Too late to turn back now

I believe, I believe, I believe I'm falling in loooove...!

A poignant song to come on the radio as we headed to Gatwick this morning.

A quick stop at a Harvester en route (gotta love those bacon bits, the sweetcorn, the ranch, the CROUTONS!), a swift skip to the express Covid testing airport place (not loving the tonsil scrapes or nostril stabs) and now we're here: checked into our hotel room.

We don't need a Fit to Fly certificate to get into Finland (where we're flying to tomorrow morning), but we will need one to get into Russia and it has to have been taken 48 hours before when we get there. Impeccable planning by Tony (and Treez!): we should hopefully get our results by tomorrow 10pm when we'll be cosily snuggled up in our hotel in Finland, braced to head to the van on Tuesday morning.

A lot has gone on since we set out to go on this journey and, as I type, there are few flights in/out of Russia to the west. This morning, we were resolved that we'll fly out of Russia to a neighbouring country to circumvent the no UK flights from Russia, but it now looks like much of Europe is joining the UK with the no flight thing so we're having to have a rethink...

In essence, if we do manage to get across the border into Russia, we're going to need to figure out a way back that isn't via plane. We're currently thinking we'll bus/train/boat out of Russia. I think the current plan will be to get as east as possible as soon as possible so we can work our way back with the comfort of time but it's all to play for.

For now, Tony is content squirrelling hotel coffee from abandoned trolleys, we'll have a nice little dinner together and get early zzz's ready for an early rise to catch our flight.

I'll update again when we're in Finland. :-)