LH Franz The worldwide Covid-19 pandemic hit us in January 2020. Movement around the neighborhood, much less around the world, became limited. As an old person, with some experience of life’s inconveniences under my belt, the idea of restricting my movements for a little while didn’t strike me as onerous. Of course, the “little while” grew much longer than anticipated. Still, the sense of personal insult that seemed to get so much media coverage did not hit me. I am also a bit of an introvert. The idea of limiting my interactions with people did not bother me very much. Equally important, a member of my family was hospitalized and nearly died from Covid in early 2020. At that time, the virus was its most deadly and doctors were still not clear on how to treat it.
Hospitals in NJ would play “Here Comes the Sun” over the loudspeakers when recovered patients were discharged. It still brings tears to my eyes. The inconveniences needed to prevent that from happening to anyone else’s family seemed a small price to pay for getting the disease under control. (As an aside, once antibody testing became available, we found I had Covid antibodies in my blood, indicating I’d unknowingly contracted the disease. I remember being ill in early 2020, attributing my symptoms to a cold: a little sniffly, feeling a little warm but without a fever high enough for concern, a sore throat… I figure that was it.)
Airline travel during these two years was out of the question.
But…
Frequent flyer miles continued to accumulate.
Daughter and I had been planning a trip to Iceland since we got back from Paris in 2019. Between then and 2022, I accumulated enough frequent flyer miles to offset almost all the cost of a round trip flight to Reykjavik. Over time, medical knowledge about Covid increased and vaccinations became available. The two of us maintained a lookout, watching countries open up to tourists one by one.
On February 24, 2022, Iceland announced it was lifting travel restrictions for travelers entering the country. On February 25, we put each other on speaker phone while we brought up reservation websites on our computers. As in 2019, I was flying out of Newark Liberty International Airport in NJ while she was flying out of Dulles International Airport. I booked a round trip on United Airlines for May 29, she booked on Icelandair for the same day, arriving at Keflavik International Airport a couple of hours before me. We would meet up at the airport and take FlyBus into Reykjavik.
