Portugal and France 2022

After two years of hunkering down, unhunkering, rehunkering, semihunkering, demihunkering, pseudohunkering, arewereallystillhunkering … we traveled. Really traveled. We more or less threw caution to the wind, though we did ask it to wear a mask.

We flew to Lisbon via Philadelphia, spent a few days there, then visited our friends who live part-time in the Algarve. Naturally, they caught COVID just before we landed in Lisbon. Less naturally, we decided to stay with them anyhow. F*** COVID.

After a few delightful days with our friends we headed for Annecy, France. By way of Geneva, Switzerland. Because there aren’t that many places you can fly to from the airport near our friends, and because why not throw in an extra border crossing and bus ride during a pandemic?

Our fortunate and fabulous trip nevertheless continued without a hitch. Annecy was beautiful, a fact not lost on the French, as we discovered when the town was overrun with French tourists during the weekend of Ascension. No problem; we took a bus to a small neighboring town.

With two weeks in Annecy we had a chance to settle in a bit. We walked, we discovered the wonder of electric bikes, we went to the market, we ate on our little balcony.

We spent a couple days in Lyon because we like Lyon and because it has a real airport. In Lyon, we accidentally discovered we were staying on the same block as a games bar, Le Shrubbery. We also had the worst trouble of our entire trip — a sticky lock at the apartment entrance.

After three weeks we were just about ready to get home, though if not for the cats …. Back to Austin via London, with the requisite COVID test — requisite because of the US, not France or the UK. Still, even that was easy.

We had the trip we wanted and needed, and really it couldn’t have been better! It’s impossible not to start thinking about the next one.