Parador Zafra

... into heaven!!!

We visited the Alcazar, the Palace of the Kings of Spain, and under the Moslems the home of the Ruler's 800 strong harem. It was a fantastic place with wonderful extensive gardens right in the middle of Sevilla, but unfortunately we ran out of time and were ushered out by a whistle blowing security guard.

The next day we moved on to Torremolinos where we had booked a campsite between the railway, main road and airport!

... Portuguese and he wasn't going to learn any more for their convenience. He had originally gone there for the fishing but the lakes had dried up! Happy little soul.

The town had a castle, the only building of interest, but there was no sign of it being open to the public...ever. The campsite was very cheap, but like the rest of life you usually get what you pay for, so we left and headed for the Algarve. No photographs!!

We left Lisboa and travelled through miles and miles of open country in which grew cork and olive trees and lots and lots of vines. We visited Evora which is a World Heritage site. It is a walled city with lots of churches, narrow cobbled lanes and Roman ruins.

As we were becoming used to in Portugal, there are quite a few Chinese Bazaars-selling clothes, household goods,electical goods and the sort of stuff you find in Pound Shops in England. Even in a ...

... the top of them! A steep, 3 km climb and I was cycling through the main street. I found the hostal without much difficulty and noticed a couple of pilgrims sitting outside. The time was 4.15 pm and the door was locked. I was mystified because only the day before they had conmfirmed my booking by email. So thinking they would be along soon I took myself off to a bar that I had spotted earlier and ordered a coffee. I got chatting with a French couple who told me that ...

... drought, I´m afraid! I see from my edit screen that it appears I have made a quick trip to Madrid! This is not so! Some default came into operation the other day, and I don´t know how to delete it! I really am just a little north of Seville. Have you thought about my question, my request, about writing to Kevin Rudd? If not, and if you agree that preventing violence by governments is better than cure, then let me encourage ...

... el agua que nos cae encima, en ningún momento dejamos de lado el buen humor. Me parece que nos va a tocar dormir debajo de la rotonda, le digo a Sébastien. Mochilas al hombro y el cartel con la pregunta un café en Zafra ya guardado en el bolsillo de la guitarra, comenzamos a bajar por uno de los laterales del puente en el que vamos a pasar la noche. Joder!!! tres metros nos separan de las vías del tren pero estamos a cubierto y no nos vamos a mojar ...

... unbelievable. it feels like we are eating better and fancier than when we were at home! Spain has a daily nap time built into its schedule. which means that on arriving into any town between the hours of 12pm and 5pm we are greeted by shut blinds and doors. no one is around except for some little scrappy dogs. this makes lunch time difficult and we have to plan for what has become ghost town lunch times. So we are heading to Portugal now... stay in touch with us!!!

... with our convertible & we then drove into the mountains (scenery beautiful & of course he was flying round corners so I was bit white knuckles) and that night stayed in a Parador in Ronda (if you don't know Paradores are state run luxury hotels built on a the side of a cliff or in a converted monastery etc. really gorgeous, with excellent food incl. unusually 5 course vege lunch) then drove through more mountains via Grazalema to a town called Arcos de la Frontera & stayed in its Parador ...

... new after having a huge earthquake in 1755 that destroyed almost all of the city. We also found out that Lisbon had a previous devastating earthquake @ 1560-something so by my calculations (and no, everyone, I am not a math whiz) they are due for another one! We took in the sights of the Alfama district which is the medieval quarter which was the only neighborhood to survive the earthquake of 1755. We saw the Catelo De Sao Jorge, which is in ruins but still ...

... out to Granada for a day trip to see the Alahambra. We take the first bus out and arrive at @ 9:30 am. Walking up on the line, it did not look too bad until we went in search of the end of the line. We waited in line for about an hour and as we are getting up to the head of the line, they announce there is only 150 more tickets left for the entire day. So, we did indeed get lucky and get tickets to the famed Alahambra but our ...