Here is the usual weather report: mostly sunny in Madrid with a high in the lower 70s. It was nice to be out today.
If you have not read the post about Thursday, the 12th, you might want to do so because this is essentially a follow up to that post.
Things are beginning to close in Madrid. All of the museums, flamenco shows and restaurants are already closed or will be closed by tonight. Tomorrow, only grocery stores and pharmacies will be open—at least that’s what we understand. Many businesses already have notices on their doors saying they will not open again until “the next advisory.”
We walked over to Las Carboneras Flamenco restaurant this morning, to see about cancelling our reservations for next week. We noticed on the way that many of the places that sell tickets for flamenco shows were closed. The man at Las Carboneras told us he had just been told to close and he did not know when they would reopen. “¿Puedes volver en abril o mayo?” (Can you come back in April or May?).
Since we were out we walked over to the cathedral only to be met by a sign that said the cathedral was not open for tourist visits, but only for Mass and prayers. Nearby, the royal palace was closed, with a sign saying that it was due to the COVID-19 measures. As far as we can tell, several ministries have issued guidelines closing almost everything in Madrid by tomorrow.
We went to the Hard Rock Café for lunch and the walk over and back. When we got there, many of the workers were standing around outside, just passing the time. When we got inside, we could see that there were hardly any patrons. Our waiter told us that they were required to keep people a certain distance apart, so some of the tables were off-limits. Our lunch there was not as much fun as usual.
There were far fewer people on the streets than we are used to seeing. Much less traffic, too.
I expect that it will be even quieter tomorrow when many more things will be closed. We feel badly for all the Spanish people. If all goes well, we will be able to leave on Monday, but they will be stuck with this situation for a long time. I wonder if something like this will be imposed on some areas in the U.S.
Overall, a sad and depressing situation here. We are fine, but will probably not go out much for the next couple of days.
