"Pass the shoehorn:- another island needed!"

 A sigh of relief throughout Fuerteventura this morning as we are the only island in the archipelago to change CoVid status after yesterday's meeting. There had been a hope that it would happen last week as Easter specials were removed, and indeed our Cabildo formally complained that the metrics did not support remaining at level 3 (red), but it was not to be! Thus, this week has involved outdoor eating and drinking, yet more arrivals of surfers/"diginomads", and even fewer sightings of police to attempt enforcement of the regulations. Greyrocks has nervously interrogated the data for fear of the post-Easter surge and miraculously it hasn't happened! ICU is empty of CoVid cases, deaths are at 13 and active cases 61. We move to Level 2 (amber) joining Lanzarote. On a rather dull day we can look forward to tapas inside!

We have also had ten days to absorb the significance of vaccination. With our TIE cards and the prospect of being fully jabbed by the end of the month we have turned our attention to a summer plan. Two positive rumours have been around concerning the travel opportunities for UK citizens with residency in an EU country. Both proved false! The Schengen website states:

Well, that's all pretty clear!!

We spent a sun-free afternoon trying to optimise the migrations and using the Schengen Stay Calculator.  Positioning stays in both Crete and France in months of decent weather whilst meeting the more arcane aspects of the180 day lumps is a recipe for brain-ache! Huge compromises have to be made, and we became (yet more) incandescent about Brexit! The wrong people are being punished for it!  But, then again!

There is no getting away from it: we can't have the long Cretan stay and two spells in Montpellier unless we are in one of them in mid-winter! We don't want to be more than six months here because of taxation. So: enter from the only slightly dodgy side: Greek Cyprus!

We were last there in January 1992, when we decided that it was not the best choice for mid-winter sun and our Fuerteventura fate was sealed. Now, however, it comes into its own as a place in Europe outside the 90-day rule (along with Romania, Croatia and Bulgaria) We're primed to give it a try this May! Subject to progress in CoVid recovery of course!