It’s been nearly five months since that day in early March when we rolled the dice and decided to take a gamble on being able to take a tour in Europe this fall.  So much has happened and changed in the meantime since that spring day In Saint George, Utah when we were lured by the insanely cheap flights available at the time into sketching out a pie-in-the-sky itinerary for the summer and fall.  Back then we were still on the road with the car, skipping from one extended base to another in the southwest, unvaccinated and keeping our distance from others as best we could.  There were no guarantees that we’d be able to travel much of anywhere this summer and fall, but being the incurable optimists that we are it just felt really likely that with an effective vaccine newly available and with the economic and social pressure societies would be under to not lose a second summer of tourism, somehow it would all work out.  

After all, we’re homeless so we have to do something.  And for the cost of $80 nonstop tickets from Portland to Minneapolis and another $280 nonstop from Newark to Amsterdam, how much can we get hurt if it doesn’t work out - especially since the tickets were available with no change fees?  Why not shoot for the moon?

So we bought our flights; and ten days later we followed up with buying cheap flights back from Rome.  And then we put the plan on the shelf for another six weeks until we returned to Portland, and went back to the important business of exploring southern Utah by bicycle.

So what was that plan we sketched out over a few days in between day rides, and how does it look five months later?  The plan for the first half of the tour (The Road to Rome, Part One: America) held up fairly well.  There were significant changes though because we couldn’t get into Canada yet, and we streamlined the miles in Wisconsin and Michigan to free up time for the Finger Lakes and along the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

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And Europe?  That plan was really a SWAG at the time.  Who knew if we’d even be able to fly to Europe at all, back then?  And Europe is a complex entity - maybe we’ll be able to go somewhere in Europe, but in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Italy?  Just a wild guess.  We bought our tickets with the idea that if we couldn’t do this we’d probably at least be able to get into some tourism-starved country in Europe - Spain, Portugal, Greece, maybe even Croatia again.  We’d just be patient, watch for developments, and hope for the best.

And, lo and behold, it looks like the best is yet to come once again for Team Anderson.   Unless something significant happens to close some doors soon, we fly to Amsterdam only nine days from today.  And the plan for when we arrive looks nearly identical now to the one we conjured up five months ago.

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Tricia GrahamLooks a really fantastic trip. I see now you seem to be doing the Alpes Adria we found it amazing when we did it in 2019. We are still dithering have had to cancel the start of our trip via Brisbane because of border restrictions. Now booked to fly to Hamburg on the 17th but feeling a bit hésitant because of the rising cases in Germany and although not concerned about catching it we are concerned about increasing restrictions. Our problem being that if we need to come home early we can’t because we need a place in MIQ and it would be impossible to get one. Will see what happens and keep our fingers crossed
Will be following you two wth great interest
Tricia
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3 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Tricia GrahamYou’re right, Alpe Adria is the plan for,heading south from Salzburg.

Good luck! I hope you can go. I hope we can, for that matter. There are still no guarantees of course. If you do go, do you have a general plan in mind? And what is MIQ?
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3 years ago

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Nine days, and counting!