Where's Bertie? He's still in the same place in Seville.
Weather: A few clouds around for a short while this afternoon, but otherwise sunny. 22 degrees.
For the second time in as many weeks, my day started with a bike ride - 10km each way around the edge of Seville to collect Mick's race number and goody-bag.
The navigation looked involved, so I donned Mick's bone-conducting headphones and set Google Maps to direct me. Whilst I couldn't see the map (because I don't have a handlebar mount, so the phone was in my pocket), it gave me clear enough directions such that I only stopped to check the map a few times (mainly where Google didn't seem to know that the cycle path took a short detour down a road, to cross the carriageway and come back again).
I expected my destination, an exhibition centre, to be something like the NEC, but it wasn't. In fact, what I found appeared to be a deserted building with no apparent way in. I was just scratching my head and consulting the map some more when I spotted some flags and an inflatable 'start/finish' arch just up the road, and sure enough, that's where I needed to be.
When I arrived there was only one bike at this stand, and it didn't instill confidence!
Once in the hall there was no indication as to where I needed to go, so I worked on the basis that they wanted everyone to have to pass all of the exhibitor stands, and headed via the most direct route I could find to the back of the hall. Ten minutes later I was back outside with everything I needed and, via a quick nip into Aldi for a couple of soft pretzels (somehow I'd gone out without anything to eat and it had been a long time since breakfast), back to Bertie I tootled.
What an excellent place Seville is for cycling! All but two short sections (200m each?) of the 10km route was on dedicated two-way cycle paths, with either traffic lights at junctions, or with the cycle path having priority. The two short non-cycle path bits were on shared foot/cycle ways, so I didn't need to venture onto a road at all.
In fact, I've noticed a lot of cycling infrastructure on this trip that I've not noticed during previous visits to Spain - perhaps because we didn't have a bike with us so it just passed me by. I very much approve.
Mick's leg-stretch didn't come until this afternoon when we ventured out to recce the start/finish area for the marathon. Having located it, we then formed a circuit, returning via the place where we parked Colin back in 2016. Our thought was that, even though it's no longer a motorhome parking area, if it's still possible to park a Bertie-sized vehicle there, then we would move tomorrow afternoon, so as to be better positioned for Sunday. It turns out that it's no longer a motorhome parking area because the whole car park is now an excavated building site, into which piles are just being driven.
On our previous visit to Seville we were parked on the right bank in this photo from where we watched many a rowing crew as they went up and down. The only people we saw today were this group of SUPers.
Weather: A few clouds around for a short while this afternoon, but otherwise sunny. 22 degrees.
For the second time in as many weeks, my day started with a bike ride - 10km each way around the edge of Seville to collect Mick's race number and goody-bag.
The navigation looked involved, so I donned Mick's bone-conducting headphones and set Google Maps to direct me. Whilst I couldn't see the map (because I don't have a handlebar mount, so the phone was in my pocket), it gave me clear enough directions such that I only stopped to check the map a few times (mainly where Google didn't seem to know that the cycle path took a short detour down a road, to cross the carriageway and come back again).
I expected my destination, an exhibition centre, to be something like the NEC, but it wasn't. In fact, what I found appeared to be a deserted building with no apparent way in. I was just scratching my head and consulting the map some more when I spotted some flags and an inflatable 'start/finish' arch just up the road, and sure enough, that's where I needed to be.
Once in the hall there was no indication as to where I needed to go, so I worked on the basis that they wanted everyone to have to pass all of the exhibitor stands, and headed via the most direct route I could find to the back of the hall. Ten minutes later I was back outside with everything I needed and, via a quick nip into Aldi for a couple of soft pretzels (somehow I'd gone out without anything to eat and it had been a long time since breakfast), back to Bertie I tootled.
What an excellent place Seville is for cycling! All but two short sections (200m each?) of the 10km route was on dedicated two-way cycle paths, with either traffic lights at junctions, or with the cycle path having priority. The two short non-cycle path bits were on shared foot/cycle ways, so I didn't need to venture onto a road at all.
In fact, I've noticed a lot of cycling infrastructure on this trip that I've not noticed during previous visits to Spain - perhaps because we didn't have a bike with us so it just passed me by. I very much approve.
Mick's leg-stretch didn't come until this afternoon when we ventured out to recce the start/finish area for the marathon. Having located it, we then formed a circuit, returning via the place where we parked Colin back in 2016. Our thought was that, even though it's no longer a motorhome parking area, if it's still possible to park a Bertie-sized vehicle there, then we would move tomorrow afternoon, so as to be better positioned for Sunday. It turns out that it's no longer a motorhome parking area because the whole car park is now an excavated building site, into which piles are just being driven.
Just one final comment about today: we have had a change of neighbours since we arrived. Unfortunately, the way that the new neighbours have parked leaves us looking like we've ignorantly plonked Bertie right in the middle of a span of spaces, with the gaps on both sides of us (which were perfectly big yesterday) now too small for anyone to access comfortably. I do hate it when the subsequent parking decisions of other people make it look like we don't know how to park politely!
I hope the marathon goes well. You have missed Storm Eunice which was most savage in the south of England, but it was above average violent here. So much so that I moved my car down the road in anticipation of the tumbling of the large, half dead ash tree at the top of my drive.
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