August 7, 2022
Mom and I launched our first international trip since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organziation nearly 2½ hours ago. We should be on SAS Flight 944 from ORD to CPH right now. Instead we are at a mediocre hotel nine miles from Chicago O’Hare International Airport after our flight here arrived from Orlando 9 hours 23 minutes late and we missed the connection by about 30 minutes.
We are heading to Northern Europe for six weeks, our first time abroad since we returned from Argentina March 3-4, 2020 – one week before the global pandemic declaration shut down foreign travel across the globe and then brought stiffling restrictions such as border closures, mask mandates, and testing requirements that kept us from leaving the United States for an incredibly long period of time. We are taking two cruises: First, Regent Seven Seas Voyager for 12 nights around the Baltic Sea (departing from Cophenhagen), then Oceania Sirena for 18 nights out of Oslo up the coast of Norway to the Arctic Ocean, then out to Faroe Islands, Orkney Islands of Scotland, and down the east coast of Great Britian to end in Portsmouoth, England. We have a week between voyages, during which we’ll visit the U.K. territories of Guernsey and Jersey (the Channel Islands).