• England,  Europe,  Independent travel,  Travel Blog

    This English Summer

    As we sit trying to predict the next steps in the complicated and illogical rules on international travel from the UK, this non-starter of an English summer just makes our frustration grow and our sense of isolation increase. First we had the coldest April since 1922 in terms of average minimum temperatures, in fact the third coldest April since records began almost 140 years ago. After a cold dry April we were hit with wet May, during which many areas of the UK experienced considerably more than double the normal May rainfall, and the South East, where we live, was again well below average in terms of daily temperatures. And…

  • Independent travel,  Travel Blog

    Should we stay or should we go now?

    Anyone who has read the original Catch 22 novel could be forgiven for thinking that Joseph Heller is currently advising the UK Government on its COVID policies in relation to international travel. It’s not only confusing but each time we get to grips with the rules, someone moves the goalposts. Last year, we lost our retirement world travel dream to COVID but salvaged 14 weeks away in Croatia and Turkey in the end. This year, we’ve been thinking all along that we’ll leave it till late June (ie now) and plan a trip starting in July, to wherever we can go. To this end, it seemed reasonably clear that red…