9-19-22 - We Are On Our Way

Woke at 2:30 in the morning with anxiety about the upcoming trip.  Covid is always lurking in the background (though President Biden said today the pandemic is over).  Tell that to my friend dealing with long Covid.  Also, I am anxious about my luggage arriving at our destination.  Nightmare scenarios seem to be occurring on a daily basis at Heathrow.  Finally, we are doing more smaller flights on this trip, Dublin to Barcelona and Barcelona to Porto, and the rules for these European airlines are different.  Can I bring my spare battery pack on board?  Do I have to check what, by American terms, is baggage small enough to qualify as carry-on?  How much will that cost? 

Good grief when did I become such a worrier?  Meanwhile, Rick is taking all of this in stride.  Helps that he has considerable international travel under his belt but even before that, he was always a laid back, easygoing traveller.  It is one of the few aspects of his life that he completely resigns himself to fate.  So many variables out of our control so might as well just sit back and enjoy the ride.

So at long last, here we are.  The planning, packing, planning, re-packing, planning, re-re-packing, is done, NO MORE.  No more time to angst and anticipate.  It is time for action, travel action.  Ready or not, here we come.  Portland to Denver, Denver to Heathrow, Heathrow to Dublin.  

Hangin' in DIA in our comfortable shoes

So far things going well.  Flights still on schedule despite Queen Elizabeth II funeral today.  Out of the house on time, the Uber driver to the airport was prompt and not too chatty, bags checked all the way through to Dublin (so no mad dash at Heathrow to pick up luggage, go through customs, and then go through security again), a minor hiccup with my TSE pre-check that got easily resolved, and an easy flight from PDX to Denver, even catching  a few zzzz's along the way.  As I type this, I am sitting in a newly constructed part of the Denver International Airport (DIA), found amongst the low-numbered B-gates.  Everything is set up for the wired and tech savvy (and even tech unsavvy such as myself).  You can plug in anywhere and there are loads of seating options ranging from bartops, to big comfy chairs, to couches on which you can take a quick snooze.  It is also wonderfully quiet, compared to the hustle and bustle of the rest of the airport, even with folks on work calls and video-conferences.  Kind of like it. Definitely off to a good start.

Soon to head into the weird time-is-relative part of the trip that I always like, flying over the Atlantic, loosing hours of my day that I'll never get back . . . well at least until I fly back home.  A gentle reminder how so much of the world we live in is made sense by man-made constructs like time.😊

 

9-11-2022 - International Travel in a Post-Pandemic World

It has been six years since our last international trip together to Scotland.  Rick has made many an international trip for work, but multiple attempts for the two of us to travel together for pleasure were sidelined by life events and the pandemic.   So after a few false starts, I think this might actually happen. 

We are doing something new this time around and are not going to Scotland.  Instead we plan to visit the southern half of Ireland, and then Barcelona, Spain, and lastly, Porto, Portugal.  In addition to traveling for pleasure we are also scoping out possible retirement locations.  Hard to believe but retirement is indeed on the horizon for both of us.  For a variety of reasons that I won't get into here (but if you know us at all you'll have an inkling as to why), we are considering retiring abroad.  Scotland is a solid possibility, likely our first choice, but we thought we should look around, just a little bit more, to be sure.  Based on some preliminary research, Ireland and the northern coast of Portugal rose to the top of the list.  Barcelona would be too warm - we are going there just because it seems like a cool place.  😎

And so here we are a week before departure and I'm in full on planning mode, trying to pretend that I have control over the multitude of variables that I have no control over.  Trying to stay up-to-date on the ever-changing Covid requirements for entry into different countries, making sure I have all my boosters and vaccines, assessing and supplementing my travel gear ranging from luggage, to clothes, to electronics,  adjusting to the need for summer clothing during a fall trip (thanks to climate change 😕), figuring out how to get everything into a carry-on to avoid the baggage handling blackhole that is Heathrow Airport since its return to normal, post-pandemic travel, wrapping up work to the extent possible so I don't overload my colleagues during my absence, cleaning up my computer and phone to ensure there is enough memory for photos, researching, downloading and organizing e-books and podcasts to keep me entertained on the trip over the pond (and back) without  the weight of "real" books, putting a hold on mail, ensuring the plants are watered (thank goodness we don't have a pet animal), and making dining and entertainment reservations as needed but also ensuring we have enough free time to allow for life to happen as it inevitably does.  I'm exhausted.  I think I need a vacation.   How do people do this with kids???