2020 - Day 0: Where can we go?

I write this blog from the Premier Inn in Dover and in a little under three hours time we should be setting sale for Dunkirk on the start of a new adventure. This adventure however seems to have been ongoing pretty much non-stop for the last four months...

During our successful road trip last year to visit our friends Jana, Petr, Matty and Emma in the Czech Republic we decided to look into booking a holiday together for this summer in Austria, and back in March 2020 when COVID-19 was big news in China but seemingly under control in Europe, we made a reservation for a week together in Zell am Ziller. We were originally unsure whether to fly or drive, but having discovered that it was possible to take a motorail train from Dusseldorf to Innsbruck the decision to take the S-Max on another adventure was made. 

So with accommodation, ferry and motorail booked we started to look forward to our break and plan the return journey stopping off at a few different places through Germany and Belgium during the second week. Then suddenly COVID-19 cases were increasing exponentially in mainland Europe and a few weeks later the same was happening in the UK as we entered lockdown. But this was March and the holiday was in August, so we thought everything would be back to normal by the summer. 

With Austria and Germany in particular dealing with the pandemic quite well and numbers in the UK falling we made the go / no-go decision in June and started to book up our other hotels that we needed for the trip, being careful to book flexible rates just in case plans needed to change. Then we had the news that whilst most of Europe were happy for people from the UK to visit, Austria were not so forthcoming and all but a non-essential travel policy was placed on the UK. This continued beyond a review in mid-July and despite endless tweets and emails to the Austrian Embassy and Tourist Office they were unable to even provide a date for when the next review of the restrictions would occur, so we made the decision to move our holiday from Austria to the Bavaria region of Germany.

One of many tweets!

Typically a few weeks later Austria changed their restrictions and we are now welcome again, but Austria can wait until next year and we're looking forward to a break in the Bavarian countryside close to the Czech border in Bayerisch Eisenstein (although we will still take the motorail to Innsbruck on Friday night before driving back into Germany). 

We have an exciting itinerary ahead and we hope that with social distancing and the wearing of face masks that Amber has made when we are indoors at attractions we'll have an enjoyable holiday in what could be the new normal for the next year at least. 

Now time to get a picnic for later in the day and make the short drive to the ferry terminal. 

Blogged by Matt.