March 9 – March 10, 2020
Off to
Another Grand Tour
We are once again taking our two-month driving tour of
western continental Europe. This one
will have some interesting twists and turns, many of which we know, and we’re
sure a few that we don’t.
The elephant on this tour is the newest corona virus which
causes a disease called covid-19. When
we read this years from now we may have forgotten the world-wide concern about
this pandemic. It began in China and has
now spread through most of the countries on the planet. About 2% of those who become sick will
die. Countries are now being proactive
and closing large congregations of people including sports events, concerts and
schools. Will that color this trip? Yes.
Will it spoil the trip? We hope
not. After our first night in Paris we
notice fewer people, easier access to restaurants and some wearing masks in
public.
We will do what we need to do to be safe—wash hands, sanitize
surfaces, cover coughs and sneezes, keep distance from those around you and run
from sneezing and coughing people. It is
harder on the elderly, (us) but we feel we are in good health and hopefully on
the lower end of the vulnerable in our age group. We’ll see.
The trip from home was long but easy. We had a 4:00 am wake up at home, a 6:30 Uber
to the airport and a 9:15 flight on American Airlines to Chicago. We spent a long 6 hours in the lounge at O’Hare
but they had a nice assortment of complimentary food and beverages along with
relaxing work and reading spaces. Not so bad.
Our 5:15 flight to Madrid arrived at 7:30 with zero sleep for John and
some dozing for Mary. John did collect 2
Oscar movies (Bombshell and Judy) so he had that going.
We breezed through passport control and after a pat down
(those damned metal knees) the agent asked John if his English was understandable? John said “si.” A 9:00 am flight to Paris, where we got
breakfast number 2, was on time and easy.
We had arranged a car from the airport (Orly) and he arrived just as we
had the phone out to call him. There was
an ATM right next to the baggage collection area so we could actually pay the
driver. It was quite a surprise that no
one checked our baggage and no customs.
Our room was ready when we got to our hotel. Our hostess told us that they had been
getting a lot of cancelations. She went
through the list of neighborhood restaurants and we picked out a couple for our
quick 46 hour stay in Paris. Nap
time. We set our watch alarms for 3:00 pm
and crashed for a quick 2 hour refresher.
Europe is 6 hours ahead of home (they haven’t changed to DST yet) so we
had a very long 28 hour day. We’ll sleep
well tonight.
We did a 4:00 – 6:00 walk down memory lane as we revisited
our last trip to Paris now 10 years in the past. We still recognized our favorite patisserie
and our hotel from that trip. We
reconstructed the view of the Eiffel Tower from the Pont Neuf for Dave and
Mary, our travel companions from way back then.
We had a leisurely walk along the Seine on the right bank past the
Louvre and down to the Tulleries. We
crossed over the Royal Bridge and worked our way back to the Hotel. It’s cloudy
and chilly but not overcrowded and altogether pleasant.
Pre-planning for this trip has had it’s share of angst with
potential travel bans in effect. One
stroll down Boulevard St. Germaine and all was right with the world. That was transformative for our attitudes.
We took a quick
rest and walked down the street and around the corner to the café Varennes. We split a nice Bordeaux and John had the 7-hour
leg of lamb and Mary was happy with a huge terrine of onion soup and a pile of
cheese and bread.
Off to bed for
the sleep of baby angels.
New today: Biden grabs a big lead over Bernie and virus,
virus virus.