Status update (Day 75 of 365 days off): Still in Germany

For those of you who have been missing a sign of life from us, here's a short update (advance warning: it's still not mega interesting and entertaining, but if you're interested, we appreciate your interest ;o)

As reported in our last post, after our Mosel Tour (first trip of our time off, which started with the Corona lockdown instead of flying to the USA for a year), we did a four-day quick step in the north, followed by a workshop appointment at Mercedes Hamburg, and then headed south again for another workshop appointment with our motorhome dealer.

So we ended up at Lake Rothsee last week, passing through the Salzlandkreis, Burgenlandkreis, and Kulmbach again (our detailed steps can be followed on polarsteps: https://www.polarsteps.com/TrieneaufReisen/3152827-ein-jahr-auszeit-mit-dem-wohnmobil-durch-die-usa), to drop off the motorhome at the workshop today. Due to Corona, we have to hand it in at least one day before the actual workshop visit and we are not allowed to sleep in it during that time (i.e. after the workshop's closing hours) ☹️ To hopefully fix all relevant deficiencies, it will stay there for five days, so we needed accommodation from Saturday to Friday and had to leave our 'home'.

My colleague Alexander (also known as Ali), who lives in Fürth, had already written to us after our last report and offered help if we needed it 👍 Even though we were shy about accepting such generous help, it helps us a lot especially during the times of Corona and then also with a dog, and it is also so pleasant, uncomplicated, and flexible that we gladly accepted his offer. So we will be living in an apartment in Fürth until Friday and will explore the surrounding area in the next few days. I've said it many times before, but I'll say it in writing too THANK YOU ALI 😃

Now let's move on to the more exciting part and the question of what we will do next 🤔

As the media has reported and as we were looking forward to, as of June 15, Germany lifted the travel warning for most EU countries (except for Sweden) and you might think that we could choose where we want to go. But unfortunately, not all other EU countries automatically open their borders for tourist travel! So our original plans for a Europe route are not possible because as of today, Norway will not open its borders for non-Scandinavian EU countries until August 20. Sweden is still a "danger zone" due to a lack of lockdown (the Norwegians also keep the borders with Sweden closed, or there are quarantine requirements). Therefore, Finland, which would already let us in, is also not an option.

Our second preferred option for the summer months would have been Great Britain + Ireland, as we haven't been there yet (except for London) and we wanted to save the southern EU countries for autumn/winter. But there is still no entry possibility for tourist travel to these countries. Italy has open borders, but the allure for us is not quite as strong after having spent several vacations there 😉 We wanted to save Croatia and Greece for the less hot months.

So we're still not sure what we will do next 😏 Since France (except for Paris) should probably be possible, we will probably travel there first. Along the Atlantic coast towards the south. By the time we reach the Spanish border, hopefully tourist travel (without quarantine or similar) will also be possible there, as well as in Portugal. But as things can change in today's times, these plans are not set in stone either...

We will get in touch as soon as we know what's next for us 🚐

Until then, many warm greetings from all of us to all of you 🤗 Stay healthy!

P.S.: Gru has some tips for you on how to get through these difficult times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrPW2eBF3JY&t=1s