[annapurna]

Can't comment on the beds. Every time we've been overseas, we found them comfortable but we also find sleeping on very stiff beds comfortable at home. My overall advice is to, above everything, pack so that your return trip isn't burdened by a lot of stuff. If you do want lots of gadgets or foam cushions, I'd look for cheap solutions and consider leaving some or all behind when you travel home. That way the non-operated person isn't burdened with a pile of stuff and can offer little helps, like running over to the water fountain, buying a snack, etc. and the patient can concentrate on taking it easy.

Heating pads aren't a bad idea but remember that you'll have different electrical power in Europe. Looking for a hot water bottle or microwavable heat pack might be a way to cut down on complexity but still get heat. We bring chemical heat packs but also rarely plan for more than a few days away, now that we're beyond surgery and into continuing care.

Laura and I have always done the full travel in a single day. We do, though, occasionally stay at our destination airport overnight rather than risk an hour's drive home after 26-30 hours of air travel. I think that I remember you as being in the Northwest, so you'd have even more travel than we did from Utah. I'd really look hard at overnighting somewhere if you can't get first class/business class seats. For what it's worth, I discovered that I can't sleep on an airplane so the travel for me is particularly bad; more of an endurance trial until I land in my home airport. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, much less a post-op patient.

After too many trips to Germany for knees and backs, we've gotten to the point where we can go overseas, in winter, using two carry-on sized backpacks. For spine trips, that's revised to a backpack and a rolling suitcase so I can haul everything for Laura. We wash out our clothes each night by hand and buy food there. Entertainment is used books that we read and discard during our travel so we lose weight in our baggage throughout the trip. We've slimmed down electronics to a bare minimum of cell phones, 1 book reader, and 1 netbook and use the netbook's USB ports for charging. Life there is a little spartan but it meant that the return trips through the airports were more or less effortless (important at travel hour 26 to 30).

I'd really think that you should plan on a little tourism while you're there. An inflatable seat cushion might be nice as Laura had problems sitting on hard benches at first. Wintertime travel will probably necessitate some kind of footwear additions to deal with ice, such as YakTrax or the like. I darn near ruined a knee surgery trying to crutch over a solid sheet of ice that didn't look like ice.

By and large, Laura didn't need much gadgetry but we did take a serious look and reorganize the house each time based on the trip's problems. Back surgery meant that smaller portions of all daily necessities were placed such that she could grab them without bending or stretching. Heavy things were either placed for easy sliding or abolished from use until I could get there and move them for her. You're never going to fix everything but a little careful though will make most days and tasks easier.

Consider using transit instead of a car for some of your tourism endeavors. We found that Laura could take a train or a tram to one stop, walk along seeing the sights, and get to the next stop for tram just about the time she'd want to relax and ride back to the hotel. A great deal of Munich was toured between two U-Bahn stops.