Most of my countries are now letting in people who have been vaccinated, and since I got my second Pfizer shot on April 10, it appears that my Sabbatical is back on track! Several changes affect it:
Right now, one of the countries, Scotland, is requiring a 10 day quarantine, even if you are vaccinated, so if that is still true on June 9, I will ask for an extra week at the beginning from my community to accommodate the week of quarantine.
I'm dropping three locations off my itinerary. All of them were countries that I was spending 48 hours or less in; and the realities of travel in a time of Covid mean lots of Covid tests, and lots of logistics, and I've decided it just isn't worth it for these three locations. The downside is that I do lose the Congregational history, since one is Scrooby, UK, where the Puritans gathered and one is Leiden, Netherlands, where the American Congregational museum is located, and where they lived in exile before sailing off to the New World. The third one is Malta, where Paul was shipwrecked. All three of these locations will go on my bucket list.
The third issue is that right now Israel is not open. I am gambling on it opening by October, when I would be visiting, but I am going to plan my flight out of Athens, and book a separate Athens - Tel Aviv round trip. Just so I can still get home if Israel/Palestine don't open.
The rearrangement of my schedule and the dropping of the three stops (along with travel days to get there and away) actually leave me with a less rushed and more reasonable itinerary.
But I am back to dreaming and planning. Not to mention leaving either July 12 or 19! So very soon, this blog will start getting interesting!!!!!
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