First leg;
Today we took our first step in our travel journey. We had originally planned to leave in March, head to Europe for a few months and then take ourselves across the world.
However, COVID-19 had different plans for us. Like many others, 2020 wasn’t much of a year for us - although we had planned it to be one of our best. We were due to be married, have an intimate ceremony in France and enjoy our final year in York before taking on this big new adventure.
Covid meant that our wedding was cancelled, along with most other plans we had for 2020 and after a year of heartbreaks 2021 didn’t start how we had hoped. With our travel plans being out on hold until the world decided to reopen.
At this time you are only allowed to travel for essential reasons, so our ‘short’ trip to Scotland to spend some quality time with our family turned into eight long weeks! Although I treasured every moment with them, by the time we got closer the May we both started to struggle mentally. Especially after the year we had just had and the plans we had set in motion we’re passing us by.
Pandemic or no pandemic, we decided for our own sake we had to leave the UK. It was time to plan how we could get to France, spend some time there and then we could replan our travels.
First step; Book flights
Second step; COVID testing. We had to ensure we had a negative PCR test that had been carried out no longer than 72 hours previously from departure.
For those yet to go for one, it’s not the nicest experience. We were booked in two days before our flight first thing, so you can imagine the next 48hrs were heart reaching waiting on those results coming through! Luckily both negative and ready to go.
Step three; Get through three airports. To say it went smoothly would be nothing more than wishful thinking.
First stop Edinburgh, where the journey began. We were prepared with all our paperwork after spending weeks reading up all the rules and regulations. As we were heading to support family, we knew we were allowed (or so we thought) after a very stressful conversation and various documents shown we got past the first hurdle and through to security. Paris wasn’t too bad, we got some questions and at first I thought the police weren’t going to let us through, but again after some chatting we got our passports stamped and we moved on to the departure lounge to chill for six hours.
