La Posada de Alajar Huelva

... up interspersed with swooping corners.

The land we were crossing was largely dessert like, with lots of cork tree farms and vineyards along the roadway for the whole trip across this area of Portugal and Spain. And storks! They had nests everywhere...tops of trees, hydro poles, buildings. I've never seen so many at one time. Once we got close to Spain, we entered more hilly terrain, which ...

... ride and then cracked two climbs totalling 10 km before settling into a pattern of rolling hills. I thought the rest of the day would be similar but then I found myself entering the Tierra de Barros (which I think roughly translates to land of bumps :-) It was in fact yet another huge flat plain. Gone were the cattle; now we were into vines, olives and wheat crops in red, fertile soil. Rode into the large town of Almendralejo, which was very dusty and busy with ...

... or if not there would at least be a pension or hostal. That 14kms was a nightmare. The day had turned really hot by 1pm, upper thirties I think, and by 4/5pm when we were leaving Aroche it was still as hot, plus, 12 our of the 14kms were up. By the time we arrived in Cortegana it was 6.30 and the rain clouds were forming, there was definitely going to be a storm. Luckily, within 10 mins of arriving we had found a small pension (E40 a room) and were having a cold ...

... bocadillos (sandwiches), and then walked around the town for two hours. Sheep were grazing up in the hills by the ruins, and all around we could see low mountains, fields, and farmland. It gave us an idea of what Spain would have looked like centuries ago, which is much different than Sevilla with all of its modern high rise buildings. After touring the town, we took a 3:45pm tour of the Gruta de las ...

... up for the day. Javier Yolanda and I walked into town and ate Tortilla (a Spanish potato omelet) for lunch before hitting the local Corte Ingles (the Spanish version of Target) for some beauty products for Yolanada. Javier left us half way through the shopping trip to head to a catering job for the evening and Yolanda and I finished shopping and headed home. On the way, I remembered I wanted to buy a sim card so I could have a cell phone, now ...

I am leaving Seville for good in four days so I decided to take a little walking tour and snap some photos of some sites. The following are included: My apartment, it´s the one with the Seville Soccer flag, I have also included various sites along my walk to class everyday. And Plaza Espana. The pictures really don´t do Seville justice but it is the best I got.

... we found that the spanish have found many curious ways to allocate their labor resources. For instance, every single night, they have decided to power wash every street in the entire city. So as we strolled the streets after tapas, main streets and alleyways alike were wet from washing. If you walk long enough, you are sure to come across a man in a bright orange suit enthusiastically blasting away at the streets. Funny thing is, a student we talked to told us he ...

... fountains and mazes of trimmed hedges. We sat on benches in the shade only until we bored of the sight and walked to a bench in the sun where we sat some more. It was one of the most beautiful and tranquil parks I have ever been in. Yesterday we watched the sunset sitting on a wall on the bank of the river; today we sat in a sidewalk cafe with strawberries and tinto. The spanish lifestyle is unique: dinner doesn´t start until 10pm, and the shops can be open and closed at ...

... room ready for the matador in any emergency and the trophies of the not-so-lucky huge bull-heads in the museum. Crossing the river at the Bridge of Triana, we entered most traditional part of Seville, the Barrio de Santa Cruz. This town & formerly district of Moors and Jews, is in the historical center of Seville and walked through narrow shady lanes, in between beautiful buildings with courtyards plenty of flowers, and lined with Orange trees. Traditionally ...

... Southern Spanish country-side scattered with olive groves. In Granada we visited the Cathedral and Capilla Real (http://www.capillarealgranada.com/en/c ont_index.html) that entombs King & Queen Fernando & Isabel and their daughter, Queen Juana & her husband Filipe. 12/29/05 We visited La Alhambra (www.alhambradegranada.org) which dates back to the 1400 when it was originally built by the Muslims. I can't say enough to compliment this site sufficiently, so I urge you to visit the website.