April 8 - Hotels

My friend, Sue, has recently returned from a trip to Mexico. She and her husband had stayed in an all-inclusive resort. Although they loved the warm temperatures and the beach atmosphere, Sue was not enamoured with the hotel. In her email to me she wrote, “The hotel was awful to walk around, hard echoing floor surfaces, steps and canned music all the time.”

All of these can certainly be challenging for someone who either doesn’t see or doesn’t see well. I always find that I need to concentrate when steps or stairs are involved. With familiar places, I am most often counting. I know that there are fourteen steps to our basement. I know that when I visit my sister, there are four steps to her unit. At a condo where we often stay there are two sets of nine steps each to reach the first floor landing. If I know that I am going to come down steps that I have recently climbed up, I will count the number each time.

As for canned music – well, noise can be a distraction at any time when concentration is required. Sometimes I find it difficult to carry on a normal conversation if I am moving about in an unfamiliar place. Basically, I find that I need to focus more on where I am and where I want to move to next. I try to tune out distracting extraneous noises of any kind.

I am hoping that the hotels Lyle and I have chosen on this next trip to Italy won’t present too many challenges to my independent mobility. We’ll soon find out because we leave tomorrow!