Not counting any chickens

 It's hard to remain optimistic about this trip, given the ups and downs we're experiencing at the moment. One minute we're in lockdown and it looks like we are beating the virus, next we're out of lockdown and people are rushing to rub shoulders down the pub or save a tenner on a meal out. As a result, we end up back in lockdown and with more cases of the virus reported and more and more people dying. But there's hope, the vaccine is now being rolled out. Hooray, before we know it, we'll all be back to normal and able to travel again, or will we? Today, I've seen reports that are saying us Brits won't be able to travel to the EU come 1st January. Apparently the EU has a small list of  non EU countries from which you can travel into the EU under Covid, and the UK won't be on it once it leaves the EU! Brilliant. Hopefully that will have changed in 5 months though and this tour can, finally, get under way.

Some good news I can impart is, that the non refundable attraction I had booked, has allowed me to re-date, so today I was able to select a tour on the planned visit date in June. I wonder how many years it would let me keep re-dating for?   

There's still stuff to re-book. I've not yet done the Eurotunnel bookings, nor any of the other attractions that I had booked. I expect to get the tunnel crossing sorted soon but the other stuff can wait till new year. Not much else to report, so I'll just wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Stay safe.

Getting there

 I've now completed my round of re-booking hotels for 2021. In many cases I have been able to re-book those I had for this year but I've also come across ones that I just cannot book at this time, ones that I could but are much more expensive (4x in one case), and even some that look to be a better option than I had before. Some though, I really don't want to stay at but have had to get something, just in case my first choice isn't ever available. I don't want to miss out on visiting a city, just because we'd have to share a toilet but I know, given Grizzly's bodily functions, he'd probably prefer private bathroom! Other guests would! 😂

Inevitably, changing hotels in this way, has meant changing the route. In most cases that's just a few metres/kilometres but in one case, I have moved us from one country to another and a couple of hours up the road! That may not turn out to be a bad thing, moving from Switzerland to Germany, cost wise. It could still change though. The basic route is still the same, that's the main thing.  

That's all for now.

Doesn't time fly....

.....when you're not having fun. Almost in the blink of an eye, it'd have been all over now and we'd have been back from the tour almost 3 weeks. Some of you will have followed the virtual tour I posted on facebook. Gives you a flavour of what to expect next year.

This last few days I've started to re-book hotels for next year. I'm about half way through. I've managed to re-book the same hotels in many cases but in others I've had to choose something different, though that may be temporary. It's rare for me to find something better second time round but not unheard of. In some cases, there is just nothing that fits the bill yet, so I will have to re-visit this process fairly regularly, in order to ensure I get something. It's actually harder to do this, than plan the blasted tour in the first place, mainly because, if you can't get the same hotel or town, then that affects the route and maybe mileage, which in turn can affect fuel stops! For now I'm relatively happy though. I'll catch up with you again soon.

Day 2 already

Yes folks, today would have been Day 2 of the tour. Grizzly would have left home on Monday and arrived at my place Tuesday. Yesterday, would have seen us travelling across France, Belgium and Germany, for an overnight stop near Gelsenkirchen. Today we'd be heading for a place called Osterode on the edge of the Harz mountains. I never even knew there was such a thing. Along the way we'd be stopping at a couple of fairly large and important historic sites. Hey ho, we'll just have to wait another year.

As mentioned previously, I managed to cancel all the hotels and having contacted all the attractions I had booked, I'm pleased to say that all but one were very understanding. I received one refund out of the two I had paid for up front, the second being non-refundable if booked online, not apparently, even in exceptional circumstances. It does, however, let you re-date free of charge, though I'm pretty sure it won't let me carry over till June 2021. I'm now booked for 30th October. The attraction is in Poland, so the cost isn't massive, about £36. More than losing the money, I'm just a bit disappointed that under the circumstances, they couldn't override the system and stick the booking out till next year. Eurotunnel did exactly that and that was a far larger hit to the pocket. I'll see what happens come the end of October, which is when you can expect the next update I expect, unless I get some things re-booked before then of course.

Stay safe all and enjoy the summer, as best you can.

Corona 5

I've finally had to admit defeat and accept that the 2020 tour, will now not take place, thus becoming the 2021 tour.

Last week I had a notification from one of the hotels I'd booked, in Berlin actually, that they were cancelling my booking. It's not Covid-19 related, maybe having a refurb or something but that prompted me to take an earlier than planned look at all my other bookings. Some had been booked as non-refundable (it's unavoidable sometimes), so I checked once again, whether they would expect payment, given the circumstances. I also made it clear that I was intending to re-schedule for 2021, so if they could change dates to next year, I'd be happy to do that. All said there would be no charges but all bar one said I would need to cancel and re-book at a later date. One however, has re-dated the booking for 31st December 2021, asking me to let them know once I know the date I want next year and they will then re-book that date for me. All the other bookings were cancel F.O.C. so there weren't any issues cancelling them. Booking.com has a Covid-19 reason for cancellation now. They like to know the reason, if you cancel a booking.

My next task, to tidy things up, will be to contact the attractions I have pre-booked and see if they will refund or re-date. There were also a few that I booked an English speaking tour for but not paid anything, so I've got about 5 emails to fire off in all. 

I'm gutted that I'll be stuck in the UK, when I could have been galavanting around Europe but it just can't be helped. For everyone's sake, let's hope we don't have Covid-20 or 21 next year!

Looking forward, I've already completed a route for the 2022 tour. It's a tour of Italy mainly, to commemorate Grizzly turning some aged milestone and will involve visits to really old places, such as Rome, where he probably has some boyhood memories of gladiators and the like. It's way too early to do any real planning but it's still nice to get an early indication of the distances involved and timescale. I expect it'll be the same as next year's tour pretty much, 4500 miles or so and a month away. What else have us retirees to do, eh?

That's all for now.

Stay safe.

Corona 4

Well, with 37 days left till our planned departure, we are still in lockdown. Here, at least till 7th May (and I suspect longer) and in Ireland till 18th.

A quick check at the travel advice on GOV.UK shows that all the countries we are due to visit have border closures or restrictions and even if we could justify travelling, a number would expect us to self isolate for 14 days once across the border. Maybe things will change over the course of the next month but I can't see them returning to normal that quickly, so I'm even more resigned to postponing everything till 2021. It's a bummer but the main thing is we remain safe to tour again another day. One thing is for sure, people won't forget 2020 in a hurry.

Stay safe everybody and remember, Stay at Home, Protect the NHS and Save Lives.

Corona 3

This probably seems insignificant with thousands of people dying around the world but I guess life has to go on, even if at the moment, that is as far away from normal as we could have imagined. The weather has perked up, Ginny has been washed but we're not allowed to throw a leg over, so she sits in the garage on trickle charge, waiting.

Dick (a.k.a. Grizzly) has already decided to cancel his travelodge and ferry crossing. Just as well he opted for the more expensive but flexible bookings, so he can get a refund. We're not so lucky with Eurotunnel though. Their flexible rates are frankly ridiculous, so we never go with those. The standard fares are not refundable but you are allowed to change the dates and without cost, assuming prices on the new dates are the same. Given these are exceptional circumstances, I wrote and asked if there would be any chance of extending the period in which you can change dates, i.e. 12 months from date of booking but I got a standard answer, with no regard for the situation we are currently experiencing. I wasn't asking for a refund, just for an extension of the change period, up to 12 months from the original booked date of travel. I did explain that it was unlikely I could re-arrange 30 hotels, etc, for the autumn, even if we are out of travel restrictions. But, as I say, standard response. Dick and I might have to look at a short trip over to France or something, so's we don't lose the cash or even transfer one booking to my bro'. All assuming things are back to near normal come the autumn.

On the visits that I had already payed for; I've written to both attractions and asked if a refund will be forthcoming, if we are unable to travel. We'll see what they come back with.

Apart from that, there's very little to report, though I am starting to look at our 2022 tour, Italy.

That's all for this update.

The last time in Italy. Torrential rain, Lake Garda.

Corona 2

Panic buying everywhere it seems. Pasta, loo roll, UHT milk, baked beans, paracetamol, it's just ridiculous.

Taking a more measured approach to the situation, than these morons panic buying, I have been trying to ascertain what position I/we are in, vis-a-vis our hotel bookings. All but three are free cancellation, so no problem there. I have been in touch with the other three and all three have responded favourably as far as a refund goes, though two did say, it's a long way off, let's wait and see. We have until 9th June, before we will have to start cancelling, so Grizzly and I have everything crossed, that Europe will be open for business again  in 12 weeks time.

There's a couple of booked attractions that I need to check on too. I'm happy to take a credit on those, as we shall definitely be visiting them, whether it's 2020 or 2021.

That's it for now then.

Take care out there everyone and stay safe and healthy.

Keep back, they will sheet to kill!

Corona

When I was a kid, Corona was something you bought in my mum's corner shop. Nowadays it seems you can get it anywhere!

OK, maybe that's in poor taste but it gets me on the subject nicely.

Question: Am I worried about contracting Covid-19 or Corona Virus?
Answer: No.

What I am worried about, apart from the possibility/probability of older relative(s) (she'd kill me if I said elderly!) contracting the virus, is the possible effect it could have on this 2020 tour. I know we are 3 months away from departure but given the way things are progressing, there might have to be a route rethink or even a postponement. Once was bad enough but twice in four years?

I feel for the people in Italy (and we have a friend there, Lorenzo and his family) but as I have booked us 4 nights stay there on the tour, I'm rather selfishly hoping the country gets through the worst, sooner rather than later, so it doesn't spoils my plans. Maybe in 3 months Italy will be the safest place to be, who knows. If the rest of Europe goes into lockdown like the Italians have though, then I fear we'll be screwed and the 2020 tour will become the 2021 tour. I really hope that's not the case but also hope that the world can overcome this virus quickly, so everyone, not just me and Grizzly, can carry on their lives as normal and planned.

Not much else to report. Ginny was supposed to go into the workshop today to have her gearbox recall work done. They rang, 30 minutes before I was due to leave home, to say they don't have the tools to do the job and so that is on hold. Not best pleased but would have been annoyed if I'd ridden 25 miles to be told that.

Catch up in a few weeks when hopefully things will look a bit clearer.

Cream Soda and Cherryade were my favourites

Be Prepared

A phrase usually associated with the Scouts movement. Funny that, considering I did no more than two cubs evenings, before deciding I hated it and locked myself in the bathroom, so as to avoid having to go!

I do like to be prepared though and really enjoy the forward planning of these tours. I could never just ride into a place and hope to find a room for the night. Oh no, that's why on my tours, we know exactly where we are staying, where we are going to fill up with fuel, what attractions we are going to stop at and sometimes, even where we are going to eat. It seems to work pretty well too, just ask Grizzly.

On this particular tour, more than others I've done, there are a lot of attractions that it is best to book in advance, otherwise, we run the risk of not being able to gain entry or at the very least, not being able to get on an English speaking tour. It is this aspect of the tour I have been concentrating on recently.

Not wishing to give the game away too much, I have already pre-booked four things; two in Poland, one in Czechia and one in Croatia. The first two I'm quite pleased with, those being English speaking tours, as neither my Polish, nor Czech language skills are any good, i.e. they are non existent. I've still got another few things to book up, including a ferry in Croatia but they can't be done sooner than 10 - 12 weeks in advance. One of the good and frankly unexpected things, is that I'm not having to pay up front to make all these bookings. OK, I've paid for two but I think all the other tours are payable when you turn up. I'm not sure there are many places in this country you could book a place and not have to pay until you arrive.

It's fair to say, I've not entirely finished running through the itinerary yet, so there may even be some more stuff to book up. We shall see.

That's all for this update. Keep watching, keep following.

Bring on Summer

In five months’ time (15th June), the blog countdown timer will show all zeros and Dick (a.k.a Grizzy) and I, shall be in Prague, having already crossed through Germany and dipped a toe in Poland. That's a long way off yet though and there's still plenty to do before we ship out of Blighty.

Let me get you up to speed what we've been up to though, since my last update.

You may recall a couple of Croatian hotels had changed their names. Well, since then, I've been told that a hotel I had booked in the Italian Alps, was cancelling my booking, as it was now under new ownership. I presume they don't want to run a guest house. Either that or they want to charge more for the rooms! Cynical Neill. I therefore had to find us somewhere else; not an easy task given the location. The mountains are as popular in summer as they are in winter. However, I got lucky. Lucky in so much as I found a hotel with rooms to spare, high up on the Stelvio Pass and only about 200m from the summit. Not so lucky though, that the cost is about 75% more than the place I'd originally booked. Oh well, è la vita.

I've also been right through our itinerary and identified places we want to visit; opening hours, entrance fees, etc, and I'll be booking some of those up in the next couple of weeks, to make sure we get an English tour/guide.

On the booking front again, we have booked our Eurotunnel tickets and Grizzly has his
usual Leigh Delamere Travelodge room booked, that breaks the journey from Kent
to Pembroke. He's also booked his ferry from/to Ireland.

With regards to cash for the tour, I've worked out what I think we'll need for our days outside of the Euro zone. The good thing about the eastern European countries, is that they tend to have a lot lower cost of living than us, so I can't see us paying £15 each for a tureen of soup, like we did in Norway! Cheap food and cheap beer. Oh Yes!

This autumn and winter, has been awful. I swear it has barely stopped raining since I returned from Aragon at the end of September. It's been so bad, that Ginny hasn't seen the light of day, since that trip, so the spring/summer can't come quick enough. Ginny is ok though, tucked up and being trickle fed. I've booked her in to have her gearbox recall work done on 12th March. She'll still be in warranty, by 5 days, so if something else amiss should be found, I shouldn't have to face a hefty bill. Once she's had that work done, I'm hoping to get across to see my grandson, who at the rate he's growing, will probably be in long trousers by then.

One thing I do need to check, is the impact of us leaving the EU on 31st January on my driving permit. I'd bought them before the 31st March '19 Brexit date but I'm not clear if I will need to renew one before the tour or whether things will remain as they are until the 31st December 2020 deadline. Something to think about.

Think that just about covers it for now. 

Till the next time.