I was to go to Seville a couple of days before TGT2.5:2-5 on the Thursday and they would meet me on the Saturday. As the day of departure approached I began to have sleepless nights. What was going on? Turns out, that this little well travelled duck (I've been to over 40 countries, I've cycled through Asia for a year, I've circumnavigated the globe 4 times) was shitting himself about travelling alone. Turns out the trip to Berlin kinda scarred me. I haven't written about this but when we went to Berlin I stayed behind for a few days with TGT2.5:3 so he could spend time with some of his friends who happened to be there as well. In the few short days I was alone I managed to lose our credit card and almost lost my work laptop computer by leaving it in the security screening at the airport. I was on the plane by this time and the flight attendants said I couldn't leave the plane. AAGGGHHH!!! However, the flight attendants were angel like and they got some ground crew to rush back to security and see if it was still there. Thank goodness it was but this was 2 days after I lost the credit card and my confidence was shot to pieces. This was after I had already left my credit card behind in the supermarket a month or so previously, as well as losing a Swedish equivalent of MYKI. If I had any marbles I would clearly have lost them by now. Obviously, I had travel dementia. It was in this context that I journeyed forth to catch a plane to Spain by myself and due to the vagaries of cheap fares, I had to catch a plane to Barcelona first and then change for a flight to Seville.
Now someone with travel dementia finds catching one flight tricky, but two flights late at night in unfamiliar airports? Serious stress!! I confided in TGT2.5:2 that my travel dementia was causing sleeplessness and anxiety and she being the queen of lists naturally concluded the answer to my difficulties lay in a list. So I had my little list of things it was kinda important that I kept: wallet
I got to Copenhagen airport without incident and had a quiet celebration and notified TGT2.5:2 via text that I had the 3 key items. I checked in, got on the plane, (still 3 items) and we taxied out to the runway, where we promptly sat for 50 mins! Turns out nearly all the air traffic controllers in Barcelona had chucked a sickie at the same time and they couldn't handle all the planes arriving so we had to hang about for a bit. Sigh.
Eventually we got going, the flight was uneventful enough and I had to wait for the, also delayed, connecting flight to Seville. It was half past midnight and the guy from my AirBNB had every right to be a bit peeved but he was very good about it when I arrived at just after 1 am he was on the balcony to call to me as I wandered around the outside of this building looking for the right door. All good, I even still had all 3 key items! Quick sleep as I had to get up early to meet a chap from the University of Seville, who was a key player in the development of the paradigm shifting bike network. A 6 km walk from one side of the old town, through the old town, via a great little cafe for a cheese roll and two coffees for only 3 euros, then off to meet my colleague. A glorious walk, made all the more enjoyable as people of all ages cycled past me on their less than perfect but nonetheless fantastic bike network.
I met my mate Ricardo, and he took me for a 2 1/2 hour tour around Seville on the bike network and showed me all the issues that had come up, the compromises made, the strategies, the utter disbelief of the locals when 80 kms of bike network were installed in 18 months and almost instantaneously 80,000 bike trips were being made everyday in Seville (about 7% of all trips).
After discussing things a bit more with Ricardo and a research paper we will do together and organised to meet the other cycling person on the following day, I was a bit pooped after my long journey the previous evening and headed back across town to the AirBNB for an afternoon nap as I was going on a Tapas tour that evening! All in the name of research mind you so I could show the family when they arrived the following day.
I even still had my wallet, passport and computer!!!
Post nap I headed back into the old town to meet Belen from Tapas tours for 3 hours of local food and drink. After a bit of a mishap trying to find them I ended up in a small bar in Plaza Padre Jeronimo de Cordoba at the Taberna del Peregil and met the others on the tour. Some Americans (Marines actually and a couple from Miami) some Brits (young couple from Bristol) and a family from the Netherlands. It was a fantastic tour of 5-6 different tapas bars over 3 hours, the food was wonderful, the local drinks superb (including orange wine and orange vermouth, a rich red wine and some local cava.)The tour leader, Belen was actually from Argentina. She moved to Barcelona, met her boyfriend who was from Seville and moved there. She is from a town called Trevelin in Patagonia. Never heard of it but obviously looked it up. Absolutely stunning scenery and Welsh would you believe!?!?!?! Settled by Welsh miners over 100 years ago they still teach Welsh in the local schools. In fact, a mate of the Bristol couple had gone there as a Welsh teacher. WTF!?
I met Manuel (ke?) the following day and his fellow cycle advocate Isabel later that day at Santa Cleta community bike. Manuel Calvo was the one who designed the whole bike network. I was feeling privileged knowing that people come from all over the world to see the amazing job he's done. In fact when I was there, there was a local councillor from North Carolina coming to see the bike network as well!! The previous day there were people from the UK. Anyhoo, after a couple of hours with Manuel and Isabel (she gave me her book, in Spanish! Anyone want to translate it for me?), it was time to head off and have another nap. Still had my wallet, passport and computer though.Later that evening, TGT2.5:2-5 to fly in and it was wonderful to see them again. I'm hopeless at being away from them. Plus, it massively reduced my stress as TGT2.5:2 was there to take up the slack on my travel dementia! Still had wallet, passport and computer. I was very keen to see how TGT2.5:4 coped with the culture smack of Spain. He invented the term culture smack in Berlin. Culture smack is like culture shock but a bit more physical. Like it smacks you in the face.
We had planned a manic 2 1/2 days in Seville so it was up early the next day to start our journey around the wonderful Sevilla and as I was an old hand by now it was up to me to show the way, travel dementia and all.
First to the Enarnacion Market wooden structure that floats above a plaza in the middle of Seville. You get to go up and wander around the rooftop level of Seville. Delightful. Then time to visit the massively disappointing Archive of the Indias. All the archives from several hundred years of messing about in the Americas were in there so we were expecting to see some fascinating things. Well no, just rows and rows and rows of bookshelves with files on them. 8kms of bookshelves would you believe. Barely a thing on display. Seriously? Beautiful building though with stunning tile floors.
A few hours in there and then off to the football for TGT2.5:3-4 and myself to see Sevilla FC play Real Valladolid in La Liga. If Sevilla won they were going to go top of the table. TGT2.5:4 practically ran to the stadium as TGT2.5:3 and I struggled to keep up. He's a bit of a football nut you see (we saw Malmo FF play in the Europa Cup a few weeks ago, and we're going to game in London on the way home). Despite my truly appaling Spanish (working on that) we got in and headed up to the nosebleed section and found ourselves surrounded by Americans and English! Didn't matter though as it the atmosphere was fantastic and the won 1-0 to go top. Happy boys and girls I can tell you.
Back to meet TGT2.5:2 and TGT2.5:5 for dinner at a local tapas restaurant and ready for another early start the following day. We walked to the Plaza d'Espana, a place made famous by those pretend Star Wars movies as home of Padme (Luke and Leia's mum in case you have been living under a rock). Absolutely stunning 1920s architecture and in a fit of indulgence we jumped into one of the horse drawn carriages for a 45 min trip around Sevilla. The horsey obsessed TGT2.5:5 was pretty happy about that I can tell you. Wonderful way to wander around the old town. Bit dodgy in among the traffic with a few hair-raising moments but overall a big winner.
We had some delightful lunch under the trees in a restaurant beside the Hospital de los Venerables for some fantastic paella while an amazing guitarist busker made the Sevillian setting perfect.
We were then headed to the cathedral. Now TGT2.5:3 has complained on the odd occasion about being dragged into cathedrals, him being a non-believer and all, but when we
walked into the Seville Cathedral even TGT2.5:3 was stopped in his tracks and was heard to utter, "Wow!" He knew he'd been heard but us so he rapidly tried to cover his tracks and say how boring it was but we got him! We had a good wander around for a couple of hours, visited Christopher Columbus' tomb and then went up the remarkable minaret, the Giralda.
Time for a bit of dinner and then we headed to a flamenco show. Man, those guys know how to stamp their feet! The guitarist was extraordinary as was the dancing and a great way to finish our action packed couple of days
.The final half day in Seville wasn't as action packed as the previous 2 as we wandered over the river to Triana to see the ceramics area, had some nice breakfast and then headed out to the airport to return to Lund. Unfortunately my Spanish extends to "Can I have a beer/coffee please" and we were having trouble explaining to the bus driver we wanted 2 adult tickets and 3 kids to the airport when TGT2.5:3 jumped in with his Spanish!!!! Turns out he's been paying attention in his Spanish classes. Well done him!
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