Well, May is almost gone, and overall things have not changed much here. While the “state of alarm” ended on May 9, allowing us to move more freely throughout the city, province, and country, ultimately that hasn’t impacted us much. We can stay out past 10 p.m. and travel anywhere we want within Spain, but we are not “painting the town red” just yet because we haven’t been vaccinated, and while the case numbers have gone down, they still aren’t great. There is however light at the end of the tunnel as we expect to be vaccinated early next month. (If I really am on Team Placebo, I’ll drop out of the study and get one of the approved vaccines.)
We’ve started making plans despite the fact that disappointment is still looming large. We’ll be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary on June 2nd and we planned a little getaway to “exotic” Hondarribia, the coastal town that is across the border from France (about 10 miles from here). We have reservations to stay at the Parador Hondarribia, which is a former 10th century castle converted into a hotel. The Spanish and Portuguese governments have repurposed these types of medieval and other vintage castles and forts to luxury hotels, and we’ve always wanted to stay in one. We figured this was a great chance as it is before the high summer season making the prices affordable. Unfortunately, many of the things we want to do next week may not be available at all. The best restaurants are not open mid-week currently and the small boat that runs between Hondarribia and Hendaye, the first French town across the border, is not operating due to COVID related border restrictions. We were hoping to rent bikes in Hendaye and cycle north perhaps as far as Biarritz. Knowing that we can’t take the easiest and most charming route to Hendaye and that the restaurants we wanted to reserve were going to be closed, we are seriously considering canceling and rescheduling for another time. While it would be nice to get away, if you can’t do the things you want, what is the point? Instead, we would go out to a nice lunch in San Sebastian to commemorate the special occasion. We’ll plan to make a few other local excursions once we’re fully vaccinated.
We also made plans to return to the US in late September. 22 months will have passed since our last visit in November 2019. We’ll be in California and will also get to Kauai, one of our favorite places in the world. It will be good to see family and friends in person. Zoom and Skype have proven their value, but let’s face it, there’s nothing like a nice warm hug from the people you love.
We’ll keep you posted as things evolve.
Hasta pronto,
Shana & Jeff
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