Might be for you – but obviously it was not easy enough for the OP as he wrote: eddsPeter wrote:
@Malibuflyer That‘s not true. We were on the bicycles and he approached us. Otherwise we would have had no contact at all, as we took our sandwiches with us. Wrong: we had to pay cash, so we had to meet the lady on the tower.
And by the way: as we intended to go to France and due of Business, I was tested nearly every day before entering the island. PCR included. The last official test for my wife and me was the day before in the afternoon.
So I’m echoing @Peter, it is possible to avoid getting into contact most of the time, if you are taking care by yourself. But I recommend to go back to the polite tone, which is usually used in this forum, please. This was a trip report not intended to end up in another COVID discussion. Sorry to all of you, that it was written in a way leading to this unintentionally.
eddsPeter wrote:
But I recommend to go back to the polite tone, which is usually used in this forum, please.
I do apologize if some of my words are not perceived as polite – I wanted to be direct, not impolite. I’m happy to redact my text if you give me a hint what you perceived as “not polite”. That you did not manage to keep away from local population is a fact and therefore not impolite – and that traveling in times of corona is consciously putting risk on others as well.
If you really mean it as a trip report – and in the sense of being polite to others – I also suggest that you in turn redact your initial post (including the title) to “guests not welcome during pandemic”, “… Don’t want to have foreigners on the island as long as the pandemic goes”, etc.
Calling people who live from tourism “the ugly face of Germany” just because the do not want to die is not exactly polite as well …
eddsPeter wrote:
To say it in advance, the island was beautiful, but we will never go there again, because they don‘t want to have foreigners on the island.
Many thanks for your trip report, really brought back good memories for us cycling around the island, we have been a couple of times from the UK having cleared customs at Groningen.
Obviously the situation you described is due entirely to C19, we had the same prob here with the Isle of Wight, but from our experience the Norderney islanders were very friendly, even to the point of having to turn away drinks in the bar, but that was back in ‘normal times’. Maybe it was due to us Brits being a bit of a rarity on the island, but it didnt feel that way.
We cant wait to return to “The Queen of the North Sea” to take in some fresh air and cycling.
So make it illegal for God’s sake. If it’s legal to go there, don’t whine about people actually doing it.
We surely don’t need laws for this. We just need a degree of understanding for the (perhaps ill-informed) fears of a remote community where levels of China-virus infection and access to advanced healthcare facilities are at the opposite end of the scale to, say, Stuttgart.
South West Scotland is more “Bermuda Triangle” than island, but until a few weeks ago when everyone in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbrightshire who is vulnerable had been immunised, I would have been happy to welcome eddsPeter who I know to be careful and sensible to Glenswinton, but perhaps less open to receiving the entire spectrum of city-dwelling humanity.
The locals should just get vaccinated! Or stay at home and never come out, which is the only other “endgame” option anywhere else.
First they should get the chance to get vaccinated. Until that happens, others should, pardon for wording, sh*t up and think twice before telling them about “endgame” options. The sad fact is that countries have different success rates with regard to vaccination strategies and availabilities. I.e. the UK or US have a higher success rate than i.e. Germany or Switzerland.
Oh, well, disagreement is as old as humankind, not only it is not bad: it is good.
I guess it is a matter of accepting that other people will not necessarily share our views and finding some common ground to allow happy, reasonably free, living for all, especially when we have to interact, as when visiting a distant place.
A fundamental step towards a “common ground” is having a common basic hierarchy of key items. Life should be at the top , and when people fear for their own, it must be understood that remaining values pale beyond strict reason. We’re only humans, after all. That is what happens when you see people die around you.
This is especially so in democracies, where the value of each person’s opinion is the same, regardless how smart, experienced, or knowledgeable they are to understand and handle the implications of COVID-openness, and when the government is unable to force reason onto people in such context. Maybe the general such level in this forum is above average, but that only means we need to be more mindful of the above.
It will take a bit more time for all to be “comfortable” with COVID but we will get there sooner rather than later.
