Without Corona I wouldn’t have done it!

Without my blogger colleague Ulrike from Bambooblog, I wouldn’t have come up with the idea of writing about what I wouldn’t have done without the Corona Pandemic. Because I too, like almost everyone, is glad to have left the year 2020 behind. But this call to the blog parade “Without Corona I wouldn’t have experienced this” led me to think about whether there was something I wouldn’t have done without Corona. Zum deutschen Blog.

This blog post contains unpaid advertisement. All trips were paid by myself and all I have written is my personal opinion. You´ll find affiliate links. If you buy a product through this link, you´ll not pay more, but I’ll get a small commission, that helps to go on with my blog. 

What was so different in 2020?

This is certainly a question that will bring many people to the same conclusion, namely that all of us, and almost the rest of the world, have been made almost immobile. Travel was not possible for a time and then only very limited.

This was a very strange experience for me, who is working in a travel agency. I have always travelled since my earliest childhood. Nobody thought about whether this might not be possible any more. We (Germans) took this for granted.

Our office was, of course, closed at the shutdown just like all other shops. We are in a good position that we can also work in home office. It is now mid-January 2021 and I still work from home. This would have been absolutely unthinkable for me without Corona, I am happy about every real customer contact! Now contact is only possible by phone, email, WhatsApp or even in a Teams session!

Who would have thought that we would make the personal conversations with our customers, face to face, via video chat?! It had been planned for a long time, but now it has quickly become a reality.  I certainly wouldn’t have done that without Corona. Well, or maybe at some point…

What wouldn’t I have done without Corona?

A lot! Suddenly I am in home office and like almost all travel agencies also in short-time work. Travel is almost only reversed. This is very frustrating! To get my head free, I start hiking! Some tours I present here (in German)..

And anyone who knows me knows that this is actually not my thing.  After all, we haven’t lived here for so long in the Black Forest, almost everything is still unknown and I can convince myself a little bit, I walk on tourist tracks or am a guest here!

Mountains up and down is already very much in need of getting used to for someone who has lived in northern Germany, i.e. in the lowlands, and where the highest elevation is the  Wilseder  Berg in the Lüneburg Heath, that  is 169 m.   I certainly wouldn’t have done that without Corona, hiking almost every spare minute.

We did many beautiful tours! Thanks to the Komoot app (unpaid advertising) you can find many tours, far away from people.

I also cycled a lot more, with my e-bike also longer tours are fun and to ride the wine mountains up, I manage so, too. This motivated us so much that my husband and I signed up as a team for city cycling. This is available every year all over Germany.  You report your kilometres driven via an app and then the most diligent municipalities are determined.

Vacations during the Corona Pandamic?

Of course, we have holiday plans. We have been planning a road trip through the Yukon for a year and a half, together with friends, and it is scheduled to start in June.

Canada has closed its borders, the flights are not going and, of course, we are not going. What now?

River is river? Or not, but we book very spontaneously the first possible tour on a ship on the river Danube. That’s what we’ve always wanted to do,  why not now? I wouldn’t have done it that quickly without Corona.

In short, it was great! The ship is only about half occupied, because the Corona measures are also effective there and the ports where we dock are almost void of tourists! Wien, Budapest, Bucharest,  Melk  we have almost to ourselves. What a luxury! You can read it here.

After the end of the week-long river trip, we drive to Bamberg, stay there for one night and further on to the famous Wartburg in Eisenach. After that we drive to my hometown Lüneburg to visit my son and his family for a few days. Finally, I can take my grandchildren in my arms!

Accident

Without Corona I certainly wouldn’t have cycled as much, I wouldn´t have had the time. Because of the city cycling, we take our bikes more often, unfortunately also on July 11th, a hot Saturday. There it happens, I drive on an agricultural path over a large hidden stone, tip to the side into a corn field and it cracks quite terribly in the right leg. As it turns out later, the cruciate ligament is torn.

That means now a leg splint, surgery at the end of August, wearing a leg splint again and then four weeks of rehab in November. In between always physiotherapy and doctors´ visits.

With the flexible splint, I try to walk as much as possible and soon also the hiking works again. I’m not only in the fresh air, I’m slowly rebuilding the muscles. Tough…

Would that have happened without Corona? It’s idle to think about it, but in any case, I haven’t missed an opportunity to get my leg back in shape.

Austria and the travel warning

Absolutely spontaneously we book four days in the valley lech area in Austria, here to read. After one day, the whole of Tyrol is issued with a travel warning. That means we must be quarantined at home and have a Corona test.

My husband quickly writes a message from Austria to the healthoffice. You should report because of the quarantine. A friendly e-mail comes back, they are not responsible, but the public order office. Without specifying  a different  e-mail address. After some research we find an address. Again we mail, an  e-mail  back comes back, they are only responsible for the county. Unfortunately, again, no indication of who is responsible for us.

In the meantime, we have passed the test, and no one knows where to report. Strange… We continue to research, and actually find an address. Another e-mail goes out, no answer. Is that good or is it bad or simply the wrong addressee? Unfortunately, we´ll never know.

Meanwhile, the third day without test result has begun. There is a constant call on the radio to contact the health authorities if you are affected by a quarantine. That’s annoying and I’m writing an email again, this time to the broadcast station, describing our odyssey. Shortly later I get a call and I am asked for an interview.

I’m on the radio!

That certainly would not have happened without Corona! After 60 hours, our negative test result comes directly into the Corona app. This is practical, even if it has taken a long time. Incidentally, we still do not know where we should have turned to. Now there is a special website on the internet for this.

Lonely Christmas

We always spend Christmas with my son. That’s the plan this year also. Unfortunately, the flight times from Basel to Hamburg fall into the imposed curfew, so we cancel the flights and want to drive by car.

Nothing will come of it either, because just before the closure of my granddaughter’s daycare centre, some children got Corona and the whole family has to be quarantined. Over Christmas. All tests are negative,but that’s it then. We stay at home and do a two-hour Teams meeting with them.

We wouldn’t have done that without Corona!

This virus has turned our lives around. I’ve been sitting in home office for many months now and my cruciate ligament tear hasn’t made things any easier. Not being able to travel is very strange, but in retrospect I have experienced and seen a lot in the past year.

Not the Yukon, but the Danube, not Whitehorse or Dawson, but Vienna and Bamberg and many other great places, also here in the Black Forest, I was allowed to explore. I would never have done that without Corona.

Nevertheless, I hope that we will soon be able to travel without restrictions again. Because I want to pursue my profession again with all enthusiasm and joy. Next year it’s 40 years of my dream job, I don’t want to do anything else!

What about you? How or did Corona change your life? Tell me and all the other readers in the comments! We are all curious!

News, more photos and new blog postings you´ll find on my sites on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. I would be happy, if you´ll like my posts and subscribe to my sites! See you there as well!