We almost lost the will to live when in October 2020 PM Boris announced a second lockdown affecting the whole of England. That meant that perfectly viable businesses were being snuffed out of existence on the say-so of a group of middle aged men at Westminster, comfortable on their salaries and generous private pensions – paid for by the tax payer. Their bizarre male “group think” was aptly illustrated by one of their new rules: “Visits to your home or garden by your friend, granny, aunt or daughter are forbidden” but, hey, your cleaning lady could come! I rest my case.
We felt it was time to leave the UK. We were confident of keeping ourselves out of harm’s way – our lifestyle whilst travelling was naturally self isolating but our toughest challenge was having to wear the wretched face masks whenever we were out and about.
Not only did the mask partially suffocate us humans, they were extremely harmful to wildlife.
We travelled to France on Eurotunnel and stocked up with supplies (wine) in Calais before driving on through Belgium, Holland and on to Germany, Switzerland then Italy. We stopped each night amongst the truck drivers at motorway services. We only ventured away from our vehicle to purchase supplies and (Tony) to use the loo. One evening we did “eat out” in Germany at a Burger King. Our confidence on the safety of this meal was not increased when the “yoof” who handled our cash also then served our food. 🤮
We stopped for a couple of days at Lake Como, Italy. The weather was beautiful. We took the ferry to the town of Como and were saddened to see every café was closed with the exception of a few brave establishments serving takeaway – but without being able to provide somewhere for customers to sit. Oh how we would have loved to sit outside in a sunny piazza with a coffee and, perhaps, a pastry . . . . or a spot of lunch. Instead we bought delicious fresh pasta from the supermarket and ate in the truck.
