Test run

Today Audrey and traveled to Harrisburg via Amtrak.   We are here to pick up our new car from Faukner Toyota, but it’s also a fun dry run for the day, just 31 days away, when I’ll take exact the same train (#42, the Pennsylvanian) to Philadelphia on the first leg of my journey overseas.

Audrey was an awesome traveling companion.  She loved everything about the train, especially the hotdogs in the cafe car!  The ride was great and took us along the Susquehanna River the last half hour, which was very pretty.

Due to rain in Harrisburg, we caught a cab instead of walking the three mules to the mall.  Then we shopped for some new clothes and finally spent a good deal of time in the play area at the Harrisburg mall.   When Grandaddy is close, we will head over to The Toyota dealer to pick up our brand new car!

What an exciting day!

It's a GO!

 Yesterday night my church council voted GO, and gave me an extra week (to accommodate quarantine in Scotland.)  I immediately got tickets (good thing, because prices are going up!)

Not ideal, two changes (Chicago and London) on the way out, but it will do.   My cousin, Loraine is going to put me up overnight between my train trip out from my home and my flight.    I'm still working the Covid test issue; best day to get it is no doubt Sunday or early Monday, if I can get results in time.  If necessary I'll get the expensive rapid test in the Newark airport. 

Today, I'll start the process of connecting the supply pastor, the local pastors, my secretary and my council chair.   

But the hot thing this week is going to be reopening and having in person worship in my church.    That's where most of my focus will go this week.

33 days

 Keep me in prayer.   33 days are left, before I leave (assuming I leave on the 12th).   I meet with my council tonight to go over both this AND our first in person worship on Sunday.

I have NO reservations until after I meet with my council tonight.    Once I get that, I need to begin booking travel like CRAZY starting with a place to quarantine in Edinburgh. 

On the plus side, I've been watching Adventures with Sarah: https://www.facebook.com/watch/adventureswithsarah/  on Facebook, and she reports positive things about the experience of Europe right now, which makes me think I won't struggle to eat, at least.   She is, right now, reporting from Croatia and Italy.  

It's going to be very different travel

 

My sabbatical is going to be very different from travel as I've experienced it in the past.    While I fully expect to have a great time, and am very much looking forward to it, I know that it will be a different experience.  These are some of the things I am considering. 

• I'll be wearing a mask a LOT.   While I expect to be able to ditch it when outside, at least most of the time, and when sleeping, the truth is I'll be required to mask up when I visit the sights I'll visit, when I travel on a plane or a train, and when I'm around people in general.  I'm going to carry a whole bunch of KN95 masks with me, in addition to a dozen or so homemade ones.   
• I may not be eating out the same way.   Restaurants might not be serving for in house consumption, or even be open!   I anticipate lots of takeout and more meals out of grocery stores.  It will be harder to take my brother and his family out for dinner when I pass through Hamburg.   There will be no friends made because we ended up sitting together at a table in a restaurant, or sharing a drink in a pub.   I won't be spending evenings listening to local music in a nightspot (although I might be able to do this for outdoor concerts.)
• I will take lots of Covid tests.  I'll need one for every flight, I'll need extra ones in Scotland and Israel (unless guidelines change.)
• My vaccination certificate will get some use.  good thing I had it laminated, and immediately stuck it in my passport. 
• Hostels might not be an option, with their large bunk rooms.   So lodging might be quite expensive.  Likewise, I might do a lot more camping.  Almost certainly I will camp most of the nights of the Jesus Trail walk.   I'm likewise not sure about the overnight ferries to Patmos.    I may end up sleeping some nights in KN95 masks, who knows.   It will be strange.
  
• As I said earlier, I'll be skipping 3 sights that I had planned on:  Scrooby in England and Leiden in the Netherlands, where the heritage of the UCC from the Pilgrims come from, and Malta, where Paul was shipwrecked.   The extra work necessary to go to these places is not worth the 24 to 48 hours planned to spend in them.   
• And I'll just regularly need to worry about taking care, everywhere, always.  Not just for my own sake, but also for the sake of others around us. 
• Not to mention, the necessity of quarantining upon coming home. 

Lots of changes, but still an experience that I look forward to!    Next blog post:  gear updates! 

 

 

Israel is opening

 The above notice on TouristIsrael.com means that Israel will now be open, as of July.   I am scheduled to be there in October, so all is good!   

I don't yet know whether I will be able to visit the West Bank (Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem) and I'll be connecting with my tour guide in Bethlehem and the tour company for some of my other travel to determine if that is going to be possible.

I am getting very excited!   

It is ON and changed!

 

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!!!!!

Feeling encouraged

 I'm a month out of my Go/No Go day.   But I'm feeling encouraged.   Why? 

• I'm vaccinated.
• Vaccinations in most of the areas that I am going to are ongoing.  (Except Germany)
• Movement in the last month has been huge. I have another month before decision day.
• Greece and Italy have announced reopening to people who are vaccinated in May.  
• Neither the Iona Community, nor Brot und Rosen in Hamburg have cancelled me. 
• Israel is in very good shape with regard to vaccination.   Palestinian territories less so.   But Israel is at the end of my itinerary. 
• Britain is moving along quickly. 
• I'm able to reimagine my itinerary without Switzerland, Malta, or the Netherlands.
• Rick Steves, in a recent article, stated that while his organization won't do tours quickly, that he anticipates independent travelers able to go to Europe this  summer.   He's not science, but he's pretty in the know.  

Basically, I am watching Israel/Palestine and Germany closely in the next month.    I need Britain, Italy, Greece, Germany and Israel open to vaccinated people in order to go.   I can get the reformed sights another time if necessary. 

I know that travel in Summer/Fall 2021 will not be like vacation travel usually is. But you know what, this is not a vacation, it's a Sabbatical.  It's OK if it is not about the food and the nightlife and even the museums.    I do need sights to be open, so I'll be watching some key sights:

• The Jesus Trail
• The Church of the Holy Sepulcher
• Vatican City
• The Iona Community
• Wittenberg Germany
• The Wartburg

and some secondary sights that are important to my itinerary, but maybe can wait:

• The reformation museum in Geneva
• Lutherhausen in Mansfeld, Eisleben, including the Sterbehaus.
• The Museum of the American Pilgrim in Leiden, Netherlands
• Scrooby, England

Keeping on praying.   If things look bleak a month from now, I'll have said no.   That said, what will my 2022 dates be, if I delay until then?  The Monday after the May primary.   Since Pennsylvania has said they may have to delay that primary, this is a little up in the air, but I hope to leave May 23.