It was another bitterly cold night. The few cars that were left in the car park were covered in a deep frost. It looked bloody cold from the comfort of by centrally heated double glazed van.
At 6:00am I decided to get up and have some breakfast. I thought I might head off early. I didn't want to get caught up in rush hour traffic, nor did I want to find myself hemmed in the car park as it started to fill up with those going about their daily work.
I did have half a tank of water on board, plenty to have a shower but there is something not quite right about havering a shower in the back of a van parked in a Lidl car park. I settled for a good flannel bath! I did reflect, I'd spent some 4 months doing the same 6 dats a week when I was working in Kathmandu living with the monks so it's nothing new. At least I had warm water here!
Just before first light I headed off. It was pitch dark still. My beam benders appear to be working as I got no flashes on the way out of town.
Today, I was heading for Seville. It was going to be quite a long drive. At this stage I didn't have a plan, I was just looking at the map and picking somewhere to go. Seville looked like a good bet.
Seville is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir. The inhabitants of the city are known as sevillanos or hispalenses, after the Roman name of the city, Hispalis. Seville has a municipal population of about 703,000 as of 2011, and a metropolitan population of about 1.5 million, making it the fourth-largest city in Spain and the 30th most populous municipality in the European Union. Its Old Town, the third largest in Europe with an area of 4 square kilometres (2 sq mi), contains three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Alcázar palace complex, the Cathedral and the General Archive of the Indies. The Seville harbour, located about 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the Atlantic Ocean, is the only river port in Spain.
Seville was founded as the Roman city of Hispalis, and was known as Ishbiliya after the Muslim conquest in 712. During the Muslim rule in Spain, Seville came under the jurisdiction of the Caliphate of Córdoba before becoming the independent Taifa of Seville; later it was ruled by the Muslim Almoravids and the Almohads until finally being incorporated into the Christian Kingdom of Castile under Ferdinand III in 1248. After the discovery of the Americas, Seville became one of the economic centres of the Spanish Empire as its port monopolised the trans-oceanic trade and the Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) wielded its power, opening a Golden Age of arts and literature. In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan departed from Seville for the first circumnavigation of the Earth. Coinciding with the Baroque period of European history, the 17th century in Seville represented the most brilliant flowering of the city's culture; then began a gradual economic and demographic decline as silting in the Guadalquivir forced the trade monopoly to relocate to the nearby port of Cádiz.
The GPS was telling me the drive to Seville was about 6 hours. I needed to take the E803 motorway which goes over the Sierra del Feude. This wasn't a toll road. More like a duel carriageway with the ubiquitous trucks wandering all over the road. I had noticed, for some reason they all appeared to be Lithuanian or Polish.
One thing they don't have, in either the south west of France or Spain are the same sort of service stations that we are used to in the UK. The further south I have driven the less frequent they are. What tends to happen is there are sign posts off the motorway and you get a big restaurant and petrol station, or signposts to a nearby town where there is a service station. Today I wilI be driving from Salamanca via Caceres ( famous for the Marquis de Caceres wine), then Merida and on to Seville.
I needed to get fuel so once through the foggy weather I pulled off the motorway and headed to the closest town called Guijuelo. This town is quite famous for it's cured ham. As I pulled into the town looking for the service station that the GPS was guiding me towards there was an awful smell. At first I thought there was something wrong with the van. It turned out it is the smell of the manufacturing of Jambon. All the factories were spewing out the rancid smell. It was enough ( but not quite enough) to put you off.
The first service station I came to had a huge queue of trucks so I drove on a couple of miles to the next one. At first I drive straight pat as it appeared to be closed. I parked my the van and walked back to see that The owner was obviously trying to save power as all the lights were out. He was indeed open though. I drove into the forecourt and the little chap came out and did the filling up for me.
" Diesel" the attendant asked
"Si, Diesel Normal por favour" I responded.
" Frio, señor' " I added trying to make conversation
"Yes" he responded " it's very cold"
It must be my accent.. But I'm getting there with the Spanish language.
The fuel is slightly cheaper than it is in France and interestingly, unlike in the UK, diesel is cheaper than petrol.
As I drove back to the motorway every other shop was a cured ham shop. The more festive had pigs dressed up in Santa outfits ( not real pigs I hasten to add). The adage Turkeys voting for Christmas sprang to mind.
This part of Spain is quite high, I'm not sure what the elevation is but it is susceptible to very strong winds off the Sierra de Fuentes. These strong gust of wind played havoc for the drivers of the high sided trucks, it wasn't ideal as most seemed to have a problem driving in a straight wine at the best of times. Given the driving conditions I tended to err on the side of caution and keep the speed down.
The A66 motorway changed to the E802/A66 and I seemed to be heading downhill. The weather was getting noticeably warmer as I headed towards Seville. My trusty GPS had given me a number of alternative options to stop off in Seville. I opted for one that was about 10km outside the centre. As Seville is the fourth largest Spanish city I really wanted to avoid the centre of town if at all possible. The stop off I opted for was at a place called Puerto Gleves. It offered water dumping facilities as well and hot showers and electricity. All for the princely sum of 12 euros.
As I headed to the ring road of Seville, it was quite busy. I passed field and field of orange groves and olive groves. The orange groves still had ripening fruit on them so I suspect that the weather was still a good deal milder than I had experienced so far.
After a couple of bum turns I found my resting spot, I delightful marina at the side of the river. True to form it had showers and electricity. One thing to be careful of in both France and Spain is the fact that quite often the live and neutral wires are reversed. This can cause problems, namely electrocution !
I had done my research though and bought a tester and a reverse polarity lead that swapped them back around again. Good job !
The marina had a nice little shop, a bar full of the 'sailor' types drinking rim and beer. I purchased some bread and a big bottle of beer for later. Came to just over a euro!
There were a few other campers on the site ( basically it was a road by the side of the river with electric points and water. It took a bit of reversing skill ( not my strong point) to get into a spot where my cable could reach the outlet but I got there in the end. My neighbours were a German couple on one side and a Dutch couple on the other. The German Hymer motorhome had a satellite dish that could put Jodrall Bank to shame. A late snack of bread, cheese and chorizo and a settled down to read a bit of the latest free e book I had downloaded from amazon.
I desperate for a good nights sleep so opted for a litre of beer, a couple of glasses of wine and lasagne for dinner. Topped off with a couple of antihistamines which usually does the trick.
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Location:Seville - Andalucia - Spain
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