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Saturday, March 18, 2023

Not a great day. And another change in plans!

Both kids were still sick yesterday, and Lindsey isn't much better although not as bad as the kids. So we put off the camel ride into the desert, and just hung around the guesthouse.

Strange day from a weather perspective. It was cloudy in the morning, then the wind really picked up in the afternoon. So much so that we're actually glad we weren't out in the desert on a camel!

Once again, lots of gritty Sahara dust blowing around. Poor Max. We'll spend the day today cleaning him up again!

The weather today seems much better. Sunny, no wind, and a high of "only" 28C (82F), which with low humidity is actually quite pleasant.

So, regarding this change in plans...

We have a ferry booked from Spain to Ireland on May 7th. That part is written in stone. But because of the Schengen visa rules, we weren't going to leave Morocco until April 14th to be in compliance with their 90 days out of every rolling 180 day period rule.

But while Morocco has been fine, we would rather be in Spain earlier than April 14th! So I started researching ways to do that.

There is a little known and little used method called a "bilateral visa waiver agreement" that some countries have between each other. But I hadn't looked into it for a while, so did some reading up. And in fact, I found the official documents on the official EU website. This is the most current list I could find, dated 2019...


So, it turns out that Spain and Canada have an agreement dated Jan 25, 1960 that is well before the Schengen agreement, yet it remains in force today. What it means, is that you can stay in Spain for an additional 90 days after your Schengen time expires.

But as I said, very few people seem to know about these agreements (or how to implement them), including many border officials. I've sent an email to the Spanish embassy in Canada asking for clarification, so we'll see what they say.

But I'm almost positive that we are going to attempt to use this and will be heading straight up to Spain as soon as Lindsey and the kids leave on the 23rd.

That's all for now... fingers crossed the kids don't have as rough of a day today.

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2 comments:

  1. Ha. Sturdy old people still standing. Congratulations. Hope the younger ones feel better soon.

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    Replies
    1. We are used to travel the effects that it can have on the body and it's systems but unfortunately they are not and we think that perhaps it just all caught up with them as well as the heat. We are hoping that they will be feeling better real soon too because there isn't much time left of their holiday and there are still things to see and do on the way back.

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