07 Sunday Jun 2020
Posted in music, sunday song, video
This week I saw Sevilla being sold off to the WTTC by our government and the tourist board, promoting our still fragile and recovering city as one of the five safest places to visit IN THE WORLD. Obviously this is not true, and there is no way we are ready for the sudden influx of tourists this sort of wild proclamation will bring. It breaks my heart. Also annoyed that now I’ll have to stay in all summer too (I was all ready to start venturing out once Phase 3 was over). Dammit.
06 Saturday Jun 2020
Posted in casa azahar, cats, caturday, welcome
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My pretty balcony girl.
05 Friday Jun 2020
Posted in coronavirus, sevilla, tourism, travel, welcome
This was rather a cheering sight during my first (and probably last for some time) river walk since lockdown. Because upon seeing this very dead scooter on the river bank I realised that I hadn’t actually seen any of these annoying things these past couple of months, not from my balcony nor during quick trips to the supermarket. Obviously most were being (mis)used by tourists, riding them on pavements and leaving them just anywhere all over the city, so this has been one of the other positive aspects to getting our city back.
Then I read this morning that the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has named Sevilla (where they held their annual global summit last year) as one of the five travel destinations IN THE WORLD to receive their new Safe Travel Stamp, to “reassure and restore the confidence of travellers and make travel safe again”.
04 Thursday Jun 2020
It was fun listening to (and seeing) Carmen Aumesquet from the Sherry Council chatting with my lovely friend José Pizarro – in English! – about sherry and jamón and what José has been acheiving during lockdown. But I have a question, and it’s not about this live Instagram broadcast, it’s about all of the ones I’ve seen so far (which I’ve really been enjoying, btw). Why are all the names and comments from the viewers always covering the face of the guest? Shouldn’t it be the other way around, since the host is not the featured person. Just wondering.
03 Wednesday Jun 2020
Posted in coronavirus, lockdown, lockdown sevilla, sevilla, welcome
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Sevilla is now in Phase 2, with Phase 3 supposedly coming up on Monday June 8th, the final two-week stage of the government Covid de-escalation plan, scheduled to “finish” on June 22nd, at which point… who knows? Well, it means we will no longer be in an official state of emergency, though since not all provinces are in the same phase right now this will probably be extended until at least the end of June. But other than opening up our borders again to international tourists in July I haven’t heard of any other major changes coming up after lockdown.
We were supposed to have some travel restrictions lifted in Andalucía on Monday, allowing people to move about between the eight provinces, but since Granada and Málaga are still going to be in Phase 2 then, it looks like this is going to be postponed. The rest is mostly relaxing restrictions for businesses that deal with the public and I think hotels (and tourist apartments) can start reopening then too. Nightclubs, theatres and cinemas will also be allowed to open with limited capacity (30-50%). Oh and beaches too, as long as people respect social distancing. Srsly? Just waiting for all those super crowded beach pics on social media. So, as for me…
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