Camino Via de la Plata - Travel to Seville

Friday May 9, the day of departure has arrived. Yesterday I said goodbye to Christa, Ben and Helen in Nashville and flew to Richmond. The evening before we had attended the Wednesday evening light supper and service at Helen's church. After the service the Pastor had called me forward for a blessing on my pilgrimage. It was very meaningful. After the blessing severalele asked me about the journey including how do I stay in touch with family and do I take photos. I told them that I try and blog each day adding pictures which I take with my iPhone and magically they go to the cloud and then arrive in my iPad. Rather like prayers which we offer to heaven and then they return in response to our prayers! The pastor thought that was very neat! The few days in Nashville were very nice and I enjoyed playing and going for walks with William.

But back to my journey. I find descriptions of plane trips and the various things that can go wrong are generally not very interesting so please bear with me in this blog. I hope that future ones will be more interesting. As I was at home this morning getting my gear together and my backpack stuffed I got a text message from the airline saying that my flight from Richmond to Washington was delayed by 90 minutes. This made my connection to London very doubtful and since it was still 5 hours before my flight was due to leave I thought that further delays or cancellation were very likely. When I called the airline I was told that it was too late to try and catch the earlier flight to Washington.

I finished my packing and then looked on line to see what other flight options there might be and I saw that the earlier flight was now also delayed for about 3 hours so I called Sarah and asked if we could go to the airport as soon as possible rather than for the 3:00pm flight. She and Caleb were there very quickly. Friday is her day off. I was able to get a seat on this flight. I think it was the last one since it was the very back row of a small plane almost sitting on the toilet because the door would not stay shut but it was only about a 35 minute flight. The flight finally left at about 1:30, 3 hours late but I was actually in Washington earlier than planned.

So now I am waiting for my flight to London. There is supposed to be wifi here but it is so slow that I can't even get my emails, let alone photos or try and post this.

Later: Flight was fine - full plane but I had a good seat and we arrived on time. I was asked to check my backpack at the gate since the bins were all full so I quickly put it in its bag and left it at the door of the plane. It was safely there on the carousel at Heathrow with the bag still in good shape. Took the bus to Gatwick and settled for a long wait with a good breakfast. Managed to get 45 mins of free wifi to send a couple of e-mails, the rest will have to wait until I am in Seville with proper wifi. Weather here is cold and a steady drizzle; very different from 90F in Richmond and a forecast 98F in Seville.

I feel rather proud of my shoes with the new laces. It will make it difficult for anyone to take them by mistake in the morning as people are in the Albergue are getting ready to leave.

 

 

 

 

I had left my backpack in the "left luggage" place since it was such a long wait until my flight but finally I was able to check it in (2 hours before departure with Ryanair). The bag should be fine for one more flight but I don't think it will be worth taking with me for the return. It is doing well considering it weighs almost nothing and only cost $1.00 at the Dollar Store. It is the perfect size for my backpack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally time to leave and after a smooth flight we landed in Sseville at about 8:00 pm. Very nice temperatures in the 80's, low humidity. Immigration and luggage plane and then to a transport service I had booked with Ryanair to take me to the hostal. Checked in and was assigned a bunk in a room of 6 beds.

On the way from the airport the streets were full of people, many of the women wearing traditional costumes and horse drawn carriages taking people around. This is the final weekend of the "Seville Fair". After I had settled in, set up wifi and talked to Christa, went out to look for something to eat. It was 10:00 pm and the streets were still full - after all, this was a Saturday night in Spain. I found a Cervezaria with an empty table outside only about a block or so from the hostal. Ordered a beer and some food but I was not sure what I was going to get.

It turned out to be slices of pork loin with a tasty sauce and fries. Rather salty, but a second beer took care of that!

Then back to the hostal, another call to Christa and to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The night was not peaceful. Despite only six beds in the room there were people coming and going all night, each time with the door banging and muffled voices. There was never a time when we were all there at the same time, the first one packing and leaving at about 4:30 am and the last one arriving back for the final time at about 5:30. I got some sleep in between but not what I really needed after the night before on the plane to London. I will have to join the locals this afternoon for a siesta!

There some people sitting at the next table wearing there Spanish costumes. It felt as if we were in a scene from "Carmen" which is, after all, set in Seville.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all for now. Will follow up later after a day exploring Seville. I plan to start my walk tomorrow.

 

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