The virus has put many aspects of our lives on hold or worse, it has cancelled some aspects altogether. Work for Del, for example, has all gone. Every single day has gone. Hayley has saved the day however with work from ITV. The hours are punishing up at 2:30 am and finishing at 10:00 am. This has of course added a high level of uncertainty about the future a future that we no longer have a say in. Forget Brexit, that’s chicken feed, this is something else. The holidays have also been cancelled. Our year was a healthy calendar of work and holidays. Full and exciting. Good quality work to help finance some excellent trips away. After all, that’s what work is all about, isn’t it? That’s all changed.
During the later days of June and early days of July, infection numbers and deaths began to fall all around Europe. Could there be light at the end of the tunnel? Maybe. We took the decision to take a holiday, our usual 4 or 5 weeks in the van discovering more of Europe and hopefully beyond. We always liked the idea of a trip to Norway and to try our hand at some wild camping at the foot of some mountains with a morning view of a vast mirror-like lake.
Hayley has put a lot of effort and time into the planning, routes, places to stay local, rules and regulations, stuff you really need to do, and to know unless you want to look like an idiot. A route was set and agreed upon, toll cards signed up for and ferries priced up. The plan was to head for Calais then run a straight northeast course across Germany then up to Denmark for a ferry to Norway. Spend a week in Denmark, two in Norway then a week heading south through Sweden and then home.
If you are going to do a trip like this during these rubbish times, it’s not just the countries that allow us Brits to go into but also which countries allow their immediate neighbours to cross into. A long afternoon was spent doing just that, finding out who allows who to come and go. Soon we found that Denmark was a problem. To spend time in Denmark you have to stay a minimum of 6 nights and provide proof of your stay. We are a motorhome, we have no idea where and when we will be in a place or for how long. If you want to transit through Denmark to get to Norway, then they require information about where you are staying in Norway. Again we can’t say. To add another problem into the mix travelling between either Denmark or Norway and Sweden has its own complications as Sweden is seen as a “red” country in Scandinavia.
Now what? Europe is a big landmass, huge, but with the virus still prevalent and with the number of infections now starting to climb it’s decided that we will only do two or better still only one European country.
There is no point in living in fear of the virus. It doesn’t care who you are, what you are, or where you are. You can get the virus in any country and at any time. Your home country is no safe haven unless you lock yourself indoors 24/7. Maybe to get rid of the virus that is what we should do? The other option is to continue your life as best you can, given the restrictions. Wash your hands, keep a reasonable distance from others. Who knows what’s reasonable 1m, 2m, or 50m? Wear a mask in public places. Of course, they work. Your doctor and dentist use them all the time. Be sensible.
We travel. We love to travel. Apart from work, it’s all we do, otherwise, what would we do? Should we? Of course, we should! Let’s go to… FRANCE!
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