Pandemic Travel

Travel in Europe is not what it used to be. Not this year. That’s what the news tells us. But if you happen to be one of the lucky ones who ventured out of the ever-shrinking national-international-lockdown-isolation-quarantine, you may well have been surprised to see that the bees are still buzzing and the ducks are still quacking.

Despite the constant doom and gloom announcements from Presidents to Prime Ministers, from previously unheard-of Professors of Virology to Health Select Committees on rectal disinfection, the world is still spinning. And believe it or not, travel is still fairly open.

I have spent the past year going from Amsterdam to Berlin to Prague to Venice to Rome to Barcelona to Lisbon and beyond. Driving. The hardest part was finding information on borders and travel from people who were doing it. The rules were so fluid, with things changing one day to the next.

Turns out rules were one thing, their enforcement another. I'm not saying go and travel. Oh no, no. Wouldn't dare. I'm simply saying: you can. With really little fuss.

In Spring 2021, I drove from Turin in Italy to Barcelona in Spain, crossing through France. 7pm curfew in France; restricted local travel; border ban; PCR requirements; bla bla bla. Bla bla bla because I, um, I just ignored it all. Waved through makeshift checkpoints without any documentation, maybe totally ignoring the curfew in three countries, the only one on the road for four straight hours. Crossing into and out of France like it was my local pastry shop..

If you have been on the road this past year, you would have seen what I have seen. You would have enjoyed the Vatican to yourself. The throngs were gone. The hotels were cheap. The beaches empty. Traffic a distant memory. It’s eerily peaceful. And the world is still wonderfully grand.

Instead of raving until the break of dawn, Berliners were out in the parks and lakes and dotted along the canals. The Romans headed to the beaches. The Andalusians roved the mountains. Each people found their way back to nature. And to each other.

And if you are determined enough, you can find your way back there too.