Category: By Donna Jodhan

Here, Donna J. Jodhan makes two lifelong dreams come true in the summer of 2024: visiting Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam and riding in a hot air balloon over the mountains of Switzerland. In between, she and her dear friend Jilla cruise down the Rhine aboard the Avalon Panorama, after a week in London with friends that includes a boat ride on the Thames and a walk through Fulham Palace and its walled garden.

Here, Donna J. Jodhan describes her October 2023 week at the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort in Saint Martin with her friend Stephie, a trip she calls paradise plus. After a rocky start with a troublesome iPhone, she settles into warm swims, planes roaring low over the beach, and mornings on her balcony listening to the birds, the doves, the ocean and the resort coming to life.

Here, Donna J. Jodhan fulfils her dream of a river boat cruise in July 2023, sailing with her dear friend Jilla down the Danube from Germany to Hungary, while keeping her mother in Trinidad close in her prayers. She explains why, for a vision-impaired passenger, a river boat wins hands down over an ocean cruise, and she takes readers from a sobering morning at the rally grounds in Nuremberg to Regensburg, Passau, Melk Abbey, a Viennese concert and Budapest’s Church in the Rock.

Here, Donna J. Jodhan travels to London in July 2022 to graduate from the University of London with her law degree, hearing Princess Anne, the university’s chancellor, congratulate her as she crosses the stage at Friends House. Before the ceremony, she is reunited over lunch with a friend she had not seen in thirty-three years and with the nun she first met as a teenager in England fifty years earlier.

Here, Donna J. Jodhan sets off for Portugal with her good friend Sue at the end of May 2022, on her first big trip since Covid, with one purpose close to her heart: a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. She shares how she prepares as a blind traveller, from her travel insurance forms to the way she organizes her suitcase and her carry-on emergency kit, and she describes the Atlantic waves outside the Arribas Sintra Hotel.

Here, Donna J. Jodhan takes the train to Quebec City with her friend Sue at the end of October 2021, on a trip that went right from beginning to end despite the pandemic rules they had to follow. She explains why packing carefully and staying alert matter even more for a blind traveller, and she strolls the streets and the old stone gates of Old Quebec, a city rich in history and full of steps.

Here, Donna J. Jodhan remembers the February 2020 trip she took to Hawaii with her friend Sue, for a cruise around four of the islands aboard the Pride of America just before the pandemic closed down the world. She describes how she prepares as a seasoned traveller who is vision impaired, from printing her documents to packing every item in its own place, and she shares a morning on a hotel balcony at Waikiki as Sue describes Diamond Head and the view.

Here, Donna J. Jodhan begins her summer of 2019 by celebrating the day the Accessible Canada Act became law, and then heads to St. Lucia with her mother for their annual ten-day getaway. From their balcony, her mom describes the mountains, the yachts in the bay, the doves feeding on the lawn and a kiskadee disappearing into a palm tree, while Donna listens and records.

Here, Donna J. Jodhan returns to England in January 2019 for her second chess break at the Windermere Manor Hotel in the Lake District, travelling with her friend Rebecca and Rebecca’s husband, Immanuel, and with her good friend Jilla as her escort. Illness forced her to withdraw from the tournament, but friendly games and the kindness of fellow players turned the week into the start of a lasting chess friendship.

Here, Donna J. Jodhan recounts her July 2018 getaway to St. Lucia with her mother, from packing together at her mom’s home to ten days of morning and evening entries in her voice diary. Her mom describes the quiet bay, the chairs and umbrellas on the beach and the fruit boat patrolling the water, while Donna notices that the birds they usually hear have almost disappeared.