Jet lag is a real thing! Since arrival at London’s Heathrow Airport, Neil and I have struggled to catch up on our sleep. Of course, one would think we would have slept all night on our journey from Austin to Heathrow, but even on a gigantic airliner sleep was not trouble-free. We have now been aboard the Queen Mary 2 about three days as we sailed from Southampton last Saturday morning. As an aside, Neil and I discovered a dandy and large bookstore in Southampton. The store’s name was Waterstone and it was far larger than Book People in Austin. Southampton was a high energy city and is best known for being the departure site for the Titanic, as well as one of the assembly points for the Allied invasion of Europe on D-Day. Our ship eventually embarked late at 12:32—and that did not help the sleep project much either. Perhaps on the several days we are “just at sea,” we can do a little catching up on our sleep.
Sunday, after our private devotion time, we attended a lecture about Mt. Everest of all things. The lecturer was a woman named Rebecca Stephens. She was the first British woman to ascend this tallest mountain of the world. Her presentation covered the 100-year history of Europeans trying to scale Everest. What made her talk so beneficial was that she knew many of the people about whom she spoke. One interesting tidbit was her story about when Sir Edmund Hillary and a Sherpa Tensing Norgay reached the Everest summit. It was Tensing whose iconic photo that captured the world’s attention. The reason for Tensing being in the photo and not the renowned Hillary? Tensing did not know how to operate the camera and they had so little time at the top. Therefore, Hillary took the famous photograph in 1953.
Most of our 1500 fellow passengers are older people, many of whom are older than me. They mostly come from the British Isles and Germany, and while there are Americans on board, for the most part we are in the minority. We have just left the ship to explore Lisbon. I will get back on this day’s adventure when we get to Naples. The most exciting thing, perhaps so far, was that we saw a random dolphin jumping out of the wake created by the ship. Very rousing!
From your friends
David and Neil
David and Neil's Excellent Adventure 
So glad I happened on this wonderful post, David. Look forward to reading about your and Neil’s adventures in days to come. Blessings! Nathalie Hise
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Looking forward to enjoying your adventures through the blog. It is great to see pictures of you and Neil – keep posting them. Thanks! Dick and Mary Ann
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Jet lag is definitely a real thing. When I get back to the States, Robyn is a little mystified why I get up at 3 am ready to go, and then am ready to go to bed at 4 pm. It fades, eventually. Lisbon is cool; wish I’d seen more of it. Portuguese sounded odd after hearing so much Spanish (and Chinese).
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Hi David and Neil,
I missed this first post, so I went back to read your first post about arriving in Lisbon. Did you have time to tour historic Lisbon? (You may have discovered that most cities offer free tours guided by young people who are both knowledgeable in the city’s culture, history, etc. and fluent in English. At the end of the 2-hour tour, you pay what you feel the guide is worth. We think these free tours are excellent.) Hopefully, the weather is still in the cool 60’s as we experienced in December. Don’t you find the people delightfully “laid back”? Did you try any fresh fish dishes?
David, we are enjoying hearing from you and Neil. Hopefully, you are not writing these blogs at the end of an exhausting day of walking and sightseeing. We do appreciate your taking the time and effort for those of us back home!
Take care!
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