I left Barcelona yesterday and took a very fast train down to Seville. The train was actually very comfortable and the 5h30 passed quickly. I spent most of the time sorting out and organising the music on my phone.
The rest of the time I was watching the speedometer at the front my carriage. We got up to 312 km/h. Pretty impressive! Travelling at this speed you could get from Seville to Santiago in a little over three hours, that’s 39 days 21 hours quicker than I am likely to take.
I arrived in Seville at 9pm last night and swiftly walked a mile to the hostal where I am staying. It’s in a very old building, so it’s heart pumping hike up to my single room on the 4th floor. All good preperation I guess!
It’s lovely and sunny now but much cooler than Barcelona. I am glad that I decided to keep my warm jacket. I am guessing that it will be very cold starting out early in the morning on the VDLP.
I am going to have two days here before I set off for Santiago on Saturday morning. I have to get my pilgrim passport, probably from the Hotel Simon, and then I will get a stamp from the Cathedral here in Seville. I also have one or two last minute purchases to make.
I have to confess that I am a little concerned about the weight of my backpack. It seems quite heavy even without the 2 kilos of water to come! I am going to see if I can shop and replace some of my gear with lighter versions.
I am carrying my ukuele (pictured above while travelling in New Zealand). It’s actually pretty lightweight and fits into my backpack fine, but I am already questioning myself over potentially lugging it 1000 km to Santiago. It could be that I end up donating somewhere, like I did some of my clothes in a Barcelona branch of Humana. Incidentially, they have some very nice stuff to buy there.
I have been doing a little bit of forward planning and hoping to arrive in Salamanca sometime after the Easter celebrations. I know it’s going to be super busy during the holiday period and I want to avoid that as I plan to stay for a couple of days. We will see how things pan out, but I am a little concerned about arriving in a busy period with no bed booked. That said, I expect the camino will provide.