24th April - Seville

Today didn't start off too well. Apart from a two hour gap in the early hours of the morning, I slept pretty well - through until 7.30am in fact. John, on the other hand, lay awake from 4am and was seriously unimpressed with his lack of sleep. It quickly got worse when we realised that, in amongst all our preparation for our trip back to Europe this year, we'd not got around to booking tickets for visiting the Alcazar here. This was the major reason for coming to Seville. Online tickets were completely booked out online for the rest of the week and we only have two days here. 

Needless to say, we quickly scrambled, and got ourselves off to the ticket booth hoping to score some last minute cancelled tickets. It was heart-wrenching to turn the corner and see a queue perhaps 200m long of other tourists also in search of non-online tickets. We joined the queue while reconsidering our options. Clearly there were tickets available on the day, but it made obvious sense to get to the booth well before it opened at 9am. The queue was hardly moving, so rather than wait for perhaps a couple of hours, we gave it away and planned to arrive before 8am tomorrow morning.

The day was now available to tackle some of the places we'd intended to visit tomorrow. First stop however was a much needed coffee and sugar (aka a chocolate pastry) attack to boost our flagging spirits. 

Santa Cruz district street

The Seville Cathedral is a much lauded place to visit and is located immediately adjacent to the Alcazar. We knew that tickets were also sold out there and the on-the-day queue was already long. However, with much good luck, a very small Mass service was being held in a tiny portion of the cathedral, hence it was open to the public and we were allowed into the virtually deserted interior. The vastness of the space, plus the size of the columns, level of detail in the wood carvings and so on were certainly impressive, but overall we were very glad we hadn't paid the 12 Euro and queued for hours to see it. This sounds very inadequate given that Seville Cathedral is one of the largest cathedrals in the world, and is indeed the largest Gothic cathedral anywhere. Perhaps if we'd been able to get closer to the tomb of Christopher Columbus or some of the cardinals, as would have been the case if we'd managed a tour, then we might have felt different. Over the years John and I have both become increasingly disenchanted with the overly ostentatiousness of many of the large ornate churches we've visited. In preference to their display of power and authority we prefer the humbleness of genuine local chapels.

So, with the cathedral ticked off in no time at all, we set off for the Triana market, located on the other side of the Guadalquivir River. The 15-minute walk took us through lovely areas lined with interesting architecture and large plazas, finishing up in a wide esplanade bordering the river. 

A little chapel across the Guadalquivir

Just across the river we entered the Triana Market. This traditional market has stood on this site for 150+ years. Our favourite stalls were those displaying very fresh and shiny fish. 

Triana Market - note the ceramic signs

Next stop was the Centro Cerámica Triana, a ceramics museum set up in the last of the working ceramics factories that once filled the area. It was very interesting seeing both the old wood-fired kilns and some of the ceramic products.

The Centro del Ceramico

From here we walked beside the river, along Betis Street, which is a renowned food street. Unfortunately it was only midday, so most of the restaurants were only just beginning to set up their tables. 

A typical courtyard

The houses here often have lovely entrances, behind which is an even more attractive courtyard. We remember these from Cordoba too.

Back across another bridge brought us to the Torre del Oro (Golden Tower). This provided not only a great view of the surrounding riverside area, but also a pictorial history of Spanish sea voyaging throughout the ages. Models of centuries-old sea galleons and maps dating back to the 1200s of the Mediterranean coastline were fascinating. Clumps of old stone cannon balls revealed how misshapen and crude they were - but no doubt they would wreak havoc when propelled into an enemy's vessel.

From the Torre del Oro

The Seville Cathedral

By 1pm we were starting to flag, but it was still too early for lunch. We opted to walk the short distance to the Setas de Sevilla, an extraordinary wood-built structure built over what was once a market square.

2pm was definitely lunchtime and we had been on our feet for five hours. We sat down at a small cafe, one of the very few we'd spied that advertised 'lunch of the day'. This typically includes a small two course meal accompanied by a drink, bread and dessert or coffee. In hindsight we think we would have been better opting for a number of tapas dishes, but it filled a gap. By the time we got back to the apartment we had walked 15 km and were feeling a little seedy. John immediately jumped into bed to catch up on some much-needed sleep, though I woke him after just 1.5 hours to make sure he would have a good sleep tonight. 

Feeling a touch jet-lagged, probably dehydrated and a little footsore we decided to flag eating much for dinner and popped a few doors down the road to a superette, where we bought some bread, cheese and bits for an easy meal. We were into bed by 9pm, with the alarm set for 7am.

21st to 23nd April - Nelson to Seville

We're ready to go. We're looking forward to it, as always, but are also a bit sad that the reason for travelling to France this year is to sell our much-loved apartment. It's bitter-sweet, but we know it's time for a new stage in our lives. 

Packing our bags this year has been totally different to previous years. Instead of travelling with our wheeled packs we've dragged out a large boxy old-style suitcase from a storage cupboard, and placed another old suitcase inside it. We are taking virtually nothing with us - a pair of shorts, a couple of  T-shirts, travel umbrellas, walking poles and a toilet bag. That's about it, apart from a large cardboard tube that we're hoping to bring two painting canvases back in. To say that I'm feeling seriously under-equipped for a trip to the other side of the world is a major understatement. However, we want to take the minimum of gear over and bring back the maximum amount of stuff we can from our apartment. 

Sally kindly dropped us at the airport at 9.30am on Sunday morning, and Bella and family came out to join us for a cup of coffee before we flew out and before they headed south to Hanmer Springs to spend the second week of the school holidays at our new holiday home. Rosie was especially very loath to see us go, but at least we could promise her this time that it's only for 7 weeks, not the usual four months or longer. 

Leaving a beautiful day in Nelson we flew into cloud and rain at Auckland, par for the course perhaps? Rhonda and Brian met us at the airport and we stayed overnight at Rhonda's place. They are gradually tweeking it in preparation for hopefully selling up and moving down to live in Nelson. 

The following day we arrived back at Auckland airport in plenty of time for our 1:15pm flight bound for Doha. The 17.5 hour haul always sounds daunting but actually the flight went extremely well. We both slept fairly well, the meals were excellent and the staff unfailingly very friendly and helpful. The 3hr transit time in Doha worked out perfectly in terms of allowing time to disembark, go through security and find our next boarding lounge. The airport complex is simply huge and our plane parked up miles from the terminal. The transit bus that collected us took possibly 10 minutes and a number of kilometres to negotiate the airport airfield to the terminal building.

Qatar's Doha Terminal

While we were waiting to board the next flight to Madrid, photos started to arrive online of Alastair and Sophie's marriage celebration in Mexico City. Just the day before they had had a very small and intimate exchanging of vows and rings. This followed up signing the legal marriage documents at City Hall in San Francisco a few weeks ago. The photos were simply lovely to receive and put a huge smile on our faces as we boarded the plane for our next eight hour flight. 

Again, the flight went very smoothly, this time on a codeshare Iberian plane. The quality of service provided by Qatar Airlines was definitely superior, but it didn't seem to take too long until we were starting our descent into Madrid. John and I both slept or dozed pretty well on both flights, and the endless movies certainly helped too. Two hours into our flight from Madrid, dinner was served at 2.30am. It was quite surprising how many passengers opted for a small bottle of red or white wine at that hour of the morning! We gave it a miss.....

Amazing night-time view of Malta as we passed overhead

It was a big wake-up call, literally, to be told by the pilot upon our descent into Madrid that the temperature at ground level was currently 1 degree! He assured us that he thought it was very cold. We had been working on the theory of Madrid being in the mid-20s to mid-30s, as it had in recent weeks, but didn't realise that the mornings could still be so cold. We hadn't packed any warm jackets or the like because we have them all in our apartment in Ceret to bring back home. Our only warmish outer layer was a rain jacket each. However, we didn't need to retrieve them from our suitcase because it wasn't too cold inside the terminal, and from there we jumped straight onto a Renfe train into the centre of town. 

With 50 minutes to spare before boarding our train we enjoyed the opportunity to have our first Spanish coffee and pastry in ages. They didn't disappoint. It was pretty easy to navigate the way to our train, which departed on time at 11.05am bound for Seville. However, it only went about 20m down the track before it stopped. After another 10 minutes we started moving again and before long we were ripping southwards at a speed of over 200km/hr. I was keen to watch the landscape as it changed during the trip, but unfortunately I slept for most of it!

Arriving in Seville at 2pm, we had to kick ourselves that we'd actually made it. Both surviving the long 30+ hour trip, plus finally stepping foot in Seville after it's been on our bucket list for over 30 years. It felt pretty good, as did the temperature, which had warmed up to a balmy 24 degrees. We had a bit of time to kill before our apartment was available so we walked the 15 minute walk to a location close to it and sat down at a little cafe for a cold beer and a little tapas. It was lovely. We were feeling a little bushed but not too bad.

It was easy to find the apartment, and once we were in, could take off our shoes and socks and heave a bit of a sigh. We jumped into bed for a bit of a rest/nap and promptly fell asleep for three hours! I was anticipating just a short nap of perhaps one hour, having slept very well overall I thought. Clearly we both crashed. We know you're supposed to get out on a walk and try to adjust to local time asap, but we didn't have it in us. However after a shower we were ready to hit the streets and do a little exploring.

Our only real plan for today was to walk around the grand Plaza de Espana and the adjacent Parque de Maria Luisa. It was a pleasant 15 minute walk to both, and they were indeed magnificent, especially the plaza. With the wide expanse of paving fronting the imposing building, colourful tiling, fountains, bridges and a boating canal, it was definitely impressive. While there we enjoyed watching some buskers performing Spanish flamenco dancing and accompanying music. I didn't realise how energetic the dancing was. Up close and personal to the women performing it felt exhausting just watching. It was a great display, and the Spanish guitarist and drummer were equally enthusiastic in their contribution to the performance. 

We chose one of the many tapas bars in the area to sample some of the local fare for a light dinner. Our dish of choice is always fried anchovies, and, with some bacalao (cod) fritters and Iberian ham, we thought we'd made a good start on renewing our acquaintance with Spanish food. 

By the time we'd picked up some milk and yoghurt at the supermarket to have with our muesli in the morning (who else travels with home-made muesli?), we didn't roll into bed until after 10pm. It felt SO good to anticipate a whole night of being horizontal. 

Back to Ceret for the Last Time

We first visited Ceret in 2009, bought our first apartment there in 2011, first lived there in 2012, and have been back for a significant part of each every year since, excluding the 2 Covid years of 2020 and 2021.

It's been an absolute blast! We've loved living in Ceret, speaking and being a bit French, the many side-trips around Europe, and the places we've visited heading to or from France. Over that period we've seen and done more than we could ever have imagined. It's been one of the most exciting periods of our lives.

Over time though, global warming has made the temperatures less tolerable - early on we would have a few weeks of 32 degrees each year, more recently midsummer means several months of non-stop 35 degrees. We've been going later to avoid the peak heat of summer, but that means we have missed the lovely long mild southern European evenings. Local friends have come and gone, and we have been working our way through our mental list of places we want to visit in Europe. Carbon miles come into it too, and us doing a round-trip to Europe each year is not helpful. Leaving our family in Nelson, including our 3 grandchildren, for 3-4 month spells had been a bit of a wrench too.

Last year we made the decision that we've had a wonderful time, we've done what we wanted to, but it was time to move on. When we first bought we said that we'd give it 3 years, then sell up and do something else. We've now had 11 years of visits of 3 to 8 months. At one point I think we had spent 4 of the previous 10 years in Europe. So, time to try something new. Following our decision in November or December, we began looking in earnest at Hanmer Springs, a small holiday village with natural hot springs, walks, cycle trails, golf, a nice village and only 3.5 hours away versus 40. We'd always liked Hanmer, and had stayed there a number of weeks over the last few years. No house we liked had come onto the market over the previous few years (we'd been looking), but in late December one place did, and we rushed down, put in an offer and had bought it by the end of January!

The aim for this year is simple. We want to get the apartment on the market, and preferably sell it while we are still in Ceret. We are only there for some 6 weeks this time so it's a tall order, but we need to get it on the market at the start of the holiday season beginning in May. We begin with a week in Spain visiting the long-term bucket list city of Seville, then returning via Madrid to Ceret. Mid-May we have a short visit to Amsterdam to meet up with son and daughter-in-law Alastair & Sophie, but otherwise we will play it by ear.