A COUPLE stuck in Tenerife due to travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic – whose holiday was extended by more than seven weeks – are safely back home in North Berwick.

Eileen Carmichael, 76, and her partner Tony Gill, 77, both of Craigleith View, had arrived in Tenerife on January 3.

They were due to return home on March 25 but paid to get an earlier flight on March 18.

Two days before the flight was due to leave the couple were told it was cancelled. It had been redesignated as a rescue flight and filled with people on package holidays so local hotels could close.

Eileen and Tony then booked onto six other flights home, on March 30, April 1, April 8, April 15, May 1 and May 18 – all of which were cancelled.

Eileen and Tony finally made it home on May 7 after booking a flight with British Airways through a travel agent.

Their flight home left Tenerife on May 6, taking them to Madrid, where they had a two-hour stop, then Heathrow, where they stayed in a hotel overnight, and then on to Edinburgh, the only route home available.

A spokesperson for the Foreign Office who saw a story about the stranded couple in a previous issue of the Courier contacted us to offer their help.

At first, repeated attempts to contact the Foreign Office by the couple went unanswered.

When the couple and the Foreign Office did make contact, Eileen claims the Foreign Office were “three or four days behind” flights’ scheduled departure dates and also got layover times mixed up.

Eileen said she would have preferred a more direct flight home but accepted that that was not possible.

She added: “There was only one terminal open at Heathrow and people staggered about everywhere – it was like a ghost town.

“We didn’t have to worry about our luggage during out connecting flights, that was sorted for us, and we just picked it up in Edinburgh.

“I feel like airlines shouldn’t take bookings when they feel that flight won’t go ahead.”

Eileen and Tony are delighted to be home, saying “North Berwick is wonderful”.

Eileen added: “It’s nice to get out for a walk and speak to people, even if it is socially distanced.

“In Tenerife only one person was allowed out, we couldn’t even walk to the supermarket together. It was much stricter over there.”