Coronavirus

[Lavanda]

Not really sure what this new system is all about. Before I came to the UK in July I shopped in three different Mercadona’s and each one had a different system. I think that was to do with the size of each store. Who knows?

[elusive]

The only system I've seen is the leave your trolley in the middle when you get your fruit and veg.

[Wicksey]

Some time ago they tried to get you to turn your trolley around so you pushed it through the checkout back to front, handle first. This was try to help distance but not sure how it makes much difference. I haven't seen anyone else doing that for ages. I have noticed the little 'parking bays' in the middle of the aisle to leave your trolley whilst you go to the meat counter. It's so quiet when we go in that it doesn't make a lot of difference where we put ours.

People don't distance here anyway. So many times in the shops people reach around me to get things off the shelves. Yesterday, in our newly refurbished post office, I was at my PO Box and someone without a mask on reached right in front of me to get to hers!

[gruff]

Thanks for that. I have to come out but not looking forward to the travel. Hoping the plane is empty but appreciate if that is the case the airline could be in trouble. Not looking forward to 5 hours in a mask. Spain is going to be a culture shock, not really sure what to expect. Providing no problems with the house can spend most of the time there.

[El Cid]

Some time ago they tried to get you to turn your trolley around so you pushed it through the checkout back to front, handle first. This was try to help distance but not sure how it makes much difference. I haven't seen anyone else doing that for ages.

It doesn't make any difference if you all have trolleys, but if you intersperse basket users who could get too close, it would help.

We have to queue at our small Correos and only one allowed in at a time.

Sid

[Wicksey]

Thanks for that. I have to come out but not looking forward to the travel. Hoping the plane is empty but appreciate if that is the case the airline could be in trouble. Not looking forward to 5 hours in a mask. Spain is going to be a culture shock, not really sure what to expect. Providing no problems with the house can spend most of the time there.

Apart from having to wear a mask all the time and using the hand gel when you enter a shop or restaurant, it seems to me that most day to day things are back to normal. The big shops still have their changing rooms closed which means that the toilets in El Ingenio are full of people trying on clothes You can still return them as usual but it makes shopping a bit long winded, having to queue to buy them, often queue to use the loos (half the cubicles are shut off) then queue at the shop to inevitably return what you'd just bought.

Eating out seems to be much the same as before from our experience. There used to be rules about not having plasticated menus for everyone to look at, but that seems to have gone out of the window. Seating seems to be as close together as it ever was.

I would say the one biggest thing is the mask wearing which you have to do everywhere. It wasn't so bad when it was just in the shops but you have to put it on the moment you leave the car/house on foot. It's cooled down a bit this week but in the height of summer it was a bit suffocating. (Being in the campo we do walk here without a mask, as do neighbours.)

Without the foreign tourists it is much quieter here now. I barely heard a foreign voice in August, just Spanish here on holiday. I wouldn't worry about going out and about as usual. Don't lock yourself away. We go out normally as we did before lockdown, shopping and meeting friends at their house or out for a meal. I still do 'girlie' lunches and spend the afternoon going around the shops etc.

[markwilding]

(Being in the campo we do walk here without a mask, as do neighbours.)

Although against the rules, it seems to me a very sensible thing to do. Anyone who has visited the Bilbao area will be aware of its rather strange layout because it straddles the river and everyone lives close to the countryside. I live right on the edge of both so I get to chose the type of walk I want to do.

If I go into the hills and mountains, I don't always wear it where there are very few people around and put it on if someone passes me,

In supermarkets it's just a matter of allowing a space of around 1.5 metres between others while queuing and waiting for the previous person to finish loading his trolley before moving into the space they were. In Mercadona they do ask you to bring the trolley in backwards and it would be interesting to know the reasoning behind it. It might be to stop the next customer jumping the gun and coming in too close. It might also have nothing to do with Covid and they just want to see nothing is left in the trolley.

Although there isn't anyone cleaning the trolley any more, if there are no gloves available, I usually give the handles a spray and a wipe down at the beginning of my shop

[ashtondav]

I too am coming out. for me this means a ferry and one night hotel. We’re taking enough food to last us if we consider it uncomfortable in the restauarants - in the hotel I’m figuring if there was a wedding or birthday celebration.

My worry once I get down is restaurants. Is there really no distancing inside restaurants? I thought it was 75% of capacity. I’ve heard tables of ten are allowed, and yet you can’t smoke outside unless it’s deserted. Table separation in the uk is good, as is single use menus.

[Wicksey]

The Spanish frieduria we like on Torrox Costa is tiny and I don't think there's 2m between tables. In fact when a huge party of 8 turned up they simply added another little fold up table on the end of their table, so it was even closer to us. Looking at the layout of tables and chairs at most restaurants they don't look that far apart. Of course, the tables can be 2m apart, but by the time you put all the chairs around and people are sitting down, then the customers are fairly close.

Generally, where we've eaten out recently we get given the laminated menus and they are simply put back in the rack afterwards and not cleaned. We've had oil and vinegar bottles on the tables too which I didn't think you're supposed to do. I carry my own little bottle of hand gel so use that before eating, and I tend to go to the loo and wash my hands too. Personally, I'm not too worried about eating out here. Although I'm always very careful and carry wetwipes and hand gel all the time (particularly when flying in pre-Covid times), I feel we've got to get on with some normal life.

Ashtondav, I don't think you'd come across a wedding or birthday party as I though that groups of more than 10 aren't allowed.

[olive]

Agree Wicksey ,you have got to have a life and I think you can do this by being careful.

We went out for a meal on Friday night at a nice new restaurant in our local town. We didn't have a reservation and they said they were fully booked outside but we could sit inside if we didn't mind. Customers had their temperature taken. Tables were reasonably spaced. Outside filled up with mostly large tables full of youngsters. Nice to see but not a lot of social distancing. That and schools is where the next wave will come from.

This restaurant didn't have any menus including on the entrance but once seated you are presented with a cleaned QR code you scan with your smart phone. Great idea but not as nice as being able to see a menu on a page. A local cafe we use doesn't even have QR code. menus have gone and you are expected to ask what there is!

[Lavanda]

A local cafe we use doesn't even have QR code. menus have gone and you are expected to ask what there is!

That's fairly normal in most of the places in Extremadura that are not tourist areas. The waiter or waitress just rattles off 'primero plato' followed by 'segundo plato' and we just have to listen and catch what we fancy and remember it while everyone else does the same. Years ago I did ask one waiter to repeat the menu — but slowly — and I thought he was going to throw us out. Great days.

[Wicksey]

Do you have to have an app to read QR codes? Not sure how it's done. Some places have a board with the menu on it outside, which is a help if they don't have individual 'cartas'.

Lavanda there's still a few places here that rattle off all three courses (usually with 5 choices each) at hundred miles an hour. Trouble is by the time they finish I've forgotten what the earlier choices were!

[gerryh]

Yes you need a QR code scanner app on your smartphone.
Cheers
Gerry

[Wicksey]

Any recommendations for Android? Presumably you download one as I don't think I've already got it.

[gerryh]

I have QR Scanner installed.
Cheers
Gerry

[elusive]

Newer phones have one built in. I bought a new samsung last week after my old one died after 5 years. This has a QR built in. Only thing if you are using data it used up about 30mb. Alot if you go from bar to bar!

Re apps just look for one that has the most downloads and best reviews.

[Wicksey]

My Samsungs are not that old. One is just over a year but perhaps a more basic model. I don't use data as I only have a PAYG SIM so only use it on wifi when it's available free. Do you have to be online to use the QR reader then? It's going to be easier just to ask what they have I think!

[Lavanda]

I just ask as I don't have a smart phone.

[gerryh]

Do you have to be online to use the QR reader then?

Yes, the QR code gives a link to the online menu.
Cheers
Gerry

[Wicksey]

Oh I see now .... not much use to me then!