Well, I've now been home for most of a working week, and even if I wasn't subject to quarantine I would have been fairly happy not leaving the house - what with all the sleeping and eating that's needed to happen. Work has been pleasantly low-intensity, and aside from the intermittent failure of our internet service (something of a problem this, since both me and Caroline are dependent upon it for home-working and I can't leave the house) has been relatively relaxing. It's amazing how much a change from the routine can make that routine seem attractive again.

I assumed I'd have loads of time to update the journal this week, but somehow it's not yet happened. Updates soon!

I was wondering whether I'd return to further turmoil on the domestic virus front - and indeed, there seems to have been a resurgence while I was away, in the north-west of the country further from us (for now). I did check the restrictions of each of the countries I needed to travel through just before I returned, and there were no indications that anything major had changed.

But it looks like I made it out in just the nick of time. To my surprise, just yesterday Germany's Koch institute added a bunch of other regions to the country's quarantine list for the first time, including Vienna district and Zuid-Holland, both of which I had or needed to travel through. If I'd been returning just a few days later then I wouldn't have been allowed to travel through Germany by train from Vienna, and given the other patchwork of restrictions, I think would have struggled to transport the Shift back to the ferry port. Maybe my approach then would have been to try to take local trains (or cycle) to avoid Vienna and then work my way into Germany that way. If I'd set off a few days later, then technically I would have travelled through the Holland in the previous 14 days on my way out, and arguably would also have needed to quarantine too. Either way, it seems like a bullet dodged.

So while there was quite the scramble to get this trip booked at such short notice, and I had major worries about what I would find when I got there (significant enough that I considered cancelling the trip when things started to go wrong with the house) I was actually really rather lucky with the timing here to be able to squeeze in a tour while still following the rules. So while it's not the greatest to be house-bound for the next few days, I can consider myself fortunate to have been able to get away and tour, even for a short while.

In the meantime I'm going to restore my strength and some of the weight lost, and replace my ageing cookset which I gave away on the last day of the tour. Naturally the weather is glorious at the moment, so I'm already dreaming of some shorter UK trips upon my release. I've been thinking about an Ouse-to-Ouse trip for a while (there are at least three rivers in Eastern England called the "Ouse" [Ooze]) - York to Bedford, over the gigantic Humber bridge and an overnight wild-camping somewhere in Lincolnshire. One to do before it gets too wintery!