Day 3 Madrid Lockdown: Life in the Time of Coronavirus
By: Emilie White
Tags: Spain, Madrid, Diary, Coronavirus

Opera, Madrid, without tourists, 13 March 2020 ©Emilie White

Friday 13(!) March 2020

I started writing daily updates to the family WhatsApp group to keep them informed during the Madrid Coronavirus lockdown. As Spain takes measures before the UK, I share our story for inspiration, as warning, and to help prepare, not panic. They asked me to blog it. Day 1 of lockdown for us starts with school closure on 11 March.

Today I went to the department store to get last items in preparation for home-schooling. I decided best place to go would be the tourist areas since these are empty. I want to Puerta del Sol which I never go to because it’s always dirty and overcrowded. Good choice as it was sparkly and bright today, I had the place to myself. The staff were chatting amongst themselves and took steps away from me when I walked near. I used a thin scarf to avoid touching anything, like putting in my pin to pay. Then I went to the toilet and washed my hands before leaving. There was a person cleaning the hand rails on the escalators but no point really since for sure no-one was touching them but her.

Meanwhile J and JP went to the local bakery. They almost walked in but someone at the door gestured to look at the queue. They started a policy of only one customer in the shop at a time and a queue outside with everyone standing one metre apart. Everyone was taking photos as they’d never seen anything like it. Definitely not a Spanish thing to do. On Tuesday we were still cheek-kissing to greet each other.

That’s the queue, it goes down the street.

Meanwhile, this was the street I was on:

Spring trees in bloom. Total tranquility.

The only sign of Coronavirus is how empty it is and a woman carrying toilet rolls, and a police cyclist. You have to look hard! There are police quietly circulating everywhere.

So increasing evidence of further lockdown to come. Word is everyone who can has left Madrid for their home towns and second houses at the beach or mountains, jamming the roads.

Our area is very quiet because it’s the historic centre and most of the apartments were eaten up by Airbnb so are now empty. That means fully stocked open shops. Lots of open air space with no chance of crowding. There were still some oblivious tourists but everyone else was walking spread out so as not to be close to each other.

There were a few tourist tours, but also a few solitary tourist guides heroically holding up their signs. Felt bad for them.

JP had an epic afternoon as I bought him his first motorbike to help keep him active.

He’s the traffic police’s newest recruit. A great contribution to society in these times.

He had a huge amount of space to play outside. He sat on it for five hours and wanted to take it to bed. He’s been obsessed with cars and all things with wheels since spending time with Bro 1 in August.

Mum: Sounds like you are having a great time there.☺

Well we do feel prepared. They have declared a state of emergency tonight so only food shops, supermarkets and pharmacies open tomorrow. They plan to convert hotels to hospitals. As far as we know we can still leave the house. I’m expecting that will be in question at some point.

The atmosphere is pre-apocalyptic.

You don’t get that in the movies because in the movies people don’t know what’s about to hit them. We do know.

Mum: Well do what you can to keep safe and well.

Final story: I checked out our teeny balcony today with JP. He made two friends in 5 minutes with the pub owner/worker on the corner who waved at us and told us he was taking advantage of the free time to give all the tables a new lick of varnish. Then JP shouted across to a young woman at the balcony opposite “Mira mi moto!” (Look at my motorbike!). She agreed it was lovely. 😆