One year ago, we were relaxing a enjoying the last adventure of 2019, a dream return to our favourite island Komandoo in the Maldives. Everything was normal, and no reason to think that the whole world would experience doom within a few months. It was a beautiful ending of a great year with some great trips as per usual for us. We had a great spring High Desert Adventure riding Harleys in the US visiting epic sights like Monument Valley, Arches and Mesa Verde national parks. And we fell in love with El Paso, a town we will revisit soon we hope. Early summer we took a short minibreak to a favourite European island, Mallorca always delivers in spades when it comes to great food, sunshine and fantastic beaches. We have not gotten to write much about Europe yet but we will in the near future. Summer was spent on out own backyard, a new house needed to be painted and spruced up, so we decided to stay at home and enjoy the southern Norwegian sunshine for the summer. Having a boat and being able to have an entire island to yourself is something we do not take for granted. Late autumn we visited Miami’s South Beach and drove down to Key West to see the Dry Tortugas national park. And the year ended in the Maldives, not too shabby…

Plans were made to perhaps go to southern Italy or maybe China in easter, summer was to be spent at home since we still had some projects at the house. Just a couple of small trips to Copenhagen and Amsterdam to see our favourite band Pearl Jam play. And then suddenly at lot happened and a lot changed for all of us in a short time. We heard talk about some virus in February, but usually viruses tend to be little more than a flu and nothing to worry about. Suddenly in March things started getting very serious very fast. It is always difficult to see and fathom disasters happening other places than in your own immediate sphere, so when Italy suddenly shut down and just weeks later our own government started acting, we could not have prepared for what was about to happen.

Our plans for easter had to be scrapped. Suddenly our jobs were gone and the whole world started shutting down. Some leaders said that this would pass in the summer heat, so after summer it would all be back to normal. Our immediate thoughts were to postpone our plans until fall, it looked like Miami in fall would be achievable, it was not. During spring, our plans for summer was fast going to hell in a handbag. The whole music community cancelled and postponed all activities, meaning all festivals and live events for summer was at best planned for 2021. So, both our concerts and small trips were cancelled and rebooked to 2021. Luckily, we live in a country that has given us some freedom during 2020 to travel and see the sights of Norway. We had great times on road trips to Pulpit Rock and to The Coastal Route south of Stavanger.

2020 will be the first year since the beginning of the 90s without any flights taken by us to any destination domestic or international. Without knowing it our trip to the Maldives one year ago was the last trip of ours done in at least 18 months. We cannot see a way that we can do any travelling abroad at least until summer 2021. We are crossing our fingers that the world will be ok by 2021, that the vaccines will be effective, and that we all can go back to “normal” soon, even though we are not sure what normal will be when Covid-19 hopefully is in our rear-view mirrors sometime next year. It has been the strangest year, a year we hope will not be repeated ever. We are thankful that we are healthy and can continue our travels in the future. We wish everyone a merry christmas and happy new year, let`s hope its a good one, without any fear!

Our favourite christmas song by John Lennon:

So this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the youngA very Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fearAnd so this is Christmas (war is over)
For weak and for strong (if you want it)
The rich and the poor ones (war is over)
The road is so long (now)
And so Happy Christmas (war is over)
For black and for white (if you want it)
For yellow and red ones (war is over)
Let’s stop all the fight (now)A very Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fearAnd so this is Christmas (war is over)
And what have we done? (If you want it)
Another year over (war is over)
And a new one…