Where's Bertie? He's still at the Aire at the marina at La Línea.
Weather: Some cloud, but mainly sunny.
As of today face masks are no longer mandatory in the vast majority of outdoor settings in Spain. Our expectation was thus that people would be walking the streets barefaced. To our surprise, not only was that not the case, but it seemed that far more people were wearing face coverings today than has been the case for the last few days. I even saw an elderly woman sitting on a plastic chair alone in her own front yard with a mask on.
As, in my view (and its a subject upon which I've done some reading), mask wearing outdoors in uncrowded situations is pointless, this was unexpected and, as we went around masklessly, I had to wonder:
1) What has the message been from the Spanish government/media to cause such behaviour?
2) How many of these people didn't know the law had changed?
3) How ingrained has al-fresco mask wearing become here after such extended periods of it being required?
4) Were we doing something culturally offensive, the equivalent to how we might have viewed people between mid-July and mid-December last year who chose not to wear masks in shops (because 'it's not legally required of me' doesn't equal 'polite and considerate behaviour')?
I have no answers to those questions, but we brazenly went around barefaced, possibly causing consternation and offence.
As for today's activities, Mick (now in the taper period for his marathon) joined me for the first 2.5km of my run today, whereupon he turned back and I continued for double that distance, reminding myself in the process that not all of the coast of Spain is attractive. It's rather industrial around here:
Nice to see that irrespective of the backdrop, the municipality has made a successful effort to pretty-up the concrete bunker of a building on the beach:
Back at Bertie, after showers and breakfast, I set about finding out whether there would be any requirements for Covid tests or paperwork if we were to walk over the border into Gibraltar. After quite a period of reading, I concluded that no, there weren't any requirements and a trip over the border was feasible.
So did we go? Nope. Because setting out at noon, we concluded that if we went to Gib we would end up eating fish and chips for lunch, and we didn't come to Spain to eat British-style fish and chips. Thus, instead of turning right to cross the border, we turned left and started an extensive scout around La Línea in search of somewhere we fancied for lunch. We found two contenders: a tapas bar, or the one place where we found a Menu del Día displayed. The former would have won, but for the fact that they didn't start serving food until 1330, whereas we thought the latter would be serving at just gone 1300 (albeit at that early hour we were, as expected, the only people eating).
In my opinion, I won on the best choices for the first two courses (goats cheese and mango salad; 'meatballs of fish'). Mick won on the pudding (baked cheese cake). The whole lot, including bread, drinks and olives, came in at €10 a head.
A postprandial perambulation was had before returning to Bertie, since when the only time we've been out was for a walk around the marina to eye up the boats. There are some mega-expensive-looking super-yachts here, but they are significantly outnumbered by yachts of varying size that look affordable to more 'normal' people.
Just one last observation before I end for today. The Aire here is busy today and having walked along the rows of vans, taking in the number plates, two things are apparent:
1) it's a more multi-national gathering than we're used to seeing (French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Austrian, Swiss, Italian, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Estonian, Polish, Jersey (Jersian?!) plus a handful of Brits, masquerading as Ukranian, since our international identifier was changed from 'GB' to 'UK', causing confusion to the rest of Europe);
2) The Germans are significantly outnumbering every other nationality. I'm sure that on previous trips to Spain, the French have been the dominant nationality, followed by Dutch with a handful of Germans. I wonder what has happened this year to cause so many Germans to travel to southern Spain?
Weather: Some cloud, but mainly sunny.
As of today face masks are no longer mandatory in the vast majority of outdoor settings in Spain. Our expectation was thus that people would be walking the streets barefaced. To our surprise, not only was that not the case, but it seemed that far more people were wearing face coverings today than has been the case for the last few days. I even saw an elderly woman sitting on a plastic chair alone in her own front yard with a mask on.
As, in my view (and its a subject upon which I've done some reading), mask wearing outdoors in uncrowded situations is pointless, this was unexpected and, as we went around masklessly, I had to wonder:
1) What has the message been from the Spanish government/media to cause such behaviour?
2) How many of these people didn't know the law had changed?
3) How ingrained has al-fresco mask wearing become here after such extended periods of it being required?
4) Were we doing something culturally offensive, the equivalent to how we might have viewed people between mid-July and mid-December last year who chose not to wear masks in shops (because 'it's not legally required of me' doesn't equal 'polite and considerate behaviour')?
I have no answers to those questions, but we brazenly went around barefaced, possibly causing consternation and offence.
As for today's activities, Mick (now in the taper period for his marathon) joined me for the first 2.5km of my run today, whereupon he turned back and I continued for double that distance, reminding myself in the process that not all of the coast of Spain is attractive. It's rather industrial around here:
Nice to see that irrespective of the backdrop, the municipality has made a successful effort to pretty-up the concrete bunker of a building on the beach:
Back at Bertie, after showers and breakfast, I set about finding out whether there would be any requirements for Covid tests or paperwork if we were to walk over the border into Gibraltar. After quite a period of reading, I concluded that no, there weren't any requirements and a trip over the border was feasible.
So did we go? Nope. Because setting out at noon, we concluded that if we went to Gib we would end up eating fish and chips for lunch, and we didn't come to Spain to eat British-style fish and chips. Thus, instead of turning right to cross the border, we turned left and started an extensive scout around La Línea in search of somewhere we fancied for lunch. We found two contenders: a tapas bar, or the one place where we found a Menu del Día displayed. The former would have won, but for the fact that they didn't start serving food until 1330, whereas we thought the latter would be serving at just gone 1300 (albeit at that early hour we were, as expected, the only people eating).
A postprandial perambulation was had before returning to Bertie, since when the only time we've been out was for a walk around the marina to eye up the boats. There are some mega-expensive-looking super-yachts here, but they are significantly outnumbered by yachts of varying size that look affordable to more 'normal' people.
Just one last observation before I end for today. The Aire here is busy today and having walked along the rows of vans, taking in the number plates, two things are apparent:
1) it's a more multi-national gathering than we're used to seeing (French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Austrian, Swiss, Italian, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Estonian, Polish, Jersey (Jersian?!) plus a handful of Brits, masquerading as Ukranian, since our international identifier was changed from 'GB' to 'UK', causing confusion to the rest of Europe);
2) The Germans are significantly outnumbering every other nationality. I'm sure that on previous trips to Spain, the French have been the dominant nationality, followed by Dutch with a handful of Germans. I wonder what has happened this year to cause so many Germans to travel to southern Spain?
Why do many people continue to wear masks? Perhaps they just accepted government or other advice that told them it was a good precaution against the C, then without further thought relied on faith that this was the all time solution to the problem. They have given no more thought to the logic than I have been able to for Einstein's theories - they just believe that wearing a mask mysteriously protects them, but brain power has not analysed further than that. Doh!
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to know how the mask wearing has been sold by the Spanish government and media. It will also be interesting to see if, and how quickly, people fall away from it now it's not mandatory; if they're all convinced it's an effective measure then presumably the behaviour will endure for months yet.
DeleteWell this is all very wonderful, and Logan The Australian Terrier and I are thrilled to be able to follow your adventures. Now then, some gratuitous suggestions since you're in those parts. Travelling west and up the coast I'd suggest a stop at Bolonia, where there's a magnificent beach. It's where the Roman legionaires were packed off to for R&R after subjugating the Gauls. And a few km further north there's the very wonderful beach at Zahara de Los Atunes, where I believe there's some class of an aire? Moving north and inland Arcos de La Frontera is worth a visit - spectacular location (the best view is from the terrace of the luxury Hotel Posada de las Cuevas). Coninuing north and back to the coast you might want to visit Sanlúcar de Barrameda at the tip of the estuary. This is the only place where they make manzanilla sherry, if Mick is in the humour for a taste. There are a number of delightful cafés on the waterfront. If you've the time and the inclination you could take take a trip across the estuary to the Doñana National Park - a pristine expanse of wetlands with all manner of wildlife. And of course no visit to the region would be complete without visiting Cadiz - a couple of years ago Mary and I rented an apartment in the old town. THe otskirts aren't that impressive, but once you pass into the old town you're surrounded by the ocaen on three sides. There's a lovely public garden that runs for at least a kilometre, and an extraordinary complex just south of the cathedral where you walk on glass floors above Roman excavations.
ReplyDeleteHave fun!
Hello Humphrey - lovely to hear from you, and thank you (as always) for the suggestions.
DeleteToo many places to go and too little time. We shall come to regret those 2 days we just frittered away at La Línea. We have, however, now added Bolinia to our list. Cádiz was on the list, as its somewhere I really want to go (and your description has made it even more enticing), but I'm wondering if it should be postponed for another trip (there's nowhere particularly satisfactory to park Bertie in Cádiz and we won't be going on public transport this side of Mick's marathon) - decisions, decisions!
We visited Sanlúcar de Barrameda on a tour six years ago, and although we didn't venture across the water to the National Park, we did take a tour of the Visitor centre telling us all about it.