2002 World Equestrian Games

Journals from the WEG
By Astrid Appels

Sunday September 8, 2002: Settling in at Costa Ballena

JJ woke me up at 8 AM in the morning as we planned on doing a short walking tour through town round 10. I took a shower, then decided to run the bath and got freshened up for a new day. Cordoba is the most charming little town with mosques, churches, plazas and so much more. The fact that the weather is great in Southern Spain adds to the vacation feeling. We made some breakfast to take away at the hotel and were on the round round 10.30 AM.

Our supposed two hour drive had to take us to Costa Ballena, a resort area near a golf center at the Atlantic Ocean. We were in Jerez within two hours, but the mere 30 kilometers from Jerez to Costa Ballena took us another 2 hours. Jerez has hectic traffic and preserving your life at the same time as finding your way to your new residence was a straining thing to do. At 3 PM we finally drive up to the golf resort but had new instructions where to find our host. Mary had to call her assistent Tracy in the United States to figure out which apartment was ours. Mary had arranged a place to live through Canadian Karen Robinson of applausedressage.com. The small white ground floor apartment has two bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom and living area.

After we got unpacked, I walked alone to the beach to enjoy the great view of the ocean. Meanwhile, Mary was taking her beauty sleep and JJ watched the only English speaking channel available on Spanish television, CNN. A strong wind was blowing on the beach, and while I was writing in my journal, my pen failed to write because of the salty, wet wind that mixed with the ink. Our late afternoon lunch, a club sandwich at a small cafe near the supermarket of the development, turned out to be dinner too. Round 10.30 PM I went to bed exhausted of a day travelling.