Tiles and courtyard at Hotel San Gil

Street fountain in Seville

16 October - Ryanair return flight from Seville

As usual it's all pretty stressed as everyone jostles for a seat on a Ryanair fully booked flight. We survived checking in, where three lines formed and it suddenly had to become one, so we had to sort of filter in. There has to be a 'Ryanair effect', where quite rational people suddenly resent being one place back in a queue, where the end effect will be identical. Once on board things really hotted up as a couple with a child of about three were unable to find seats together. I recognised the family as they were at departures at the same time as us, waiting for the luggage check-in to open, the woman had an American accent and the man was British. How come they were so late boarding the plane that they couldn't find seats together is another factor influencing what happened next. The cabin staff tried to move people around to free up seats but didn't get a lot of cooperation. One guy was so difficult that he refused to move from his exact seat, said he had queued for two hours for it and wasn't giving it up now. We volunteered to release our seats and said we didn't mind not sitting together. So I am now sitting next to little girl of maybe three, watching out for her while her mother in the other seat copes with a one year old. The woman is Spanish but speaking very good English, I would assume they have been to visit Spanish family and are returning to England.
So, where was I, leaving Constano... We made an early start in the morning and were back at Aracena and La Gruta by 10 and got a ticket for the first tour, starting at 10.30. It was well worth the trip back and the delay. The caves, the stalagmites and stalagtites, the lakes, the formations made La Gruta the most spectacular underground system I have ever seen. Evidently part of the film, 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' was filmed there. We were back on the road again before 12 and headed for our first stop, at the village of Zufre. It clings to the side of a cliff, and below it are the walls and other remnants of the original Moorish town. It was Sunday and people were going into a rather fine 16C church. After Zufre the road wound and twisted, up and down, through almost deserted countryside. This is the Sierra Note, similar in landscape to the Sierra Aracena but not so heavily wooden and much less densely populated. We caught sight, for the first time, of the black pigs rooting about amongst the fallen acorns from the hundreds of oak trees which were the main vegetation. We saw one or two isolated houses or hamlets and very little else. It was a slow journey, rarely going over 30 kilometres an hour, before we reached Cazalla. We had been undecided about where to stop for the night, Cazalla looked quite busy so we pushed on to the next destination, Constantina, from where I wrote the last entry.
We headed for a hotel identified from the RG, after a tortuous drive through yet more narrow, winding, cobbled streets we found it, and it was closed. The RG only showed one other place, and driving around the town we hadn't seen any sign of other accommodation being available, so we looked for that and there we were. I'll have to do some editing on this as I seem to be going backward in time here.
We had a pleasant afternoon and evening wandering around Constantina then back to the Hostal and the noise. It was such a shame, the Hostal and the room were lovely, such wonderful tiling, great care had been taken to keep it furnished with pieces from the period, and it was like stepping back in time. The hostess was also from a bygone era, she knocked on our bedroom door at eight in the morning to tell us that our breakfast would be ready in thirty minutes. The house was built around a central courtyard and the back rooms would be fine, away from the noisy street. It is for sale, I wonder how much for, and whoever will buy it.
We had decided to make our last night stopover in Carmona, only just over an hour from Constantina and about half an hour into Seville airport. We had seen somewhere in the RG which looked OK so we headed towards it. The traffic was crazy, as bad as any we have seen anywhere, the Hostal was on one of the main Plazas and we had problems negotiating a path for the car around it, between other vehicles, the notion of finding a place to park was laughable. Another place was mentioned, four kms out of town, a Hacienda, which sounded remote and quiet, OK we wouldn't get to see anything of Carmoa unless we drove back in and braved the parking issue, but we should get a good nights sleep. We drove up and down the same road a couple of times before noticing a dirt track off, we drove a long way down it, deeper into the countryside, and came across a farm complex and part of it was a fine Hacienda. However, once again, it was closed, so back on the road again. Time was getting on, we decided to miss out Carmona, which was a shame because from what we had seen driving round it looked like a nice place, and just look for an overnight stop somewhere close to Seville airport. The first thought was Italica, the Roman site to the north of Seville, but on reading the book we saw that the archaeological site is closed on Mondays. We surely wouldn't have any problems finding a place to stay, but we would be a bit stuck out there. So we decided to try and find something on the outskirts of  Seville, on the airport side. The district of Barrio Macarena looked promising, so did the Hotel San Gil. It was in RG at 80 Euros a night, why not a little indulgence and luxury for our last night. When we got there we knew it was a good decision. The hotel is in what was an early 1900 'palacio' in a quiet back street. The conversion has been very well done, keeping many original features, some lovely tiling and a central courtyard. The room we finally agreed on, I didn't like the one they first offered us, was large with a desperate sitting area, minimally but comfortably furnished with a nice bathroom. The room was only 65 Euros a night but we had to pay 18 Euros for secure underground parking, so it was just over the 80 Euro mark. You really don't want a car in Seville.
The centre of Seville is not large and we knew our way around, once we had got our bearings. We made our way to a nearby Plaza ad sipped beer and had a few tapas, then back to the hotel to sort out our luggage for the return flight. It was good having so much space. Then out again, to the first little tapas bar we ate at nearly a couple of weeks ago. It was a warm evening, we appreciated it after the cool nights in the Sierra, then back to bed and a really, really good nights sleep, our last in Andalucia.

Rio Tinto mines

Cork trees in Sierra Aracena

12 October - Castano del Robledo

Another great change and one we are so pleased to have made. We left a hot and sticky Cordoba yesterday morning after a very unpleasant night. About 23.00, we had just gone to bed, I started being sick. John said that if it was any consolation he didn't feel too well either. So we took it it turns at throwing up for a while, and didn't get a lot of sleep. The internal room, with the only window looking out onto the central courtyard was very hot, stuffy and claustrophobic, so not a good experience.
On the way here we stopped off at the Medina Azahara. It was a good stop, well worth the delay in our onward journey,especially as we were still feeling a bit jaded. The area covered by the ruins is massive and a very small part of it has been excavated, some reconstruction has also taken place. We arrived at the reception area to the site, where you have to leave your car, early and were a bit perturbed by the lack of information, I asked somebody working in the gardens for confirmation of the entrance. It only seemed to lead to what looked like an underground car-park, no information on the large metal door closing it off. Other people arrived, including a couple of tour buses so we moved in and took our place near the head of the queue. A few minutes after 10 the big door was wheeled open to reveal a state of the art information centre, underground. Having got our tickets we decided to skip the museum and orientation information for the time being and get the shuttle bus to the actual site first. It was a good decision, for about the first half an hour we had the place entirely to ourselves. We went back and looked at the museum on our return to the reception area. It was well laid out with clear factual information and lots of state-of-the-art video materials.
Back on the road we made good time and reached Castano del Robledo just before 4, although even with the 'fabulous' SatNav we had problems finding the Posada, we did several circuits in the village, all on narrow cobbled streets. We knocked on the large wooden a door a couple of times, but no answer. The whole village was deserted, everywhere shut up, so as we had arrived an hour earlier than we had said, and concerned that we were in siesta time, we hung around until we heard noise within. A very nice woman, Sasha, sat us down at a table on a patio at the back of the house overlooking a garden and made us a cup of tea. Her husband, Craig, soon arrived and we learnt that he is a tour guide for Explore, we are familiar with them as they also do walking tours in Greece, although we weren't sure whether it was Explore or Exodus who did the walks and climbs around Karystos. He gave us lots of helpful information about walking in the area, and other interesting things to see and do. I also explained how I 'knew' Jan, without ever having actually met her, but felt I knew so much about the area from her blogs and photos of her travels on horseback.
While we were getting settled into our room it started to rain, quite hard, we had to pull the windows together to stop the rain splashing inside. It didn't last very long and soon the sun was out again. We took a walk around the village, finally sitting down outside a cafe in the main Plaza, for the last of the sun. John had a beer but I still felt rather fragile and could only manage a Coke. We agreed that neither of us really felt like anything to eat, we had just snacked on a few of the digestive biscuits we brought from England. So we went back to the Posada and after a few hands of Crib, went to bed.
We both had an excellent nights sleep in a good firm bed with comfortable pillows and a proper window with a good flow of clean fresh air. We had wondered if we would be kept awake or woken up by the church bell, which seems to have a time keeping system even more obscure than some we have encountered in French villages. We think it rings the hour at about five-to, maybe again at five-past, or it could be three or eight minutes past, and on the half hour it can be twenty-five past or as late as twenty five or even twenty-to. I heard nothing. I was woken this morning by a choir singing some rousing songs, we thought from the street. We learnt yesterday evening that today is a national holiday, (actually I'm not sure if it is national or Andalucian, the regional area of Andalucia is very important). I was also aware of hearing an owl in the night. It was a very overcast morning so it really wasn't light until almost 9. Craig provided us with a very good breakfast, the lovely juicy fresh tomato sprinkled with oil and basil (I think it was basil-my cold is hindering my taste-buds), was a real treat.
The Posada is quite fine, I don't know how much work they have done on it, but it is lovely old house, I think over 3 floors, with guest rooms on the top floor. Our room is very nice, a sloping roof but light and airy, and a view of old tiled roofs and trees beyond. There seems to be four bedrooms up here with a central sitting area, well provided with all manner of games and a very good supply of English language books, not sure about the copy of Hello magazine though! The house is nicely and comfortably furnished with some lovely old pieces of furniture. At the moment we are the only people staying here, I expect they can be full when Craig has a walking group. The village is carved into the hillside, a tangle of cobbled streets, and quaint old houses, there seem to be 2 Plazas, a lower one where we have left our car and a higher one with several bars and cafes round it. We have learnt from Craig that it is almost entirely dependant on the production of ham, for which the area is famous, and there does not appear to be any other accommodation or tourists.
We did quite a long walk today, about 12 kms., taking a track from the village, climbing up through forests of chestnut, oak and cork trees. The chestnut harvest looks as if it will be good in a few weeks time, they are not quite ready yet. The cork trees are amazing, their trunks have been stripped, in some cases at least three times, on the most recent occasions the orange dye with which they had been painted, presumably a chemical of some sort, giving them a startling appearance. We dropped down into the village of Alajar in the late lunchtime, and it was crowded, obviously everyone was out making the most of the day's holiday. We stopped and had a beer outside a bar and people watched for a time, before beginning the, most uphill, journey back. Now we are having a bit of a rest, before going out to eat tonight, I expect it will be busy.

Inside the Mezquita

Fountains in the Alcazar

Fountains in the Alcazar

10 October - Cordoba

Cordoba is definitely the most 'Moorish' place we have been to so far.  It is a myriad of alleys and plazas, just as we have seen in Morocco. After settling into the Hostal yesterday we went out for some lunch in a nearby restaurant, it was OK, I has small fried fish as a main course, but they weren't as tasty as white bait I have had in England.  John had a plate of the same large shrimps which he had had in La Antilla on Sunday, but said that these were nicer, just lightly grilled.  Later in the evening we had a glass of wine and a couple of small tapas dishes sitting in an alley way.  They were very tasty, we tried the local speciality of salmorejo, a gazpacho type dip with Iberian ham and hard-boiled eggs added.
The way that the time zone and the hours of daylight works is that the whole day seems to have been shifted forward a couple of hours, and as we are only here for a couple of weeks we have got time to adjust our bodies clocks, eating and sleeping habits.  As it isn't light until 08.30, nothing much happens before 10 or even 11, such as museums,, shops etc, opening.  Then lunch is from 13.00 to 16.00,  and everywhere closes down again for siesta until about 17.00 or even 18.00.  It is almost impossible to get anything to eat before 20.00, maybe just one or two back street bars might serve a few cold tapas. The heat may have something to do with this as well, it really is not possible to be outside in the sun between 15.00 and 18.00, even sitting in the shade is scarcely bearable.  It is much hotter than we had expected for coming up to mid August. The actual temperatures in Cordoba seem to be in the low 30s, so I think the humidity mist be quite high.  I don't know how contributory it is, but every square, every street has fountains, and I really mean fountains, great jets of gushing water.  We have also seen several enormous troughs of water in the streets, like family sized baths.  We haven't seen evidence of street dwellers, but if there are any then they certainly have lots of opportunities for bathing, in the dead of night.
We saw our first beggars today, Roma women with children going round the cafe tables.  They didn't seem to be very well refused and in fact where chased off if seen by the cafe proprietors.  I don't know if there are any provisions or a programme for Roma peoples here.
We spent this morning in the Mezquita, truly a magnificent building still, despite the alterations which have taken place in order to convert the original mosque into a Catholic Cathedral.  The design of numbers of arches forming walkways in so many directions has been preserved.  It is a great shame that the entire centre is dominated by the construction of the current cathedral.  In places it is still possible to see the original frescoes and elaborate Moorish decorations.
Next we went to The Alcazar, which was probably equally as good as the one in Seville.  There is much evidence of Roman occupation in Cordoba, we saw the remains of bath houses in the Alcazar, and they must extend much further than has been excavated.  When we arrived and put the car in an underground car-park we had to negotiate around quite a large area of cordoned off remains of a Roman construction.  Strolling around parts of the old city before we had lunch we saw Roman walls and structures which had been incorporated into modern buildings.
We are still talking about the financial situation in Spain.  Everywhere we have been has been clean, tidy and well maintained, with investment in infrastructure and monuments.  We have seen so many Spanish speaking people, so we have assumed they are Spaniards walking around with I pads, snapping away to get their photographs.  Once again cafes and restaurants are full and money is being spent.  There are more non-Spanish tourists here than we have seen anywhere else, the largest number, or maybe just the most vocal seem to be the French, but the majority are still Spanish.
We are leaving Cordoba tomorrow and, taking in a trip to The Medina on the way, heading Northwest and up into the Sierra Morena  for at least three nights, we haven't yet decided where to spend our last couple of days.  We hope it will be cooler and fresher as we climb up.

A lovely little plaza in Cordoba

A back street in Cordoba

09 October - Cordoba

One of the really nice things about independent travel is the variety of places we get to stay in, and this trip is proving to be just as diverse.  The quirky Hostal in Seville, on a noisy back street, to the modern hotel at La Antilla, to the hill-top monastery in Osuna, and now a family run Hostal right next to the Mesquita in Cordoba.  The original Hostal is one side of an alley, reached by steps, we are in another 'house', the other side of the alley.  We made a stop at Ecija on the way from Osuna, very worthwhile.  It is an interesting place with lots of lovely, but neglected, buildings.  It was the most 'Moorish' of the towns we nave visited in this area.  In fact the towns here have not been exactly what we were expecting.  We thought they would be more like the towns of northern Morocco, like Chefchaouen.  Maybe they were at one time, but christianisation has changed their character.  The 'palacios', built during the Baroque period are probably more striking today.  Walking around the back streets of Ecija, however, we frequently caught glimpses of cool courtyards, some with trees and fountains, through doors slightly ajar.  Soon they would be shut again and these oasis of calm which we associate with the Islamic traditions of both Egypt, but more particularly Morocco, would be hidden from the narrow, dusty street.  We looked into entrances of other open doors and saw beautiful and elaborate tiling, who knows about the rooms beyond, maybe traditional, maybe replaced with IKEA kitchens.
We had a slight 'disagreement' on the way here, over the SatNav!!  We had already had a couple of scary moments, being told to go up a one-way street, in the wrong direction, and being taken into a line of on-coming traffic.  This morning the road map showed a clearly marked minor road linking Osuna with Ecijar, but we were taken back to a motorway, doing two sides of a triangle to get to our destination.  I have always read the maps and followed the road signs when we are travelling, now I have been replaced by this disembodied voice, which, in my opinion, has no common sense.  The situation is compounded by the fact that the road map we have brought is one which we have had for some time, and is out of date.  This is so unlike John, who used to love his maps so I always left the acquisition of them for travelling to him, and has caused me another rant.  Why, when people get SatNavs, do they discard conventional maps?  I don't think they can be replaced.  However, I have to admit the value of the nasty little beasts in getting you (eventually) to exactly where you want to go.  Finding the Hostal here today without the SatNav would have been a disaster, we'd probably still be trying to get to it, instead we nave booked in, parked the car, had lunch and are now have a rest, out of the burning heat of the afternoon sun.

Doorway to beautiful Palacio in Osuna

The hotel monastery at Osuna

A small street in Estepa

Sunrise over the sea at La Antilla

08 October- Osuna

Sitting on a balcony again.  Last night a modern hotel overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, tonight a restored and converted monastery overlooking the hill-top town of Osuna, sort of southeast of Seville and northwest of Malaga.
We had a lovely day in La Antilla yesterday, a very 'sunday' day, beach in the morning, reading in the sun, a couple of beers in the shade at lunchtime, a late lunch, back to the beach for the late afternoon, then to the hotel for a shower and a quiet evening with a bottle of wine (another rioja) and a game of crib.
Lunch was interesting, we knew not to fall into the 'set menu' trap this time and searched out a tapas bar.  We shared a large dish of 'Gamba Blanca', ?big shrimps.  They were long and pink and shrimp-like, and very tasty.  We had a local speciality of 'Habas con Chocos', an absolutely lovely dish of tiny broad beans with chunks of squid in a thick, almost curried sauce.  The other two things we ordered were OK, but not spectacular, a salad with cheese and potatoes, and some Iberian cured ham in a roll! A mistake on my part, I made a mistake with the word for 'sandwich'.
As we had thought, the situation at La Antilla changed dramatically on Sunday evening, when all the weekenders left.  Luckily we had had a good late lunch as the restaurants didn't open on the Sunday evening.  That meant it was much quieter on our balcony.  The cafe on the corner stayed open for a football match, Barcelona v Real Madrid, I'm not sure who won but the crescendo of noise went up and down, and it was all over before we went to bed at 11.
We talked again about the political and financial situation in Spain, as it is reported in the media in the U.K.  This was a Spanish holiday resort, the restaurants were busy, the hotel was busy.  I suppose that these were the people who could afford to take a weekend break, but mostly they seemed to be pretty ordinary folk with families, no show of wealth. Everyone seemed happy, enjoying the sun, the beach, food and wine. So we are still not sure where the austerity measures are causing distress and anger.
Yesterday we decided to make for Osuna, from the RG it looked like a good base from which to explore some of the towns which had been established in Roman times, developed during the Moorish occupation, then glorified during the Renaissance and in the Baroque Period.  Looking to see what accommodation might be available we got a last minute booking for The Hospederia del Monasterio, should have been 98 Euros and we are paying 65.  It is spectacular, you know you are in a posh hotel when the bath has a jacuzzi and they provide toothbrushes. It is lovely! On top of the hill, overlooking everything, a beautiful room, an outside terrace, running water.....
We did a tour of some of the other towns and villages in the area.  Olives, and olives and olives........Nothing but olives.  So many prosperous looking villages obviously built out of the income from olives. We had heard about 'rural poverty', we didn't see it here.  Back in Osuna and a walk down into the town, the nicest of them all, lots of beautiful buildings with Moo rich facades and extravagantly magnificent Baroque palaces, now either transformed into boutique hotels or derelict, sad in their decaying splendour.
We didn't want to wait until 20.00 for restaurants to open so we got some tapas from a bar which had many similarities to Greek ouzeries 20 years ago, no women. I perched on a stool outside while John went in and got a couple of glasses of wine and four tapas dishes, very tasty ones, and we sat on the stools on the pavement to eat them. It cost 5.20 Euros!!
So, now to bed, it's so quiet.

The beach at Al Antilla on a hot Sunday morning in October

Another gate in the Niebla walled town

The walled town of Niebla

06 October - La Antilla, Costa de La Luz ( close to the Portuguese border)

We picked up the hire car from the airport yesterday morning, a small 4-doored Opel Corsa, quite adequate for our needs.  After a bit of an ordeal getting back past Seville, the Sat-Nav took us by a very tortuous root, we soon covered the distance to our first stop, a Carrefour Supermarket.  We stocked up with wine and beer and some bread, cheese and meat for a snack lunch.  We found the same bottle of the excellent Rioja we had had the night before, we had paid 14 Euros, and it was just over 6 in the supermarket.  There were probably 10 different Riojas to choose from so we took a selection of others as well.  Back in the car we reached the small walled town of Niebla by 13.30.  Unfortunately everything closed down for siesta between 14.00 and 16.00 and there was no accommodation.  It seemed strange that such a historic place, with its Moorish remains and picturesque setting wouldn't have at least a small hostal, but there you go.  So we had to be satisfied with an hour or so wandering around the small town surrounded by its 2 kms of walls and four very nice arched gates.  Actually that was probably enough, had there been any accommodation we would probably have stayed, but as it was we made our way to the motorway and a quick route to bypass Huelva, we didn't fancy another large urban place, and down to the Costa de La Luz, the 'off-the-tourist-trail' (Rough Guide) stretch of beach before you get to the Portuguese border.  We headed for the resort of La Antilla as RG said there were a few nice hostals there.  We found a big sprawling resort, most of the coastline has been developed with villas and apartments, luckily for the most part low-rise.  However, not many people, and the hostals we headed for were shut up, presumably for the winter.  It seemed a nice place though, a typical out of season resort and we saw a hotel complex that didn't look too bad, so we took a look.
We are staying at the Hotel Lepe Mar.  We have a decent sized room, a good sized bathroom, including a full size bath and a bidet, and a small balcony with a sea view.  42 Euros a night, including breakfast, which was enormous and included, fried potatoes, eggs, bacon and sausages and as much good coffee as you can drink.  It's very comfortable with all the facilities you would expect in a modern hotel, and a nice change after our quirky, noisy hostal in Seville.  In fact we booked in for 2 nights and after a lovely relaxing day today, walking on the beach and eating seafood, we have decided to stay for another night and do exactly the same thing tomorrow.
Last night around 20.00 the place changed its character completely, as people just kept on appearing and lots of other people booked into the hotel.  As far as we can tell they all seem to be people who have summer apartments here, or who have just taken a weekend break by the seaside, the temperatures inland are around 31-32C.  We took a long walk along the beach yesterday evening and back along a promenade, we think maybe we caught a snatch of someone speaking German, apart from that we are unaware of any foreigners here.  We seem to be the only non-Spaniards in the hotel.  We discovered last night that all the eating establishments have the same opening hours, 12 noon to 16.00 and 20.00 to 12 midnight.  So it was a late meal for us last night, and by that time people were thronging into the restaurants.  A downside of the hotel is that we are over a restaurant.  The noise levels were still quite high when we went to bed at about 23.00, but it didn't disturb either of us, we were both tired and straight to sleep.  There is an interesting thing about the time zone and hours of daylight here.  We are actually 5°West of Norwich, but a time zone ahead.  That means at the moment it is still light at 20.30, but it isn't fully light until 08.30 in the morning, so everyone tends to get up later.  Unfortunately in Seville the Hostal Pino was in a tiny pedestrianised back street so any service vehicles had to come during the hours of darkness.  The bins got emptied, just below our window at about 04.00, and one morning a load of scaffolding was delivered at about the same time.  It was eerily quiet here at 08.30 this morning, breakfast doesn't start until then.
A walk along the beach in the opposite direction this morning, and we discovered that the high tide line is marked by millions and millions of shells, lots of scallops, oysters, but so many others we have no idea want they are.  We found one larger than John's hand, and we have also collected lots which have been worn down to translucent pieces of mother of pearl.  A lovely collection to take home for the children.
So it has been a lazy 'summer' holiday day, walks on the beach, lying on the beach reading. After such an enormous breakfast we didn't feel like any lunch until 15.00, and that was another surprise.  We chose a restaurant which looked very busy, always a good sign. The waiter showed us a menu board with starters and main courses and we chose a mixed salad each, which came piled up with fresh crisp lettuce, sweet onion rings, slices of juicy beef tomatoes, topped with flaked tuna and hard boiled eggs.  John saw a potatoes and garlic salad on the starter menu, which we had had in Seville as a tapas, so we ordered that as well. It was a mound of cold potato chunks thick with a creamy mayonnaise heavy with garlic and herbs.  We asked for a beer each to drink. We ordered a main course each of cod for me and squid for John.  It wasn't until I was eating mine that I got around to reading the menu board in detail, it was, of course, in Spanish, and realised that the lunch was a set menu, although there were about 10 different starter choices and 10 main course choices, including the two courses + a sweet + bread + a drink, all for 7.50 Euros.  Looking round the other tables we saw that if you choose wine as the drink for two people it was a whole bottle.  We wouldn't drink a bottle of wine at lunchtime and wouldn't have chosen that anyway, but we saw that most people had ordered a bottle of water or lemonade and were drinking diluted wine, and few people actually finished the bottle.  John finished off with a lemon sorbet and I had an ice cream.  We had to pay extra for the potato salad as we had had three starters between us, 3 Euros, so the bill came to 18 Euros.  Neither of is are really hungry, we have eaten a lot in the last few days, it's 20.30 now, so we may just settle down on the balcony, where I am writing this, with a bottle of our rioja and a game of bridge.  The noise levels below are gradually rising as people come out again after leaving the beach, a siesta and shower, for their evening meal. I'm not so tired tonight so maybe I won't get to sleep so easily, more likely we'll join them and pop out for a light tapas about 23.00.
We've had a change of plan, we had intended to head off north next, to Sierra Morena, then on to Cordoba.  Seeing how people have flocked here this weekend we thought it might be a good idea to check out accommodation in Cordoba next weekend, when we would be there with that plan.  We choose to visit Seville before picking the car up as parking is impossible, and evidently it is the same for Cordoba, so we want somewhere where we can arrange for a car-park, which limits our options. Sure enough, accommodation was in short supply and very expensive over the weekend.  So we changed our dates and put mid-week, Tuesday and Wednesday, into the search engine, and not only got availability but also a special 'mid-week deal.  So we have booked that and the plan now is to go east on Monday and stay in one of the small towns renowned for their Moorish architecture, on to Cordoba for Tuesday and Wednesday and then make our way back west towards the Sierra.

The Giralda

Some towers and turrets of the Cathedral

One of the narrow streets in Barrio Santa Cruz

04 October - still on the roof

16.00 and over 30C so taking another break on the roof.
I like Seville, it's not like any other city I have ever been to. This morning we took a boat trip on the river, with a recorded commentary pointing out all the landmarks, interesting and informative.  The walk to the ferry took us past many beautiful buildings, through parks, scrupulously clean, even the leaves which had fallen overnight had been swept into neat little piles ready for the cart to collect them, wide streets closed to all traffic except trams, bikes and horse drawn carriages. There is a sense of light and space here, of freedom of thought and movement.  We asked ourselves yet again, where are the austerity measures, happy confident people.  We must be missing something! Life here can't be this easy.
After the boat trip we made for the district of Barrio Santa Cruz, a film set piece, if ever I saw one.  Narrow, narrow streets winding between tall buildings, flowers spilling out of window boxes several stories up. So, so very clean and tidy, many tourists, shopping, eating, drinking. Maybe this is actually a more profitable time of the year for tourist income, most of the people were older, no families to cater for, more disposable income.  There aren't the numbers but these people might actually spend a bit more money.
We aren't finding it expensive here.  Last night we went to an eating place in El Centro area, we sat outside in a square, and for 17.50 Euros we had a bottle of very nice Rioja and a selection of 4 very tasty and filling tapas dishes with bread.  There were lots of people eating and the majority of them seemed to be Spanish.
At lunchtime today we had tapas again,  this time a selection of seven, with a half litre of beer each, in a very touristy part of Barrio Santa Cruz and the bill was 21 Euros.  It wasn't as nice as last night, there was tinned tuna in the tomato salad and not a lot of fish in the paella, but the other dishes were fresh and tasty.  Tapas are good, you get lots of mixed tastes, small testing samples.  Most eating places seem to offer the same dish at three different prices, tapas size, half portion (starter) size and full portion (main course), very good idea.
I hope this is as hot as we are going to be. Each day so far has got gradually hotter.  We pick the car up tomorrow morning and head off west, initially taking in some smaller villages and then dropping down to the coast on the border with Portugal, in search of good seafood and maybe some Atlantic Ocean swimming.

Looking up the Guadalquivir river from bridge De Isabel 11

03 October - on the rooftop, once more

I have been down from the rooftop, in fact it is 17.30 on Wednesday and I have only just come back up. It's cooler up here, 30C at street level today, and evidently it's going to get hotter towards the end of the week. We should be closer to the coast by then, further west and away from large urban settlements.  Seville is large, sprawling both sides of the Guadalquivir river, but it is not an oppressive city. An admirable amount of it is pedestrianised in and around the area of the old city.  Even though many of the streets are narrow and winding, there is no sense of crowding. It is also a very clean city, yes there is a small amount of litter, but not enough to really cause offense.  The pace of life here also seems laid-back and casual. There are vast numbers of cafes, bars and tapas places, all overspilling out onto the pavement, most of them with people sitting, eating, drinking, all day long and on into the evening and night.
Here in Seville I have no sense that this is a country on the verge of bankruptcy, of severe financial restraints, of people angry with the austerity measure imposed upon them.  The streets are busy with shoppers, clutching large expensive looking bags, coming out of glamourous expensive looking shops.  Some small number maybe tourists, but the majority were speaking Spanish.  There were a few beggars and buskers, but no more than I would expect to see in any U.K. city, Norwich included.
It will be interesting to see what we will find when we move on to the more rural areas, to see how the small farmers and people in smaller towns and villages, away from the tourist trails, have been affected.
We did the three main sights of Seville today.  As the Cathedral didn't open to visitors until 11, we went first to the Alcazar. It was an impossible act to follow. If you only ever see one place in Seville, in my opinion it has to be Alcazar. It the complex of palaces which has been occupied by various Spanish rulers since Roman times. The fortified palace was probably built in the C8, and added to significantly during the reigns of the Moorish Abbadid and Almohad dynasties. Unfortunately a great deal of the original Islamic influenced building and decoration was lost when it was taken over by the Christians in 1248.  However, having seen some of the beautiful buildings in Fez and Marrakesh, sufficient remains to allow us to appreciate how magnificent it was.  It still is breathtakingly awesome, I use that word intentionally. I was honestly overflowing with awe, as we moved from one palace area to another, I was constantly repeating, "this is just unbelievable!". Then there were the gardens, stretching on and round, further and further, trees, bushes, plants, exquisitely landscaped and arranged to show off their best qualities and create an architectural impact all of their own. It was all so beautifully tended, it must cost so much money to maintain.
I reluctantly left the Alcazar, if I lived in Seville I think I would spend many hours, days, just sitting in the gardens, feeling the peace, the reverence.  We went to the Cathedral next, and as you may have guessed, it didn't make anywhere near such an impact on me.  The building is large and impressive but I found it characterless, without impact. I compare this to the reaction I felt when going into both The Blue Mosque and Aghia Sofia in Istanbul.  In both of them there was a sense of 'being', of 'presence'.  I didn't feel any of this in Seville Cathedral.  It was a showcase for an obscene amount of idolatry and wealth. There were so many depictions of 'baby Jesus', with his cherubic face and blond curls, so many saints, suffering in their devotion.  It went on and on, there is possibly enough wealth there to pay off the national debt a couple of times over.
The Giralda, accessible from inside the Cathedral was worth a visit. It was originally the minaret of the mosque which stood where the cathedral now is.  It is a wonderful example of Almohad architecture and was used as a model for the minarets built later in Rabat and Marrakesh.  As well as its use to call people to prayer it was also used as an observatory.  We climbed up very high indeed, and had it have been dark, we might have been very close to the stars.  As it was we had amazing views over the sky-line, and a bird's eye view of the exterior of the Cathedral building, which I found more impressive than the interior.
The Muslim occupants attempted to destroy it before the Christians could take it over, but threatened with death they relinquished it and it was extended to become the bell tower of the existing Cathedral.  This has spoilt the fine lines of the original design, but the bells are impressive.
So, it has been a full day, we have trudged many miles.  We enjoyed some excellent tapas and a good lager beer at lunchtime.  Having rested our weary feet up here on the roof, and now that the sting has gone from the sun we will soon venture out for the evening, maybe more tapas and a nice bottle of Spanish wine.

02 October - a rooftop in the centre of Seville

It's warm, maybe 27C and it's about 10 at night. I can't believe we are in the centre of the old area of Seville, it's quiet.  We are on the rooftop of a 'hostal' John booked on-line. It's old, quaint, quirky, clean and the young woman in the reception desk was lovely.  The journey to Gatwick in our 'new' CRV was fast and seamless, time to spare.  There was an hours delay on the Ryanair flight, but on arrival in Seville transit through the airport was the fastest we have ever known.  It was efficient and effortless, maybe 10 minutes from arrival to exiting the airport, including claiming our hold luggage.  Half an hour in a taxi and we were in an old back street climbing the stairs to the Hostal.  We had anticipated arriving much later so came with a bottle of wine, prepared to just collapse into bed.  We've still decided not to go out tonight, and save our explorations for tomorrow.  So here we are, with our bottle of wine sitting on the roof, in the dark.  Lights seem to be in short supply, we have to throw a switch when we go into our room to turn the electricity on, and up here on the roof there aren't many lights on around us.  BUT it seems that downstairs there is a WiFi connection.  Free!  We don't find this in UK hotels, you have to pay an extortionate amount for internet connection.   We found the same thing in Egypt and Morocco, even the most basic hostels gave us free WiFi.  What's going on in the UK?  Exploitation or what?
So, it's so far so very good. Tomorrow, Seville.....

01 October 2012-at home in Norwich

So, off on our travels again tomorrow. It's a short trip this time, just a couple of snatched weeks in Andalucia. However the more I read, the more convinced I become that it could be the first of many to this part of Southern Spain. It all started on the flight back from Morocco last April, when we were talking about how much we had particularly enjoyed the architecture and culture of Northern Morocco. Before we left we had videoed 'The Lost Kingdoms of Africa' episode which covered the Berber Empire and the spread of Islam into Europe. We watched it again and decided that we would really like to go to 'El Andalus' and take a look for ourselves. October seemed like a good time, and fitted in with other things we are involved in. The recent news about heavy rainfall and floods came as a bit of a surprise, but it does seem to be mainly in the coastal areas of the south-west. Still, we are packing our waterproofs and an umbrella. We started out with an idea that we would 'do' Andalucia in two weeks. However, in our slowly-slowly style our current outline itinerary doesn't take us far outside the province of Sevilla. We fly in and out of Seville and have hired a car. We think we will make a circuit, taking in the Parque Nacional de Donana, Huelva, the coastal area on the way to Portugal, north through the Rio Tinto mining area into the Sierra Morena, east and then south, maybe stopping off in Cordoba, before returning to Seville. Who knows? As with all our trips we are starting with Plan A1, and will probably be on Plan D12c before we get back, however we do only have 2 weeks, so maybe not so many re-assessments this time. We realise that this itinerary means that we won't get to Granada and Alhambra. When we started to read about Alhambra we realised that we would need four or five days there. It's a long weekend, another time, or maybe as part of the next trip...