Sevilla, part dos

As you´ll note from the title, our spanish is improving. Just having a wee break from Granada´s free Tapas (free with every drink bought) to try and catch up. We´re off to Valencia tomorrow, for some serious America´s Cup action. I´m looking forward to it, Joanna seems quite accepting...

But Sevilla. We drove into town and parked in a spot near where we´d parked the previous day. But possibly not so much pedestrian traffic. Which we now know is important. We set off to the Cathedral. Amazing. Still has some of the original mosque (as this was all Moorish country, so when re-conquered they converted the Mezquitas to Cathedrales), including the big tower for calls to prayer, which is now part of the bell tower. Everything had to be bigger and more impressive of course... But the cathedral is seriously amazing. Massive, with tons of chapels all around the side.
Serious gold in places. Fantastic architecture. And great to go up the bell tower. We then went for some lunch - Granada, tapas free; Sevilla, no. Sevilla very expensive. Then we set off for a pension. In theory very expensive like the rest of Sevilla, but we found a small room with no bano (bathroom) or windows for 32€. Lovely other than lack of facilities, so: brilliant. Had to be in by 3 though (these early to bed spanish types!). With that sorted we headed to the Alcazar. A 14th century palace built by King Pedro I. Pedro was apparently called The Cruel by his aristocrats, but got on better with the common people. All very Mudejar style: christian-arabic mix. Carlos V, Holy Roman Emperor did a bit of remodelling work in the 16th century, as you do. Lovely gardens too. The current monarch pops in from time to time and has the upper floors, which we didn´t get to visit for some reason.
So afer a nice ol´ time there we headed back to the car to drive it near the pension before heading out for some grub. And that´s when we found the window smashed, and the laptop missing from its hiding place (and indeed those things hiding it moved elsewhere). Nothing else taken, except for useful wires in laptop bag. So headed to police station. First (very big) station told us to go to another one, and on our way out of there a man on a moped offered to get us our laptop back. Tres dodgy. Kept him talking and once he discovered we weren´t "helped" to park by anyone he wasn´t interested. There was a parking "helper" (beggars who generally point out parking spaces) not a million miles from where we parked though...
Anyway had a bit of a wait at the police station, but eventually got our report in. Nice policemen once again. Made a cardboard window and parked in the a nice secure parking place near our pension. Dinner expensive again. Sevilla may be very pretty, but it doesn´t half cost...

Sevilla, part 1

So we left Tavira, not quite the 9 o´clock get to the internet cafe we planned, more 12 and it had shut for lunch, so we better head to spain... Stopped to post a couple of postcards whilst Portugese stamps still worked (nephews are getting cards from each country), grab some lunch... We hadn´t filled up on fuel as Spanish fuel was so much cheaper. And there´d be a station just across the border right? Nope. Capitalism can´t be quite as strong as in Anglo-saxon countries, although we did pass 2 being built, so maybe it´s starting to be... Got further, tank got lower... no services on map now we look... So had to leave the main road and search for a town. Decided on Gibraleon. We found it, but a lot of the streets weren´t paved... didn´t seem particularly wealthy shall we say... Fuel light´s been on for a bit... So we stopped for our 2nd encounter with Spanish policemen. We´ve had 3 now and the spanish police seem lovely...
No english, but they pointed us in the right direction (basically keep going 500m and you´re there...), and thirsty Clio was happy again.
On we headed. Sevilla wasn´t too far, but as much as we were complaining about the rain in the northwest of Iberia, the sun got too hot, so we had to stop for a bit for food and water. We got to Sevilla, where it was 37C. Toasty. No wind. No left turns either. So when the tourist office was on the wrong side of the road... well we had difficulty. And then it turned out to be shut with sign to go to the main office. So we walked there. Nice man recommended a Pension over the 3 camp grounds. We knew better. The car needed a right old organise (we have too much stuff), and that´d be easier (and cheaper) at a campsite. So after a brief wander (wow, what amazing buildings Sevilla has, where can we get some fluids... mmm, Seville Orange juice...), we headed out of town for Camping Oromana in Alcala de Guidaira, 15k outside Sevilla. It was late by this point, and there weren´t the best signs. Firstly for negotiating the town (which turned out to have impressive ancient walls & buildings on hills entering the town), and then there were none for the campsite. Some would take this as a bad sign, but it was late, and we were determined. A kindly Pharmacist (no english), helped us some way, as did the Hotel Oromana (we knew we were near then). Hmm, campsite felt like something out of Psycho. Bungalows with caved-in roofs, locked toilet blocks that look like they´ve seen better decades... But eventually we found the "new" fairly nice toilet/shower block, and the fact that it was 9.30 and about to go dark and we were miles from anywhere else decided that we should stay. Besides there seemed to be lots of kids running about, so surely we couldn´t be in a horror film, it wasn´t empty enough (although not really any adults beyond the manager...).
So we quickly cooked up dinner, ate, and then slept like babies (nothing can stop us!). In the morning we packed up for our day in Sevilla, and maybe a pension in town wasn´t such a bad idea...

Driving...

Just in a web cafe briefly whilst car window gets fixed. Don´t have camera with me, and indeed this web cafe isn´t as good as the last so no pictures - maybe tonight. We´re off to see Alhambra today, Granada´s main attraction. Looks amazing from the outside. Yesterday Juanvi´s sister and her friend very kindly took us around Granada. Amazing place to walk around and amazing Tapas! You can´t buy a drink without getting food though, which left me very full, and quite thirsty... You can´t turn such yummy food down...
Hopefully I´ll get Sevilla done before I have to go back to the car, but that´s quite a long story, so first some observations, or rather a couple of questions for Juanvi. There are lots of serious bridges unattached to any real roads (maybe a farmer´s track though) over major roads in Spain.. why? I´m sure the farmer couldn´t afford them, so is the government just very kind? And there´s lots of speed camera/radar signs about, but I´m yet to se any speed monitoring device (or cars slowing down) - I´m guessing the signs are just to scare people? or are the cameras just well hidden?
At any rate we were about to leave Portugal in our last update - it was a relief to leave the Portugese drivers. They are very scary. In Spain there´s a lot of horns, but less just plain swerving around you to get where they want, without warning. The driving was still a bit scary a short way over the border but by Sevilla it had calmed down... phew!
But now to see if I can get Sevilla done in 15 minutes... (I don´t think so...)

Tavira

From Porto we headed for the Algarve. We stopped in a town called Santarem, our first place with a big obvious bull-ring. It was initially a very ugly town, but we had a wee search for a cafe (more GCSE french coming in handy... it seems easier when everybody´s on their second language), on our way back to the clio we found a really nice plaza, some places just need a bit of searching out.
As we continued south we got overtaken by a van of Ukrainian surfers, and were in convoy with a van of Austrian surfers. Whilst they proved that we´d come a relatively little way compared to some, it got us wondering: how do they get into it? I´m sure the Black Sea can´t have good surf, and Austria doesn´t have a coastline...
As we crossed the hills into the Algarve the rain cleared and it was sun sun sun...
We settled on Tavira near the Spanish border for our beach part of Portugal. We got there and discovered the campsite was a short ferry ride away from the town and any roads. The town´s coast is protected by islands, with one main one; and the main beach is on the island. The campsite is on the beach, no cars allowed. So we had to have a re-package and work out what we could carry onto the ferry, and we were off to the beach.

So there was much beach lolling about done, and we took a great photo of a chameleon on the dunes ...
There were lots of boobies out for Ben to look at too (no photos though).

We did a very commendable impression of washer women one morning, and not only felt for the women of the Ganges, but determined to wear fewer clothes for longer.
Also, Ben realised his great calculations hadn´t entirely included travel time, so countries / towns need ditching. Morroco´s out, Hungary´s looking precarious, and we´ll visit fewer cities in Spain on our way to Valencia for the 5th America´s Cup race. We´ll just have to come back to places at some point in the future - too much world to see!

Porto...

But back to Porto. A wee while ago. It´s an amazing city, beautiful in its run-downness... If that makes sense. We had a good old wander and can´t understand why the people aren´t all obese given the number of tempting patisseries.
Visited the Calem Port "Cave" or cellar too (on the other side of the river - Gaia seems in a less decaying state than Porto), and learnt lots about port on a quick tour. We didn´t even know white port existed... 3 drunk brits (well, 2 drunk & 1 driver) were on the tour as well - they were in Porto to build a massive tidal electricity project. Apparently it´d been raining for weeks. We were lucky not to be flooded out of our tent in fact. Our "cleverly" chosen spot (chosen for shade from sun, not rain) turned out to be firmer ground that for those around us. It was still pouring when we left. It was a quick pack-up, trying to keep as much dry as possible...

But back to the drink, and the port was another local beverage ticked off the list of The Steve Farrar Drink Challenge. Joanna tried to join in, as the picture show, but only managed a sniff of the port before definitely deciding once and for all port just isn´t gin and tonic!


Later, we added another drink to the list - Vino Verde. Another Portugese drink which is a young green wine ... and here´s the proof!

Clio violated!

Some nasty people in Sevilla have broken into the poor wee Clio, and nicked the laptop. It was well hidden, but the dastardly crooks moved stuff about (cunning devils!) and found it. Didn´t nick anything else; I don´t know what was wrong with our dirty underwear. So a few photos lost (got Porto onwards on the camera still), and there´ll be no picture of the big floral cat outside the Guggenheim on that update, we´ll just cherish that in our memories.
Whilst that was going on, we were busy looking at Sevilla: very pretty. We´ve also made it Granada now, and found a nice campsite, so we´re ready to organise repairs to the window in the morning (Spain is closed on Sundays). There´s currently a cardboard window - I knew we brought gaffer tape and too many boxes for a reason.

At the Beach...

At Tavira in the Algarve, Portugal for a beach break. Just quickly as our free internet time is over already and we´re waiting for them to kick us off...

We´re getting browner, although Joanna looks like she´s been hit as an insect bite under her eye has swollen up...

Porto was great, although very wet, we´ll give more details later. Photos will also be forthcoming.

We´ve decided to ditch Morocco as we don´t have time to do it justice and still make it to the America´s Cup (such hard decisions...).

And please add comments - we love reading them.

Lots more sometime soon. Here tonight, and then heading to Seville.

Vila Real

Somewhat of a diversion on the way (due to some creative map-reading by a sleepy Joanna), but we made it to Portugal. Torrential rain wasn´t really helping either, and it was seriously heavy by the time we had to stop in Vila Real. Not too bad a town and Joanna found a great wee Pensao with a lovely proprietress. We also went out and got (other than wet) a wonderful dinner of roast kid goat. Yummy.

We´ve moved on to Porto - "charmingly dilapidated" as the guidebook correctly puts it, and are exploring it today. Don´t worry Steve, Port will be consumed, as well as Green Wine, the other speciality we´ve discovered.

All good in camp Clio; sorry for the intermitent updates. MikeB has recommended atom feed to let you know when we do get internet access and there´s something new...

Llanes

Another great recommendation by Juanvi. We note he didn´t recommend Torrelavega which was a truly horrendous smelling place we drove by - we were amazed to see eaterie signs; Rotorua had nothing on this place...
But Llanes is really lovely. A little excitment on the way in as we got pulled over by the Guardia Civil, and had all our papers checked. But the Clio passed the test, and we were through! Here we discovered that cider should be poured from a great height and mostly miss the glass ... another local beverage downed, and another photo opportunity missed. More great tapas and a great place to spend a Friday night. There´s a lot to see in the town; historic, modern, beaches and some art work along the harbour ...

Next morning on our quick getaway - embarrassing details will only be given in person - we had to quickly grab supplies; unfortunatley the juice Joanna grabbed turned out to be a carton of Sangria. Not so unhappy for Ben´s drinking challenge (and we have a photo!)

Bilbao

Popped in briefly to take a whirl around the Guggenheim Art Gallery. Pictures of the titanium structure don´t do it justice - it really is something to behold. As was the ginormous flower cat outside ~ photo to follow ... The art works inside however, did need a bit of explanation; when someone talks about the "spirituality of concrete" I smell a rat. Anselm Kiefer also takes his inspiration from stairs ... enough said. We continue our philistine´s tour around Europe apace ...

[other random Bilbao thoughts - pretty ugly city after San Sebastian, although it does have the odd pretty bit... and up to this point we were wondering if there was any parking in Europe; things have improved since]

update...

Oh, I was going to put our actual route in the same table as my exquisitely planned out itinerary. But I´ve realised the reality differs far too much from the plan and needs a whole seperate table, which I´ll organise for next time we have internet access...

San Sebastian

Made it out of Bordeaux and onto the autoroute bound for Spain. Landed in San Sebastian (credit to all the cool places we visit in Spain goes to Juanvi) and found a campsite that also doubled up as a building site = no sleep ins. First day we just popped into town of an early evening and got supplies for our first campsite dinner, and joined the general promenading the locals seemd to be doing. Next day we explored the lovely beaches, the gorgeous old town (Parte Veija) and Monte Urgull, a hill/fort that overlooks the old city. The city was only ever conquered twice, the second time being freed by Anglo-Portugese forces from Napoleon, although they accidentally burnt almost the whole city down in the process. There´s an english cemetry on Monte Urgull for gratefulness (not ironic), and the only street to survive was renamed 31 August St to commemorate the day... There´s a massive Statue of Christ above the fort (and hence the city) as well - we´ll add a photo later.
That evening we went back into the Parte Veija for the Pintxos - local version of tapas that you get at bars. It´s all laid out on the bar looking tasty, and you laregly help yourself. We thought they would keep track of what we ate, so it was a bit of a recall session at the end of the night when they asked what we ate & drank...

On the road

Schedule already out of the window as we decided to enjoy some Bordeaux wine ... in Bordeaux. (sorry no photographic evidence for the steve farrar drink challenge - see comment to previous post)
Can't really say we've been "roughing" it so far - stayed with some chums south of Paris on the first night and met their gorgeous wee baby Ella. Thought we might plough on to Spain for Day Two ... but decided it was best if we stayed another night in France to find out how the GCSE French was holding up - badly.
About to head off - Joanna's driving today ...

Ready to go!

Joanna's got her New Zealand visa! Brilliant. We were thinking we'd have to fly back to pick it up, but it came through in double quick time - go New Zealand Immigration! (yes, we're disorganised as ever)
So we went in and picked up today, all nicely printed in Joanna's passport. And we're ready to go. Or at least we will be once we've finished (& indeed started) packing tonight. Tomorrow we head off for a family weekend, so everything has to be done by then. We head straight to France from there on Monday. We just need to buy a camp stove in the morning (we've a little one, but for this I think we can justify something a bit better for a journey like this).

Oh yes, we sent out an email to friends yesterday for those who want mass emails every 2-4 weeks along the way. But in our recent transferals of email addresses from machine to machine we're pretty sure we've lost an email address or 3 - email us if you want the mass emails and we missed you off the list (sorry). Thanks to those who've already replied.

Righty we better go pack.

Preferred method of transport

Unfortunately we don't get to take this:

One week to go ...

We're into the final stretch of organising ourselves now for our big adventure - which is proving to be the hardest stage. We're staying at Joanna's Mum and Dad's in Ely and generally cluttering up their house with stuff!!

After a quick trip to Middlesbrough and Leeds we were confident that the car would make it to Kazakhstan until disaster struck on the way home! We had to stop on the A1 after steam started billowing out from under the bonnet; after closer inspection it transpired the hose hadn't been attached to the new radiator properly during the car's service. The RAC man sorted it all out and now we're confident that we can make it to at least Turkey.

Farewells in Cambridge (at Strawberry Fair and after) were a lot of fun in gorgeous weather over the weekend - it seemed appropriate to have our last party where we first met all those moons ago ;0)

Here's a picture of Joanna with one of her favourite party guests, the other one didn't sit still long enough to have his picture taken!