Made it to Sevilla

I finally got here after what seemed like forever travelling. Drove my car to Chris´house, walked to the marta station, rode marta to the airport, flew to London (Gatwick), switched planes, flew to Madrid, took the subway from the airport to the train station, took the AVE from Madrid to Sevilla, took a bus from the train station to approximately where my hotel is, then wandered around for an hours asking directions and trying to figure out the cartoon map the oficina turismo gave me. Each person I asked gave me different a different direction. Not ¨direction¨ as in a list of roads to follow, ¨direction¨ as in North, South, East West.

The lady at the Renfe window in Madrid told me an hour was enough time to get to and find the AVE train itself and so sold me a ticket for the 2pm train. She was right. One hour is enough time. One hour and one minute is not. I very narrowly made it, was the last person to board. There were only 5 or 6 people in my car so I thought I could get some sleep but the scenery was amazing. The terrain at the beginning was very urban and industrial, not much to look at. But the middle of the trip went through orchards and large flat areas that looked a lot like the American Southwest. I saw a few ruins and some old bridges, etc. So I only dozed off a couple of times.

The Vime Corregidor was nestled on a back street with no street sign which was halfway closed due to construction on some of the buildings but I finally found it. It´s a nice, simple hotel with, as you can see, internet access. They tell me there are no rooms for tonight so I´m searching for the Dona Lina today but if I can´t find that, I passed numerous other hostals and hotels in my search for the Corregidor.

I got here around 4:30 yesterday so I haven´t seen much of the city other than a few churches. I am going to stay another night in Sevilla (hopefully at the Dona Lina) and then take the train to Granada as early as possible in the morning.

The phone hasn´t worked in London, or anywhere in Spain so far so I doubt I will be able to make calls for the duration of the trip. Except maybe through the ATT service I used last time. I don´t plan on using that so long as I have internet access to update the blog.