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NOVEMBER 17, 2003
Our next train was on time and it was full. Mostly kids. It looked like they were maybe college kids going home for the week-end.
We arrived in Merida about 1710. We started walking towards a pension that we had picked to go to. On the way there we walked by one that was very close to the train station. We decided to go there instead because we were taking the train tomorrow to Sevilla.
The pension was basic and clean with a bathroom. Laurie and I have been spoiled by having private rooms and bathroom with showers. I can't remember the last time we had to share.
We left the room and walked around the town. It was Friday night and everybody was out, either shopping or visiting in Plaza de Espana while the kids ran around. It was a mild night and it felt good to be walking in the fresh air.
I saw a bunch of lights so we walked down toward them. It was a beautiful bridge that was built in 26 B.C. by the Romans. It is only used for pedestrains. The Romans certainly left their mark in so many places and their marks have lasted centuries.
Across from that bridge there was a modern pedestrian walkway that was also nice and lit up the night with lights. On each side of the river there were walk ways with gardens. It was too dark to really see them. Laurie and I walked a circuit, across one bridge to the other and across.
We then went to find something to eat. We both got wrapped sandwiches and we took them into the square and ate. It was fun to watch all of the people.
It would have been nice to have longer here and walk around the other areas, but we wanted to get to Morocco which requires a lot of traveling.
November 15, 2003
Again another travel day. It was a good day to travel because it was raining. We had one train for the whole ride which was nice. The train was late arriving to our destination so the total train time was about 5 1/2 hours. Our destination was Sevilla.
Getting to the hostel was much more difficult to do. We had 3 different directions and which buses to take. We were on the 1st bus for over 30 minutes. We got off thinking we were around the area that we wanted to be in. Then it was in search of the bus stop for the next bus, but the problem was that once we found it we didn't know which way we wanted to go. Finally after walking around we got on a bus and it was going the correct way. After we got off the bus, it was our next challenge to find the hostel. Our biggest problem was not having a map, but the other was that even if we had a map the hostel was not on it.
It took 2 1/2 hours to get to the hostel, but we finally got there. One of the reasons we wanted to go there was because we needed to do wash. It had been well over a week since we washed our clothes.
We did our wash and I was able to go out to eat with clean clothes. We walked down the street and found a Chinese Restaurant. They had a menu of the day for only 5 euros. It included drinks and dessert. The food was great and well worth 5 euros.
After dinner we walked a bit down the street, just to help our meal settle. We then just turned around and went back to the hostel for the night.
November 16, 2003
This is our third travel day in a row and we have at least one more before we have a break. It depends if we decided to spend time in Fez on the way to Marrech or not. We had made reservations yesterday for the train. We couldn't get the early train because it was full. That meant we couldn't get one until 1:15 to go to Algecirus. This is the last one in Spain where we catch the ferry to Morocco
So after the hostel breakfast we checked out of the hostel. We decided to kill some time by walking to the train station. We made one stop in the Santa Cruz area for coffee, again just to kill time.
We got to the train station about 11:30. It was not a very long walk and we could have saved lots of time yesterday if we knew the way to walk.
So we just waited for the train that takes us to Bobidilla. We waited there for the next train. Laurie made a
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