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...