We got our renewed passports in the mail today!

[CTyankee]

I had lost all hope. It took 3 1/2 months (usual time 4-6 weeks) and we thought "not gonna happen", but then they came in the mail!

Now we can't go anywhere. No Greek cruise, no little detour to Istanbul to explore the Haggia Sophia, not welcome in Greece as US citizens.

Oh, well, we'll always have Paris...oh, wait...

[soothsayer]

1. Hey it's better than not having it! Congrats

[CTyankee]

4. Yep. And anyway, I have many thousands of dollars worth of dentistry to tend to...

just to save these old, old teeth...

[Thekaspervote]

2. Same here, renewed mine in mid Feb, just got it a couple of weeks ago

[secondwind]

3. Be glad you have them.

Who knows what’s going to happen in the future.

[leftieNanner]

5. That's Great!

We have plans for 2021 to take a cruise from Athens to Istanbul and then a 10 day ground tour of Turkey.



Hope we can go.

[CTyankee]

7. We had our sights on a great tour by Road Scholar. I've traveled with them before (4 trips to

europe) and they are wonderful.

[leftieNanner]

10. My Parents did Road Scholar trips

and loved them.

We went to Africa last year (epic trip!) with Kensington and they were wonderful. The ground portion of the trip in Turkey will be with them. The cruise is Viking. We did a 15 day Baltic tour with them in 2018.

I hope we can travel again some day.

[CTyankee]

12. I wonder how the travel industry is surviving in this country.

I kinda feel bad for them...

[leftieNanner]

18. Me too

I'm more concerned about the staff for these businesses. Aren't there cruise ships that are stuck out at sea with crew and support staff that have not been allowed to dock anywhere? Terrible.

[elleng]

22. Badly, I'm sure.

[fleur-de-lisa]

6. If only we could escape . . .

[CTyankee]

8. If it werent for the virus and that awful dictator I would recommend Rio de Janiero. I was

enchanted by that trip when I was a kid of 17 and my mother took me. I remember hearing the bossa nova right before it hit big in the U.S.

[Sherman A1]

9. Got ours renewed last year in July

was planning a trip to Ireland this year. Thankfully we had not spent anything on it before the Trump Virus struck. Maybe in the next few years we will be able to go.

[CTyankee]

11. I'm good to travel but my dentistry is going to strap me financially (no dental insurance) severely.

Good thing I don't need any clothes. And we don't go out and eat (couldn't even if we wanted).

we can get our hair cut (mine tomorrow) and go to a nail salon.

No Ivy League season games at the Yale Bowl, our fall social activity with a great tailgate group.

Oh, well...

[Sherman A1]

16. We are good to travel as well

except for that pesky Trump Virus thing. It will be several years I suspect.

[2naSalit]

13. Oh geeze! Thanks for the reminder!

I have to do that tomorrow, seriously, I have been distracted by watching the world come apart so I forgot. Mine expires this year.

[liberaltrucker]

14. All dressed up and nowhere to go

[CTyankee]

15. Well, look at it this way: when Biden takes over, Americans will be welcomed with open arms by

our world allies who despised Trump.

[leftieNanner]

19. After he gets the virus under control

Then maybe we will be allowed to travel again.

My husband had a great idea that Iceland should set up hotels as quarantine spots. Americans could self quarantine at home for two weeks, be tested and then fly to Iceland. Stay there for two weeks in a hotel. Be tested again and then fly to Europe.

Yeah. No.

Only if I need to escape the US permanently.

[yonder]

17. Congratulations. Now the hard part: figuring out where one can go.

I recently got mine after a 17 week wait and am high and dry but that's okay - at least it's in hand.

[drray23]

20. good for you!

Having passports is very important in this day and age. I have both American and french passports. My wife is American and we never bothered doing the paperwork to register our American marriage (from 2004) on the French registry and ask for her to get French citizenship. We are doing that paperwork now. That will give us the option to go to Europe if needed and she will get full free French healthcare if needed.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

21. So glad they finally arrived.

Eventually we will all be able to travel again. It's just going to b e a lot longer than we'd like it to be.

Personally, I'm not willing to travel anywhere in the foreseeable future. I'm not willing to take a plan. I'd love to visit my son but I'm in NM and he's in VA, and I don't want to drive that far.

Someday . . . .

[DFW]

23. It is possible to get there by train

It will take a couple of days and changing twice, but it can be done.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

24. That's true.

I had a wonderful train journey planned at the beginning of April. The Southwest Chief from New Mexico to Chicago, overnight in Chicago, then the Empire Builder to Seattle.
To go to visit my son it would be NM to Chicago, then the Capitol Limited to Union Station in DC. That would work and when I finally am willing to travel again I might do that instead of flying.


I've taken Amtrak several times in the past and really like it. I always book a roomette, and it's well worth it. When you consider all meals are included, plus a room for the night, it's a bargain. I like alternating between sitting in my roomette by myself, or hanging out in the lounge car. Then there's the genuine fun of meeting new people at meals. Plus, if you choose to pack your own alcohol, you can drink quietly in the roomette.

[DFW]

25. I've never taken a train ride that long.

I went from Stockholm to Kiruna and back, and that was something like 11 hours each way. It seemed forever- A friend of mine once took the Trans-Siberian railway from Moscow to Khabarovsk, and she said she would have preferred to be put in a coma and wake up at the destination. She said she spent most of the time looking at what must have been 65% of the world's trees. Something like 9 days.

I always wanted to do some long inner-USA train trip ever since I saw the film "Silver Streak," but never got around to it.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

26. A long train trip is what you make of it.

I'm content to spend hours by myself. I also enjoy chatting with total strangers. I always have books along to read.

I have long wanted to take the Trans-Siberian Railway, only I'd want to get on in Vladivostok and end up in Moscow. I've never quite decided if I's want to do it all in one fell swoop, or stop along the way. These days there are several different such trains with varying levels of comfort. I'm too old to travel on one of the second class ones that normal Russians take, and I doubt I'd ever have the money to do one of the more luxurious ones, especially when you factor in getting to Vladivostok in the first place, and coming home from Moscow.

For what it's worth, the internet tells me that the journey your friend took should have taken a bit over 6 days, although there could well have been delays.

Fortunately, this country isn't quite so vast, and there's probably a greater variety of scenery on any of our long-distance train.

I have given some thought to taking the train from Montreal to Vancouver. That's about 4 days. Maybe someday.