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The past month has been really busy so my apologies for the distinct lack of updates. In the last four weeks, we waved goodbye to Gran Canaria and said hello again to Manchester. I had my first Covid vaccination. We have stayed in two different Airbnbs in Manchester and are now packing our cases once again as we have decided on our next destination – Phew!

Leaving Gran Canaria

We loved our time in Gran Canaria. Since leaving Manchester back in September 2020 the whole travelling experience has been really enjoyable. On the whole, it has felt as if we have been living our lives quite normally, just with the added bonus of the novelty of a constant change in our surroundings.

With Gran Canaria however, from the moment we arrived there was a real sense of being on holiday. When I was working, one-week holidays were the norm. As I have nearly always been self-employed taking any longer than that off was really difficult. You can imagine how amazing was this opportunity to have a ten-week holiday. It really was a dream come true! However, the time had now come for us to leave.

The Schengen Zone

There were a number of reasons that we chose now to return to the UK. I wanted to have my Covid vaccination. We had only decided to use a letting agent last minute, literally whilst we have been away and so needed to properly finalise contracts with them. Also, as the UK is no longer in the EU, our freedom of movement is now much more restricted and we legally needed to leave Spain.

The rule on staying in the Schengen zone, since Brexit, for UK citizens ( and all other third countries) is that they cannot stay within the zone for more than 90 days in any 180 days. The list of 26 countries that make up the Schengen Zone includes Spain and our 90-day limit was almost up.

The countries that make up the Schengen zone:-

The 90/180-day rule has been in place for all third countries for 25 years but is new to UK citizens since Jan 1st 2021. This is when the grace periods on all Brexit rules and regulations came to an end after officially leaving the EU a year earlier.

March 31st was exactly 90 days since the 90-day rule came into effect for UK citizens. This caused quite a scramble to leave Spain. Many people who were used to living there for six months during the winter period now all needed to leave at the same time. We found ourselves caught up in the race to find a flight home.

Time for us to leave

We knew it was time for us to leave the Schengen zone but there were all kinds of stories and misinformation flying around. Some were saying the rule was being relaxed. Others, that it was being strictly adhered to. Some were saying all flights were getting cancelled. Others, that more flights than ever were leaving due to the sudden mass exodus – my head was in a spin!

We decided the sensible thing to do was to ignore the Facebook group gossip and instead, to follow the law and leave within the days permitted. This is a Schengen law, not a Spanish law. It applies to all third countries and, as the UK is now officially a third country we could not see any reason why the rules would, or indeed should be any different for us? If we overstayed our fear was that we could possibly encounter problems on our next visit.

The only problem though, was that all flights into the Canaries were cancelled. Airlines were now being asked to fly in empty to collect passengers wanting to fly home. For some airlines, this must just not have been cost-effective so it soon became evident that they were starting to cancel services.

Flights booked!

We had a managed to book a flight back to Manchester with Tui. First, news broke that Ryanair had cancelled all flights. Next, Jet2 followed suit. Then, on the following day the bad news we had been expecting arrived. Tui had decided to cancel all flights. We too were now stranded!

It was a frustrating situation. On one hand, we were being told we had to leave but on the other hand, all our options to leave were getting taken away.

I checked again and the only flights now available were with Easyjet. They had two flights a week throughout March, the downside was that they were all flying into Luton. Not a brilliant option for us but beggars can’t be choosers. We booked the last two seats available. Gran Canaria – Luton, 27th March. Our fingers were crossed once again. If this flight was cancelled there didn’t seem to be a ‘Plan ‘C’ to fall back on!

More Covid tests!

There were other things to sort out too. We needed to arrange our negative antigen Covid test before leaving Spain. Plus, new self-isolation measures were now in place for UK arrivals. This meant that we had to self-isolate for 10 days when we arrived in the UK. We also had to book two more PCR Covid tests each. These had to be booked before we left Spain. We were then to do these tests ourselves on the 2nd and 8th days of our isolation period back in the UK. All this, plus our passenger locator forms to download, complete, and have stored in my phone to show at immigration control. My travel anxiety was set to high once again!

As always, A problem at the airport!

Surprisingly, we need not have worried as everything went fairly smoothly.

We did have a hiccup at the airport though! Karyo caused a hold-up as we were boarding the flight. He is using his Greek I.D. card to travel and this really seemed to flummox the immigration guys in Spain. I.D. cards have an issue date but no expiry date and the immigration officials were questioning its validity. It was as if they had never known anyone travel with an I.D. card before?

They took him out of the queue and told him he could not fly. They wanted more identification which he did not have. Thankfully, in true superman style, I came to the rescue. I happened to have our marriage certificate in my case and showing this seemed to pacify their suspicion that he was an illegal immigrant. To our relief, they beckoned us on.

..and that was that. We were on our way back to Blighty. In just over four hours we landed and seamlessly sailed past passport ( and I.D. ) control checks in Luton. We were back in the UK! Our flight landed late with no onward trains available, and with the thought of another night spent on a plastic airport bench was too much to bear, we booked into an airport hotel for the night then took a train back to Manchester the following day.

Isolation Airbnb

Our first Airbnb in Manchester belonged to us! Whilst we were in Rome our current tenants gave notice that they wanted to leave. This seemed like a good time for us to take the plunge and to give the apartment to an agent to let on our behalf. This was the first time we had done this but as we had no idea when we would be returning home it seemed like the best option.

As it happened when we needn’t have bothered. Here we were and the apartment was still not let. It did not make sense for us to rent elsewhere whilst having an empty apartment of our own so our plan was to leave it on the market to let but to move in ourselves for the duration of our visit to Manchester or until a tenant was found.

The next day sod’s law kicked in! We had a call from the agent to say a lady had done a virtual tour and wanted to move in the next week! As delighted as we were to find new tenants this meant that we had just over a week to find somewhere else ourselves. We also had our ten-day isolation to do. We explained this to the agent who delayed the new tenants and they generously put back their move-in date by a few days for us.

You could not make it up. The apartment had been standing empty for over two months and the day after we moved in someone wanted it! – I’m still not sure whether we should class that as good or bad luck.

Airbnb number two.

We had already spent two weeks in Manchester self-isolating in our own apartment. I still had to have my vaccination and we wanted to sort a couple more things out before we left so we decided to book another Airbnb for a couple of weeks before we decided where we wanted to travel to next.

We know Manchester well so after a very quick search we found this lovely apartment in an area known as ‘Angel Meadow’. It is very central, just five minutes walk from Victoria train station, The city centre, and the arena so a great choice for anyone visiting Manchester. The apartment is brand new is situated inside an old converted building. It seems that it was once something to do with the Co-op and printing (?) and has some nice original features scattered around.

Whilst we were there it seemed that hardly any of the other apartments had been occupied yet so the place was really quiet. A real bonus for a city stay!

The vaccination

We no longer have a permanent address and have both changed our phone numbers recently. This meant that I didn’t get any information as to when I was due for my vaccination. It was a concern that this would be a problem but that was definitely not the case. I did a quick search on ‘tinternet, entered my details, and up popped an appointment at the local Covid vaccination centre. My appointment was booked for three days later at the Ethiad stadium which is easy walking distance to the City.

The organisation at the vaccination centre was really impressive. In 15 minutes from arriving, I found myself heading home again – job done!

I have heard so many stories about how the vaccination has affected people. For me, it was basically exactly as the nurse had said it would be. The day I had it I was fine. The following day I felt as rough as a bear’s bottom so stayed all day on the settee. The day after that I was right as rain again. I really do hope that this vaccination rollout will enable the country to start to get back on its feet.

Good to be back in Manchester

I had a wander around Manchester city centre and it was great to see that it is already is getting a definite positive buzz back.

I even stumbled across some filming taking place, I’ve no idea what it was they were filming but is that Eric Cantona?

Where next?

This month really has flown by. We needed to come back and we have now done the things that we wanted to do. It has been lovely to see a few friends & family but now we are itching to move on again.

..but where to go? After much deliberation, we have decided to head north to Edinburgh. We have visited here before but only for quick, weekend breaks so thought a four-week stay this time would be a great opportunity to experience more of this beautiful city.

I can’t believe that it is already time to get packing again. We have booked an Airbnb in Leith, to the north of Edinburgh city centre. We are really looking forward to the visit but have to admit are wondering whether our suitcase of summer clothes will be enough to see us through a month in the windy city? – maybe giving away all those winter coats wasn’t such a good idea after all!

Goodbye Manchester – Hello Edinburgh