"We will fight them on the beaches.. Brexit and Covid!!

BRST (Bob and Ruth's Summer Time) started on May 15th (and who knows when it will end?) It was "touch and go"  right "up to the wire". The shape of the John Hopkins graph of new cases in Cyprus conveys just how much things improved as the supposed departure date approached!

 We reached the point of feeling secure in setting off, but got tangled up in bureaucracy. Lufthansa - whose connecting flight we had found - sent an email offering to check Covid documents in advance, so we sent our certificates from the Health Centre showing our two doses of Pfizer product (with dates and lot numbers). By return we were told it was the wrong thing! Cursing the idea of two lots of EUR120 for PCR tests just to get us through a two hour layover in Frankfurt, we went to the clinic to book and juggle with deadlines and were told their German clients were all having only antigen tests at EUR40. That was something positive!! 24 hours before flying we submitted to Cyprus our flight and vaccination details and received our Cyprus Flight Passes. Phew! It seemed they were happy with the paperwork! We sent them off to Lufthansa and got the OK and a wodge of paper for check-in, But ....

Looks alright to us!

In between bureaucratic crises we managed to see out our seven month stay in Corralejo in style with some music, some good food and some time with friends.  We had - as a first time in paying for ourselves - booked the cheaper Business Class for a variety of reasons and that got us to check-in quickly with positive results. There were a dozen or so international flights - mostly to Germany and Italy - and the airport was quiet. The first flight was a delight:- a superb meal, plenty of drinks and plenty of info in English. The walk to the next gate was a long one through a tunnel with the travelator going the wrong way and we got our first post-Brexit passport stamps recording an exit from Schengen. "How long have you been in Germany?" "About an hour". So - an expensive beer and a casual walk to the gate, where mayhem was unfolding!!

There were disorganised queues everywhere and frequent announcements. There were people with test results or vaccination certificates but no Flight Pass. We sailed up to a desk and were told we still needed to get a stamp. Whilst there we witnessed a confused and angry passenger from Paris who had none of these and appeared to know nothing about it! He was not allowed to board! We waved our passes, but the employee was confused! It was not the right piece of paper, but she reluctantly stamped us and we boarded. There was a single man in Row 1 (First Class) then us and beyond a handful of others in Business Class. The service was even better and the meal also excellent. We were addressed by name and kept well-watered. 

As we landed in Larnaca the Tannoy said we would be screened for health and would  then either proceed to Immigration or be sent to the Test Centre. Confidently we presented all the accumulated bumph and had the familiar interchange with the nurse. We should never have been given the Pass; we should not have been given onward boarding passes; we should not have been stamped in Frankfurt! He had seen the Spanish certificate and this wasn't right! So at 2.30 am we are standing on the tarmac outside a field hospital waiting to pay EUR30 each for a PCR test! Even the official taking the money thought it all strange, but Hey! The Border official was unfamiliar with UK passports, and then someone had taken one of the suitcases off the belt causing further anxiety for the aged traveller! Our ride was waiting for us as about the last passengers out of the terminal for the night, and we got to the hotel by 3.30. SMS confirmation of our negative status arrived next day!  

So Greyrocks has spent ten days in the new bolthole: two and a half in Larnaca, and the rest in Paphos, where we remain without an exit strategy, whilst we wait to see if Cyprus goes "green" in UK terms before - say - early July. If not it's a long haul to a direct flight to Chania for the planned stay! Thoughtful analysis (!) of the island's good and less good aspects for us will be the subject of the next post. Meanwhile we are feeling pretty clever for exploiting the loopholes left open by the British "culture war"!  

 (Some schadenfreude when we saw that the hotel TV in Larnaca can no longer show UK channels and there is a shortage of HP Sauce! Taking back control?")