This is a bit of a ghost town at the moment. We went out for a late lunch and two of the popular restaurants which we frequent most often were closed without warning. Speaking to the waiter at the one where we ended up, he said that there would be a meeting later today to decide whether whether it stayed open or not. The tourist streets with all the shops was deserted. Seems quite eerie.
Earlier in the morning, we finalized the rest of the plans for our return. The only thing we can’t book yet is the taxi to the airport. Brian tried but was told to call back tomorrow. Our seats are booked on the BA flight to Gatwick and we aren’t sitting together as there were so few seats open. BA emailed us to say that at the moment the flight is in place but they cannot predict what will happen. We have registered with the Canadian Gov’t to let them know where we are if things really go bad, but we did this mainly for Justine and Nicola who are getting anxious. We weren’t able to change any of our flights so we had to rebook them all from scratch. A very expensive undertaking, but we hope to get something back from the airline. We are also expecting to get a refund on the walking tour. We will have to see how all this pans out.
On a brighter note, we noticed two very different Bird of Paradise plants on the grounds here. One is the usual orange and purple variety standing about two feet tall, but the other is literally a tree. The flowers are very muted colours.
We also saw a tree that we have seen in other places but have no idea what it is.
When we went shopping earlier this morning the supermarket has posted notices that it will be closing earlier than usual in the foreseeable future, but the shelves were full. We had our usual coffee and custard tart after we did the shopping. Some things are still quite normal around here, and we will enjoy what we can. I will keep up the blog until we get home.
hubertsineuropespring2020 