Living in Europe in the Time of Covid

[stormdog]

At this point, it seems entirely possible, even likely, that Miriam's term as a post-doc will end and we'll leave the country before getting vaccinated. The Netherlands' Covid response has been one of the worst in Europe. Still far better than the US overall, though vaccination rollout is something of an exception to that. At least here, the percentage of conspiracy theorists who are far enough disconnected from reality to not want the vaccine is far lower, though there are still plenty of people who can't seem to figure out how masks work or whey they are important.

But we are worried about being on an 8 hour flight without being vaccinated.

Runner up to that worry is the annoyance that during what may well be the only extended span of time I'll live in Europe in my life, I have seen essentially *nothing*. I haven't looked into visiting cmcmk in England. No Eiffel Tower or Neuschwanstein Castle. No Classical Greek or Roman architecture. Not even the damn Rijksmuseum or Anne Frank house right here in Amsterdam.

I suppose that's life sometimes.

Comments

[cmcmck]

There may be other times and you know where were are! :o)

I was supposed (finally) to be working out the Sho'ah links to my missing family in Latvia last year and we are supposed to be celebrating our fifteenth wedding anniversary in Siena this, but it isn't going to happen. :o(

[basefinder]

One silver lining is that you actually *lived* there instead of just jetting in, sleeping in a hotel, and jetting home. And your bike rides have given you experiences most tourists won't have.

I get your point though.

When I lived in Germany 1979-1981 I managed to visit Paris and London, but missed out on a lot of other desired travel because of work. It was difficult to plan time off in advance what with all the NATO war exercises, weekend standby, etc. for both me and my ex. I really wanted to do the troop train visit to Berlin, but it required scheduling months in advance. At least we got to visit Cologne, Munich, made day trips to Luxembourg, and I saw Led Zep in Mannheim.

I am glad we visited Neuschwanstein when I lived in Germany the first time, about age 8.

Does Miriam's job have a fixed end date? The whole postdoc thing seems very mysterious (and abusive) to me.