Mozart upstairs was cutting us a break, and Stradavarius across the street was actually sounding pretty good by now, having caught up on his practice. Every evening at eight, lots of the people on the block came out onto their balconies and we all gave each other a round of applause. We felt like chipmunks, crawling out of our den to celebrate surviving another day.
At this point, the Wiener Dog Contest, like most other major sporting events, was canceled (by the sore loser) due to virus concerns.
Sunday, March 22...The airline canceled our flight from Nice to Copenhagen, offering no suggestions about reaching that city to catch the connection to Chicago. Start looking online for a connection. Can't reach the airline, it's Sunday. Have some wine, applaud on the balcony.
Monday, March 23...Gordon sits on hold for an hour only to learn from the airline that there is no way to get to Copenhagen. Skandinavian Airlines can't getcha to Skandinavia. We decided that we'd better get the heck out of town before airports started shutting down and we became seriously stuck. There were planes running from Europe to the US, just not so many and getting to their departure point (say, Frankfurt, Paris, London) was looking more and more difficult.
Pati searches frantically, finds a way out of the maze with a departure in less than two days. We book it, Danno. We start packing and applaud on the balcony.
Thursday, March 26...What was supposed to be one airline, two airports, and home in 15 hours became hours spent online, two airlines, four airports, a hotel night, several different ground transports, a grand or so, and home in about two days.
We flew through Madrid, and the number of idle aircraft at that airport was not to be believed. Many had their engines covered up like they were ready to be mothballed, and were still sitting at the gate. Here is the International terminal:
LaGuardia was like a ghost town. In New York, there seemed to be little enthusiasm about working...but maybe that's not necessarily virus-related behavior.
Finally home, Pati said she felt like she'd been rudely uprooted like a mandrake. Naperville is shut down just like Nice was. But we were both still healthy...although we would have probably tested positive. Everyone else seemed to be. Had a martini and remembered the balcony.
We want to acknowledge some people for their levity: Declan, who didn't take the toilet paper crisis too seriously; Julie, who just wanted to go to Lidl; the Iberia agent at the Nice airport...with only a dozen passengers, she knew us all. And the reservations agent at Flag Limo, who couldn't have really been having a real good day but was laughing anyway, and especially Christa, the flight attendant who "got the party started" with warm mixed nuts in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.
