Great post. Thanks for sharing. I planned on visiting Europe and definitely England, Ireland, and Germany at some point. Planned as in past tense. With the state of the world now I have no intentions of traveling as I don't want to be on my way there and have some new mandate or lockdown strand me somewhere of force me into a situation where I am forced to take permanent actions on my body or my family without choice.
Thus, I can only live vicariously through posts such as yours.
Thank you so much. It was funny getting that passport, I had to travel all over the state as I had a deadline to show the people in Germany that I'd gotten one, or the trip was off. I went to Germany via a short stop in Iceland and England.
Speaking of the current crisis, I was planning a trip to China in late 2019, when I first learned about what was happening there via a US expat internet forum. I'll be so glad when we can travel freely again. Australia and Greenland are on my bucket list! :)
I finally got my passport a couple of years ago (I am 52) because I had to make a business trip to Toronto. Canada by that time required a passport. I'd been to Edmonton in Canada right before that passport requirement became so rigid.
I am familiar with how much of a pain in the ass (and expensive) getting a passport can be. That is why I was around 48 or 49 when I finally got around to getting one.