A Four Day Journey Of High Altitude and High Anxiety

Our latest journey has taken us back to Europe for a much delayed European ski adventure. But before we could enjoy the skiing, we had to take care of some business. In all, it took us four days to get from the Bay Area to our hotel in the Dolomites.

The first and probably most important thing on our agenda was going to Nice to pick up our residence cards. Although we knew we had roughly until the end of March to collect them, anything having to do with French bureaucracy is unpredictable and nerve-racking. But I digress, I’ll get back to that story later.

Travel to Europe in the Covid World

As you all know, travel in the current environment is generally a challenge especially if you travel internationally as we do. The entire process makes us very anxious because the requirements for different countries vary frequently. For this trip, we knew we were passing European immigration in Spain but then we were traveling on to France which has its own set of requirements.

Most of the country entry requirements are enforced by the airlines. You must produce all of your documents when you check-in at the airport. That said, it is still your responsibility to check with each of the countries you are visiting to confirm what the latest entry requirements are. For this trip on American Airlines, we used the Verifly application to complete the process for Spain. But when we got to the airport, the people at the check-in counter didn’t really understand that Verifly already had us upload and approve our passports and vaccination records. It was really frustrating and anxiety-producing but we finally got to the right person to check in after getting shuttled from one line to another.

For France, we had to do a location identity form and upload it for both of us. Those who didn’t do that were handed forms on the plane, but who knows what happened after that.

For nearly every trip in the last six months, we have printed and filled out forms that were never collected by both the US and other countries. It is a little nerve-racking while you are traveling, waiting to see if someone is going to ask you for some paper that you might or might not have.

Off to Europe Through DFW

Because we rearranged our airfare to allow for our trip to Steamboat, our flights weren’t as good as usual. This time we had two stops. First, we headed to DFW, which went smoothly. Things didn’t go as smoothly for many other people. We kept hearing about canceled flights on the loudspeakers. There were cancellations due to weather and staff shortages so our flight to DFW became full.

Once at DFW we took the train between terminals. That well enough and we even got into the American lounge that was supposedly closed. “All good so far.”

Flight to Madrid

Our next flight was an overnight to Madrid. Everything seemed fine and the flight was only about half full. On the taxiway, however, the purser gets on the loudspeaker to tell us there are no pillows or blankets on the plane. The roof of the building where they were stored had collapsed due to the weight of snow from a recent storm. Big bummer.

This surprise was especially impactful on an overnight flight. Since our life is one big adventure, we hauled down our jackets to use for pillows or blankets. I always fly with an inflatable pillow for my back so I figured I had both a pillow and a blanket, but no. My pillow decided that 2.5 years of work was enough and it no longer wanted to hold any air. Needless to say, neither of us slept much.

Getting our Bags in Madrid and Rechecking Them

To save a few thousand dollars, our biz class flight to Madrid was booked separately from our onward flight to Nice. That meant that we had to pass immigration, collect all of our ski luggage and get all of it back to the check-in counter for our flight to Nice. I was really dreading this part of the trip but it wasn’t as awful as I expected. We got a cart and after a little wandering around and an elevator ride we found the check-in counter. Fortunately, we had a long layover because the walk to immigration was really long, as had been the wait for our skis.

After another trip through security, we found our gate and sat down to wait. It was a fairly short smooth ride to Nice and it was dark again by the time we got there. We hailed a taxi, but after he loaded half the bags, he asked us where we were going. When we told him it was a hotel close by he got a little mad. He told us we should take the tram to the hotel but he took pity on us because of all of our bags. We paid him well for the 7-minute ride.

Our Very Busy “Work” Day in Nice

After a good night’s sleep, we decided to walk back to the airport to pick up our rental car. Waiting another day to get the car saved us a day of rental and the parking charge. It actually took quite a while to collect the car, due to misunderstandings about its location and condition.

The first order of business in Nice was getting our Euro QR codes updated with our Covid boosters. The French website had a list of pharmacies that would do this for us, so after collecting our bags from the hotel, Mike dropped me off at the pharmacy with passports and vax cards and less than 15 minutes later I had both of our QR codes.  I started to think, things are really going well today, this is a dangerous thought when you still have to go to the Prefecture.

Picking Up Our Titre de Sejour

We arrived at the Prefecture at 1:30 only to find a long line to get into the building. We weren’t strangers to this line, so I jumped out of the car and got in line while Mike parked the car. As with all of our visits to the Prefecture, we had no idea what to expect. The first line moved quickly, so we were hopeful. Spoke too soon.

Once inside, we waited in an even longer line for at least 1.5 hours. I knew we were picking up our cards and they would look like a driver’s license. I also knew that we had to pay a tax but I didn’t know how to pay the tax, so we had to wait until we got to the window. The clerk got our cards and then asked for the tax stamp, which we didn’t have yet. With an annoyed stare, she handed us a piece of paper with a URL on it for the tax site. I tried to pay the tax but my phone wasn’t translating the page. Mike’s Google phone did a good job with the translation and he was finally able to pay the tax for us both.

Originally, they sent a text to notify us that our cards were ready for pickup. That also listed the tax. If they had just put the payment URL in the text, we could have paid the tax in advance. Also, we weren’t the only ones who were given the paper with the payment info. Heck, they could have put that paper on the wall where we waited and I would have paid the tax before we got to the window. Crazy!!

Residence Card Success, Finally

After lots of sweat and 2.5 hours, we had our Titres de Sejour (residence cards).

Why go through all of this as well as all of the preceding efforts? Because, with our Titres de Sejour, we can now move about Europe freely, allowing us to more happily pursue our roving retirement. We have friends in the nomad community who would love to have that freedom. Without these cards or something similar, we would only be able to spend three months out of six here. Doable, but a sufficient pain we felt it was worth the effort to get the cards.

Moving on to Italy

By the time we left the Prefecture, it was 4 pm and we were jet-lagged. We could only drive for about 2.5 hours before we had to stop for the night. That meant spending the night in Genoa. So, using booking.com, I found us a nice hotel for the night.

Departing Nice, we were only in France for about 20 more minutes before we crossed into Italy. The Italian autostrada was one tunnel after another. The terrain was very rugged and mountainous before dropping down into the Mediterranean. I’ve never seen a road cut through so much mountain and the tunnels alternated with bridges over ravines. Interestingly, all of the tunnels and bridges are named. I remember that many years ago, the last time we drove through this part of Italy.

Onward to the Dolomites

The next morning, travel day four, we were finally headed to our ski town of Madonna di Campiglio. We had a five-hour drive, but we were so relieved to have our QR codes and visas, we just enjoyed the day. I started noticing the signs on the road telling us we were traveling from one region in Italy to another, from Liguria to Piedmont to Emilia. There may have been more that I missed as I watched the scenery.

Arriving at our mountainside hotel, we were happy to bring these four long days to end. We were greeted by the friendly family running the modest-sized lodge.

They provided us with a fine meal and we finally came to rest in our room. Our mission of obtaining passes and relocation was accomplished. We slept well.

The Green Pass

In Italy, a Green Pass is required in all hotels, restaurants, and for using your ski pass. Fortunately, the French QR codes we just got in Nice are equivalent and we have been asked for them everywhere. Since we haven’t tried our US vax cards, I honestly don’t know if they would work. Every venue is scanning the codes so I have my doubts. We did read recently that Italian pharmacies might convert US cards, but we are very happy we already have them.

What was your longest time to travel to a destination?