The Parking Mysteries of Old Alexandria

The weather has taken a lovely turn here finally, low 80's for a high and much lower humidity.  Yesterday, I drove into Old Town to park and take a walk down King St. and along the river.  Parking... aye, there's the rub.  It was the weekend, so after a decent search I found the free 2 hour spaces were all occupied, so I resolved to spend a couple bucks and park on the Pay & Display streets.  I did, and the nearest ticket machine was 3 blocks away.  Not bad; I was there for a walk anyway.  At the machine I happened to glance at the parking sign on the street and it indicated there was no fee on Sunday.  Drat, I should have looked more closely at the sign where I'd parked--I really didn't look at it beyond noting where the nearest ticket machine was.  So I hauled back to the car, whereupon I discovered that the street I'd parked on was pay after 11:00 am on Sundays.  I was annoyed and decided to park elsewhere, preferably on a street parallel to the one that did not require payment on Sunday.  I found a space, actually better than the previous one, and got out of the car set to go for my walk.  I then noticed that that block too was pay Sundays after 11:00.  So I went to the ticket machine--now only half a block away--put in my credit card only to receive the message "no payment required."  Huh???  The sign said I had to pay, but the payment machine told me I didn't, and indeed couldn't if I tried.  At that point, I left it in the hands of the gods and trotted off.  Happily, there was no ticket on the car when I returned.  My guess is they gave up enforcement on Sundays as some sort of result from the pandemic.  I did email an inquiry to the city today on this.  Meanwhile, I succeeded in brushing off my parallel parking skills, which is always a good thing.

My thanks to AH for suggesting this topic.