. No option to go get food anywhere else. Several years later, spending time at the same hospital when our younger son broke his arm, there was a Tim Horton's on site. First and last time I've ever had Tim's coffee.

The hospital staff has come to accept that all three of us basically live here, so they have started sending three meals three times a day. Certain parts of it are somewhat edible!

It was a long time ago (my son just turned 31) but he was delivered by Caesarian and we were kept in the hospital for 2 or 3 days. I was so hungry! I even ate the jello when I was restricted to "full fluids", which somehow included jello (which I hate). When I was finally allowed to eat real food, the kitchen in the ward had Wonderbread and little packets of Kraft peanut butter and jam. I don't consider those to be real food.