COVID-19 Lockdown Barcelona – Day 6

Every day seems to bear more devastating news. It is difficult to read it all and decipher what is accurate, which remedy supposedly works, and what is the next restriction of the lockdown. Today, Spain closed all hotels, hostels, and short term accommodations in an effort to move the 100,000 tourists still left here and to further contain the virus. As I write this, Spain totals over 1,000 deceased from the virus and nearly 20,000 positive cases. And, that is just what is reported and tested.

Talking it over with my husband, DJ, we believe airports and ports will be shut down next. Shortly thereafter, all public transportation should stop. Borders are already closed, inter-country flights are cancelled, major roads blocked except to essential travel and commerce, and the police are in full force ticketing and yelling at people that are not abiding by the lockdown rules. We surmise that grocery runs in the near future may be limited to one per week so we thought we should purchase as much canned, jarred, and frozen items as we could. Oh, and don’t forget the wine!

It seems my village people had the same idea. Or it was just normal Friday shopping. I arrived at the local Mercadona to find that the entry line had increased, substantially, and with police moderation. At the beginning of the week, there were 5 of us in line. Today, there were over 100 and my wait was nearly 45 minutes to get inside. The video above shows me standing on the corner (not in Winslow, Arizona) where 20 locals stand before me and probably 100 behind me. Heck, the line was so long it nearly reached Bar Drinkers, our favorite local establishment.

Once inside, the inventory had changed. There was plenty of chicken and pork and vegetables. It appeared the rice and olive oil had been restocked, but I wanted to check on the paper products to see if we had bought into the toilet paper hoarding of the US trend. We did.

This had me concerned and perplexed. The Europeans are not worried about toilet paper. We all have bidets here. Was this purchase just fear, a lack of inventory to restock, or did they all have the same thoughts about a more strict lockdown? I better check the wine aisle.

What world do I live in? In just 6 short days, we run out of wine? Wait. Hang on. I see 4 bottles up top there. Oh. Nope. Clearly, the locals have a threshold. And it’s 14€ a bottle. No, thank you. We would rather take on the 1€ box wine before spending that kind of money. So that is what I did, knowing desperate times may call for desperate measures. I threw in a box of vino blanco into my cart. To be fair, the box wine in Spain ins’t like the box wine in the US. Often, it is pretty good table wine but I still prefer the bottle. I’m not quite there on drinking the box yet…but I am just unsure how long it will take to restock this area and I don’t want to be caught empty handed. Heck. It may be restocked every morning and I am just too late. I’ll report back next week when I go upon opening hours.

I was able to purchase long shelf life items and frozen goods. In the unlikely event that we are further restricted to once a week shopping, then the Cross Family is okay for another week. I will ration my wine intake to survive the week. Ha! Who I am kidding? , Until next time…Chin, Chin! Cheers! Salud! Prost! Santé!