“Such a lovely place,
Put that mask on your face
Plenty of room at the Hotel Covid 19
Anytime this year
You might find us here”
It’s been an interesting year so far, that’s for sure. But we did finally make it back to Canada.
Our journey from Malaga through Amsterdam on to Toronto went fairly smoothly compared to the last time we tried to leave Spain. The airplanes were only half full and the airports were relatively quiet, although they were busier than we expected. Europe is open for business and other than masks everywhere and a lack of full service (and meals) at the hotels, it’s pretty much back to normal. We’ll see what happens when the cases start to spike but it looks to be under control here.
Events got a little less smooth once we landed in Toronto. We had booked a hotel for the night and were going to catch a flight to Vancouver the following day. We did check with the Canadian government and Pearson International several times to make sure we could do this, and the answer was always yes, so long as you are in transit to your final destination. When we got to the health check area, the feds really did not seem to know what to do with us. Do they let us go to Vancouver or do they force us into quarantine in Toronto?…such are the questions they are asking themselves. They even asked if we could stay with our elderly parents….ummmm…NO! It’s like they had never encountered people like us before. Gypsies always get a bad rap. Anyway, after almost 3 hours of phone calls and supervisor visits, the bureaucrats finally gave us a written plan that we had to sign and swear to…”you will go to a hotel for the night and the next day you will fly straight to Vancouver”…like we could just hop off the plane half-way there? Thanks guys, that’s 3 hours we’ll never get back.
The stupidity (IMO) continued the next day with Air Canada. I don’t usually get too pissy on this blog but A/C needs to be taken out back and shot. The government does not seem to have enforceable rules regarding the pandemic. The plane was full…I mean full…no empty seats and obviously no social distancing. The rush to get on the plane was the same, no distancing or even a request to keep your distance. After our Europe flights, this was a surprise. The cabin crew all wore semi-hazmat suits and insisted we all keep our masks plastered on our faces or be arrested, all the while cramming everyone into plane like sardines. On our KLM flight, the cabin crew was ‘normal’ and we even had a hot meal service and no one bugged you if your mask slipped off your nose. A/C’s idea of lunch was a plastic bag with a bottle of water, disinfectant, rubber gloves, and a mask…I kid you not…see the picture.
Once we got to Vancouver, things went a little better. The health feds here were nice and after our ‘interview’ we were whisked away to our current digs and we are not allowed to tell anyone where we are. We could not even get out of the vehicle when we got here and had to be escorted in. The floors, walls, and ceilings are all covered in plastic sheeting and there are neoprene flex tubing tunnels you have to walk through. The room is ok, not exceptional but we do have a view of the water. Definitely better than a motel 6 and we are even allowed out once a day for 40 minutes for ‘supervised’ walks around the prison yard. The medics come by every day for temperature checks and to make sure we haven’t expired. The food is surprisingly good though, delivered by nameless invisible spooks we never see, but we do hear them crunching on the plastic in the hallway which starts us salivating in anticipation. I’m thinking this might be a CIA black-ops site and the food is drugged as we are starting to like it here.
So, we are currently checked into Hotel Covid 19. One week to go, but if we get sick, we can never leave. (apologies to the Eagles).
“Living it up at the Hotel Covid 19
40 minutes exercise
you’ll be supervised”
