Raissac D'Aude at last!

 Monday April 29th

Yesterday at 13.10 I finally cycled past the Mairie, past le parc, past la croix along rue du tilleul to la maison du murier here in Raissac d'Aude. Home at last. What a week! 

I didn't want to "put pen to paper" until I actually got here because I was beginning to feel a little jinxed. The old song "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all" came to mind.

Tuesday in Seville was mainly spent looking for a bike box and taking my bike apart and packing it ready for my early morning flight on Wednesday to Toulouse. The receptionist had been very helpful and suggested Rebiciclate a bike repair shop in Macarena. Since I was staying in the middle of the Santa Cruz area with its twisty narrow streets the bike shops were all quite far away. The bike shop, Rebicilate had a box and I must have looked quite a sight as I walked the half an hour clutching my prize, back through the maze of tiny streets which by then were packed with a sea of humanity.

My first mistake - my excuse is that I am unused to taxis - was to book a taxi using the ride hailing app Bolt. Normally (I've used it twice before once in Bratislava and once in Budapest) the app shows you where the drivers and what kind of car they are and you click on the car and you watch as it speeds towards you. If you book the day before someone picks up the booking but you don't know who and crucially what kind of vehicle.

Wednesday morning 05.00 no taxi. Eventually a text "I am at the end of the street I can't come into your street it is too narrow." I have my bike in a box 30kgs and my hand luggage. I manage to carry it to where my Bolt taxi was waiting. It was an 8 seater but the seats didn't fold down. Disaster the bike box wouldn't fit. After half an hour of trying to make it fit he left me at the side of the road. So I hailed another Bolt in the normal way - a Tesla 3 would be with me in 10 mins. When he arrived he took one look and shook his head. His seats didn't or wouldn't fold down and he left me by now getting desperate. The normal taxi rank was about a 100m away so I half dragged half carried my box to the "normal" taxi who was quite happy to fold down his seat and took me to the airport. Whew I thought that was a close one. 

On arrival I couldn't see my flight on the departures board. The flight was cancelled. The efficient lady on the Ryanair desk booked me on the next available flight Thursday morning. Another day in Seville beckoned BUT Seville was practically full. 97% according to Booking.com. The only reasonable accommodation was in Apartamentos Resitur in Triana. The apartment was a decent size but very poorly equipped and a bit frayed around the edges. But it was only one night so it would do. Getting my bike box in the lift to the fifth floor was a performance not to be repeated too often. By now my box was also frayed around the edges and I set out to by some tape to repair it. Where do you buy tape in a city with thousands of tapas bars? Aldi, which was just around the corner had duck tape in the sale section for €3. What a lucky break. First and last.

By mid-day my Thursday flight was cancelled because of French air traffic controllers striking and the Friday flight was full so I booked myself on the Saturday 14.20 flight and headed to reception to book my room for two more nights. I could have one more night but there was no room at the inn for Friday night and Seville was FULL. I was looking at hundreds of euros for one night in the only rooms that were left or I could have a room in an 8 bed house which was STRICTLY FOR MEN ONLY. Nudism was practised and you had to be comfortable with that. Help!!

It turned out tha my room became available due to a cancellation and I didn't have to discover what the nudist men only house was about. It should have been good being a tourist in buzzing Seville but the stop start hanging about made it difficult. I only had the clothes that I stood up in because once I had repaired my bike box I didn't want to risk taking it apart again. 

Saturday finally dawned cold and wet. 17 deg cold and raining. Fortunately I had kept the number of the regular taxi which had brought me from the airport so in my best halting Spanish I had booked him to pick me up at 11.30. At 11.25 he was a the front door with his back seat folded and a friend with him to lift my box. Things were looking up. Bolt you can bolt. Things continued well at the airport. My box had to be individually scanned in an XL scanner which was fired up by a friendly security guard for me alone. When I lifted my box onto the conveyor belt it fitted with about 2mm on either side.Whew again.

Checked in I headed through security to discover that surprise surprise the flight was delayed by an hour which quickly turned into two hours. The plane took off at 17.35 3 and a quarter hours late. By then all hope of catching a train from Toulouse had disappeared and I was searching Booking.com for accommodation near the airport and near the train station. In the end the fact that it was raining when I landed made me book an airport hotel. There was an eerie silence in the huge arrivals hall as I rebuilt my bike (which had been last off the plane) All of the passengers had long departed by the time my bike and I emerged into the dim evening rain. It seemed a fitting near end to what had been a disastrous trip.

However Sunday went smoothly enough as I was able to cycle to Toulouse Matibiau following a cycle path first along the Garonne and then alongside a canal. Bike on train to Lezignan - Corbieres then short cycle to Raissac D' Aude. If I was starting to have doubts about having stopped my cycling this little trip confirmed my decision. I had to stop twice because my chest was tight and my breathing wasn't easy. This was on a pancake flat 10kms with not a breath of wind.

My PA has been busy while I have been missing in inaction.I am going to be busy pursuing Ryanair for compensation but nothing will compensate me for my disappointment. Thank you to everyone who has followed my lack of progress and who has sent me well wishes and encouragement. Pauline says that I will never be let out on my own ever again but I'LL BE BACK.