Walking in the shadow of Covid-19

My last posting to these pages was written while in the US. But life in that country was rapidly closing down. After writing on Sunday, by Monday, bars and restaurants were closed, the gym in my hotel was closed, and the people I was working with were all advised to work from home. There was no point in my remaining, so on Tuesday, I began the journey back to Basel. However, the city I returned to seems quite different from the one I left. People are advised not to leave home unless it is essential, and social distancing has become the new normal. The guidelines allow for a maximum of two hours recreational exercise outside.

For me, walking is essential. I would not be me without it, and so my two hours recreational exercise are taken up with a walk around the city. I have started walking early in the mornings, to encounter the minimum of people. There is a certain sadness in seeing a city like Basel practically shut down. As I walk, I can do window shopping as much as I like, with no idea of when the shops will be open again. There are queues outside bakeries as people look for the freshest bread, all those people standing patiently, two metres apart.

When it comes to social distancing, no one does it like the heron I saw this week on the Rhein. The bird stayed only until I was about 20 metres away, and then flew off.

And yet there is a certain normality too. The trams are still running. Freight trains are still trundling across the Schwarzwalderbrücke. Police are still giving out parking tickets. The twin spires of the Münster still rise over the city.

And there are reasons for hope. Watching the sun rise as I walk along by the river shows that the world has not stopped revolving. The birds were chirping in the trees, oblivious to the goings on of humanity. The magnolia trees were in full blossom. And hordes of daffodils are always an uplifting sight.

Basel and the world will get through these difficult times, and hopefully to a bright future ahead. I am still getting more than 15,000 steps each day.