As all of our friends and meanwhile retired ex-collegues in the range of 65 to 80 years of age ( with whom we are in regular phone or mail contact ) we follow the permanent reporting on covit-19 by radio, internet and tv, observing and realizing with horror day by day that the corona-virus comes nearer - even in quiet aereas like ours here in the Mosel-Region, where I stay together with my wife isolated as far as possible and avoiding all unnecessary contact with the outside world ( just going once the week for fast shopping into a REWE supermarket 1 km from our home, sweet home Auf der hinteren Heide ! ).
A part from supermarkets , Apotheken, banks and Baumärkten all other shops are closed. As two of our children are living in Luxembourg, we observe and compare closely the restrictions taken on one side and the other of the border. These restrictions are stricter in Luxembourg than in Germany - exemple : Baustellen are closed in Luxembourg, but still open in Germany, where plumbers, electricians and painters are still actif and operating. As far as the border itself is concerned: border-crossing is restricted and allowed exclusivly for "Grenzgänger" ( without the 150.000 coming daily from France, Germany and Belgium into the Grand Duché, it would not just be a lock-down in the country, but life would stop totally ! ).
A part from supermarkets , Apotheken, banks and Baumärkten all other shops are closed. As two of our children are living in Luxembourg, we observe and compare closely the restrictions taken on one side and the other of the border. These restrictions are stricter in Luxembourg than in Germany - exemple : Baustellen are closed in Luxembourg, but still open in Germany, where plumbers, electricians and painters are still actif and operating. As far as the border itself is concerned: border-crossing is restricted and allowed exclusivly for "Grenzgänger" ( without the 150.000 coming daily from France, Germany and Belgium into the Grand Duché, it would not just be a lock-down in the country, but life would stop totally ! ).
Our eldest daughter and her husband, both working at the University of Luxembourg, are on home-office. In a similar situation is our second daughter and her husband, working and living in Berlin, but now on home-office working from our cottage in Münsterland, close to the Dutch border. There we had planed our traditional family meeting for the Easter holidays, which can not happen under given circumstances. But a part from that, we should not complain.
We feel all together well and safe and even privileged, if we think of all those people working hard to make our country going on under this terrible virus-attack, of which we are still far to see and to realize the final outcome. Not to talk of people with small income, even without any income, of the numerous homeless in citlies like Berlin and other big cities.
We feel all together well and safe and even privileged, if we think of all those people working hard to make our country going on under this terrible virus-attack, of which we are still far to see and to realize the final outcome. Not to talk of people with small income, even without any income, of the numerous homeless in citlies like Berlin and other big cities.
And as an old and convinced European Citizen I deeply regret the absence of Europe in the battle of these days. It is true that no artile of the the Treaties is dealing with this totally unknown and unexpected world-wide virus-attack on our societies, but solidarity with countries like Italy and Spain could and should have be shown in a different way. And the fact, that it looks as if Schengen never had taken place, is hard to accept for us, even under these special conditions. Which force, by the way even inside the Federal Republic restricting free travelling ( see the travel restrictions taken by the two nordern states "Schleswig-Holstein" and "Mecklenburg-Vorpommern", forbidding any tourist-traffic from Berlin or the rest of the country into there vacation houses at the occasion of Easter holidays ! )
The time passes with extensiv reading of newspapers like SZ, Die ZEIT and from time to time "Luxemburger Wort", followed by gardening and activities needed every year in the spring, long walkings in the Forest "Zum Ehranger Wald" in the afternoon and - last but not least - reading JILL LEPORE "These Truths. A History of the United States". The best book I have read the last time - and I'm reading a lot - , a book which gives an excellent inside look into the History of the US and opens the eyes to a better understanding of the institutional fonctioning of the US on the one side and of the current trends and acting political personalities on the other side, which we consider simply mad and crazy, but which are not without precedents and forerunners in the past.
Heinrich
Trier, Germany
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