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.