A cold and bright start to our second day at Monfrague. We kitted out the bikes and set off along a via verde (traffic free cycle route). The via verde starts just a few metres along the main road outside the campsite and follows the Madrd to Badajoz railway line. The via verde itself is most likely constructed on an earlier version of this railway line.

It’s a strange route because despite the length and quality of this off-road cycle track, there isn’t really a notable end point. In fact the start is only marked by a roadside cafe, the only spot for refreshments. The trail just ends; a few kilometers short of La Bazagona although it’s not clear that La Bazagona itself has any shops, cafes or services.

The route has no other facilities, such as picnic benches or toilets. It’s all incredibly unspoilt.

We had cycled for about the first 10 miles of the trail, without realising we hadn’t brought any puncture repair kit or any tools with of any sort with us. We decided that at 10 miles this would be the furthest either of us would want to walk back with a wounded bike! So we turned around at that point.

The countryside is great, but the most notable aspect of the ride was the sheer tranquility of the setting. Not a sound from a car or any agricultural machinery. Just stunning quiet broken only by birdsong, the occasional field of cattle and goats with their bells. Oh, and two trains passed by on the new railway line.

The warm weather stayed with us throughout the afternoon and we ate a BBQ back at the caravan.

We woke up to another damp and dismal day at Camping Monfrague in the middle of the autonomous region of Extremadura. This is a fine name for this mountainous region of Spain and we hope the weather will allow us a little time to explore.

The campsite is next to one of the visitor centres and we pay a visit to obtain some leaflets and details of walks and cycle rides in the area.

Monfrague National park comprises an area in excess of 18,000 hectares stretching along the river Tagus, and surrounded by areas of oak-covered parkland. It provides an important refuge for many rare species of Mediterranean wildlife. Due to its well preserved woodland and scrubland and in the presence of endangered fauna, this is one of the more remarkable nature reserves in Europe.

The park maintains a population of more than 250 Black vulture breeding pairs, the largest breeding colony in the world. There are Spanish Imperial Eagles, Black Storks and Iberian Lynx.

Here are some of the birds living in the park.

During the afternoon we headed off in the car to visit various viewpoints and armed with our binoculars, attempted to identify some of the rich bird-life at Monfrague.

Here is our afternoon in pictures- we had seen a number of Black Vultures and Griffin vultures along with some terrific scenery.

We headed to the campsite bar and restaurant for a few drinks and dinner with a couple from North Yorkshire – my home county.

This would be our final week at Camping La Rosaleda in Conil. The weather has not improved and the forecast shows no signs of improvement whatsoever. Just lots of rain and cool temperatures.

We decided we will head off today. We took down the awning last weekend during a morning of dry and sunny weather and that proved to be a good decision. Not only did it rain later that day but there were very strong winds, in excess of 60 mph.

We hit the bar on Sunday for Ester’s leaving do. She has been a terrific asset to the campsite and its guests and she will be sorely missed. We make a snap decision last night that we will leave today and don’t have the time to say Cheerio to everyone. Just as well perhaps as the number of Covid cases at the site is ticking up.

We have a relatively early start and a 300 mile drive ahead of us to the National Park in Extremadura – Monfrague National park. We are on the road just before 09:00 and have a smooth and quiet journey to Plasencia, arriving at the campsite around 3:45pm

The campsite is somewhat ramshackle and we are told to find ourselves a pitch and no need to advise reception where it is. The pitches are of poor quality, not very level and right now, extremely muddy. We find ourselves a plot on the edge of the site on a sloping but relatively dry pitch.

We manage to forage for some concrete blocks to level the outfit and we settle down to our first night at Camping Monfrague.

The toilet and washing facilities are clean, functional but somewhat brutal with regards to aesthetics!

Following our trip to Sevilla, we had just two days to prepare for the arrival of our friends Duncan and Ruth from England. Despite missing their outbound flight at Stansted – a Wetherspoons overrun (perhaps the most expensive pint ever served in a Wetherspoons!) – they eventually arrived at San Fernando Bahia Sur just a few hours later than expected, although they had abandoned their first stop-over in Sevilla.

That wasn’t the only piece of bad luck – they managed to bring with them some typical British weather and we saw significant amounts of rain (pretty much the first of this trip) throughout the entire week.

There was much juggling of schedules as we abandoned many of the outdoor activities for the week.

This is going to look more like a food and wine tour as we took shelter from the inclement weather.

First there was a hike over the cliffs to El Nautico – the great restaurant at the Port of Conil. We were here a little earlier on our visit, El Nautico, Port of Conil.

Friday we had booked a tour of the Tio Pepe Bodegas in Jerez. A pleasant tour was rounded off with some sherry tasting. The site has an immense amount of history, but it would have been nice to have been able to see more of the actual sherry production.

Bits of the schedule which weren’t abandoned included Sunday lunch at La Fontinilla – this is still probably the best restaurant in Conil.

En-route to La Fontinilla we paid a visit to the micro-brewery in Conil.

A rather soggy tour of Vejer-de-la-frontera culminated in lunch at another fine restaurant – the Moroccan restaurant El Califa. We had booked tables outside in the garden under the pretext that our booking would be cancelled if there was inclement weather. Despite the torrential rain, we were pleasantly surprised to find a table reserved for us in the conservatory.

Finally, no better way than to finish off their trip with a visit on the final night to the campsite restaurant.

We had managed to cover the main attractions in Seville in a busy two days. Day 3 and we would have a lie-in and then a walk along the river and across it to have brunch in Triana.

Whilst walking along the Tirana streets, we noticed just how close we were to the Seville Tower.

This is another controversial building in Seville. At 40 floors high it is the 7th largest office block in Spain and it towers above the old town of Seville. Completed in 2015, Unesco threatened to remove world heritage status from the Seville Cathedral and the Alcazar although in the end, this never happened. D remembered that he thought there was a bar and viewing gallery at the top of the tower.

We decided to see if it was open.

We grabbed a beer at the bar on the 40th floor and just marvelled at the views for what seemed like most of the afternoon. Moe took a great picture of the tower with the sun receding in the background.

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By late afternoon the sun was warming everything up and we wandered along and sat beside the river Guadalete. An early dinner before our travels back to Conil was at La Bartola, a Tapas bar close to the hotel in the Santa Cruz quarter.

La Bartola was an inspired find. It was certainly the best Tapas bar we’ve eaten at in Spain and we sampled lots and lots of dishes and local wines. It’s hard to pick a single highlight from the Tapas food (it was all good) but from the wines, Vino de Naranje – an Orange Wine – was a huge hit. This is a sweet wine and we felt best enjoyed post desert.

Then on to a bar for a swift night cap.

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An early start on Monday morning, breakfast in a local cafe and then a 20 minute walk to Santa Justa railway station. An uneventful journey, but very comfortable journey to Cadiz arrived on time, as did the bus taking us on the final leg to Conil.

We’ve had a brilliant weekend in Seville.

Saturday morning and another chilly but sunny start to Day 2 in Seville. We ate breakfast at a local cafe and then headed to Seville cathedral.

The same tip applies to the Cathedral as to the Alcazar – buy your tickets on-line first but you will need passport details and to show your passport when you arrive at the monument.

We entered the Cathedral around noon with an allocated time of 12:40 to climb the Giralda tower. The church is the third largest in the world behind St Peter’s basilica in Rome and St Paul’s in London. It is reputed to be the largest gothic church in the world.

The church is stunning, the climb to the top of the Giralda Tower hard work but worth it – the views from the top are marvellous. One to look out for would be a “rooftop tour”. We didn’t have time to book one but we could see various groups participating and it looked an interesting idea.

Again, some pictures from our visit to Seville Cathedral.

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Setas de Sevilla (“Mushrooms of Seville”), initially titled Metropol Parasol, is a wooden structure located at La Encarnación square in the old quarter of Seville, Spain. It was designed by the German architect Jürgen Mayer and completed in April 2011. It has dimensions of 150 by 70 metres and an approximate height of 26 metres and claims to be the largest wooden structure in the world. Its appearance, location, delays and cost overruns in construction resulted in much public controversy.

The structure consists of six parasols in the form of giant mushrooms, whose design is inspired by the vaults of the Cathedral of Seville and the ficus trees in the nearby Plaza de Cristo de Burgos.

An elevator takes you to the top floor and a series of walkways meander around the top of the wooden structure.

There is a 12k giant screen experience on the top floor, which is well worth watching.

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We’d spotted a rather nice looking Italian restaurant on our travels around Seville. San Marco’s in Santa Cruz.

This is what the San Marco website says.

San Marco Santa Cruz is a restaurant located in old and preserved Arab baths of the twelfth century. Our cuisine is Mediterranean with Italian character, based on ingredients of proximity to guarantee an inspiring and incomparable flavor.

I can only agree that the setting, atmosphere and food was first rate.

A night cap ended another busy and great day in Seville.

Today we left for Sevilla. We’d opted to take a direct bus from Conil to Seville for the price of around Euros 28 for two people. The journey took two and a half hours and we arrived in Seville just after 4pm. By the end of the journey we had made the decision that our return trip would be via train to Cadiz followed by the 1 hour coach journey to Conil. The Seville bus was just a little bit too un-comfortable in terms of legroom with one or two somewhat unruly passengers not wearing their masks and making a nuisance of themselves.

I think by the end of the trip we had covered most of the main sites of Seville. I make no apologies for using this persons Website as a guide, particularly since the guide was about how to plan your Seville visit over 3 days, which is about the amount of time we had.

3 Days in Seville: The Perfect Seville Itinerary + Map (2022) (thediaryofanomad.com)

The restaurants on his list which we tried were great value and served good food. We didn’t like the look of one of them but all the ones we actually ate in were spot-on.

Our chosen hotel was the 4-star Alfonso Rey X and quite a contrast to our chosen form of transport to this beautiful city. It’s a modern, clean hotel and our room benefitted from patio doors opening onto a small balcony. The only downside was we had requested a double-room and this room was a twin. We stuck with the Twin room because of the balcony and views across the street.

The Hotel is in the Santa Cruz district of Seville, in our view the best place to be. One can while away the evenings walking through the narrow streets and visiting the numerous bars. It’s also maybe at most a 5 minute walk from the Cathedral and Alcazar.

We arrived at the hotel probably about 5pm and promptly headed on up to the Terrace bar to meet our friends from England, D and T. A mighty fine G and T for T set the evening in motion.

We ate at El Pasaje Tapas bar (very good food and atmosphere) in the Santa Cruz district a short walk from the hotel and then wandered around Barrio Santa Cruz (Jewish Quarter) visiting the odd bar or two.

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We started our first full day in Seville with a Migraine issue for Moe, missing out on the morning plan which was a visit to the Plaza d’Espana. We have been before and Joe was a little disappointed not to go on this occasion. Our friends posed a question about the historic monument of the Plaza D’Espana, which was, why did it not get damaged in the first world war. The answer is, it hadn’t yet been build so despite it’s historic significance, it isn’t actually a very old monument.

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When Moe was finally feeling a little better, we walked the short distance to Plaza de Santa Cruz and sat watching the world go by, avoiding the falling oranges! The Cruz de la cerrajeria is a famous, ornate iron cross made in 1692 known as a masterpiece if a 17th-century Seville forge.

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In the afternoon we headed to the Alcazar. Whilst the queues for tickets weren’t insane, we should have bought them on-line first. We tried once we’d arrived but the purchase required passport details and our passports were in the safe back at the hotel.

I can’t really add to what you will find on the Audio guide or with a search on Wikipedia. It’s an awesome place, both internally and lazing around the gardens. The gardens are large and stunning. There are a few pictures below which may or may not reveal the true beauty of the Seville Alcazar.

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In the evening , we ate outside at another fine Tapas bar, Las Teresas.

Week 5 in Conil-de-la-Frontera culminated with Andalusia day. This is celebrated on the 28th February each year and has been so since the referendum on the same day in 1980 when Adalusia became an autonomous community of Spain. The Campsite filled to capacity and the party started on Friday and continued for much of the weekend.

We have entertained ourselves locally with a variety of walks, cycle rides, quiz night, yet more Spanish lessons and meals out in the local area and also at the campsite restaurant. In the next few days we head off to Seville for a long weekend.

We don’t just learn a little bit of basic Spanish at the lessons but we also find out about the local markets and the fresh produce. The picture above (of the filo Tuna parcels) remined me of one lesson learnt by one of the German “students”. She had been persuaded to buy “fresh Tuna” at a local market. Yet in this region, freshly caught Tuna is only available In May and June. Her purchase had been defrosted frozen Tuna sprinkled with a little water…

The salad (top dish) was excellent as usual, with large prawns or Langostinos. We also order Tortillita camberones which is the above dish but with the small shrimp cooked inside the “pancake”. Our waitress recommended we have the same dish but with Langostinos – a good suggestion!

More views from one our walks from El Palmar back to Conil.

We’ve had a lot of Spanish food recently and decided we’d like something a bit different – Pizza maybe – it’s been a while. We searched Conil, looked at the Tripadvisor recommendations but all were closed. We decided to sample the Menu del Dia at Verde y Blanco. A great choice and good value at 12 Euros a head.

The final day of this blog entry, we headed into town with some shopping requirements, followed by Pizza for lunch… Except the Pizza restaurants were closed AGAIN!

We headed to El Pasaje – I think – it’s just opposite the burger place, “The Good Burger”. We ate various Tapas, the highlight being Rosalind’s choice of Dodatitos (possibly) – raw but smoked sardines!

On the way back, a little bit of Geocaching. Found two caches – here’s Moe with the one she located.

PS We haven’t won any more prizes at the weekly Quiz…

We had a morning left in Cadiz before catching the bus back to Conil. We decided we would visit the Cathedral, which is located in the Plaza de la Catedral which houses not on the cathedral itself but also the Baroque Santiago church, built in 1635.

The church was known as “The Cathedral of The Americas” because it was built with money from the trade between Spain and America. The 18th century was a golden age for Cádiz, and the other cathedral that the city had got, Santa Cruz, was very small for this new moment of Cádiz. The new cathedral was built from 1722 to 1838.

As with most of the places of interest we have visited on this trip, the Audio guide is accessed on one’s smartphone. We followed the tour around the church and the crypt underneath.

This is one of the most ornamental Choirs in Andalucia, with a double-set of seats – the upper set having been relocated from a monastery in Sevilla.

This processional and artist piece of “jewelery” is made entirely of silver and stands 5.5m tall. Created in two steps, the eucharistic tower began construction in 1648 and completed on 1664.

The bell tower is 74m high and the ticket to the Cathedral also includes access to the bell tower. The “spiral” staircase is a gentle slope, presumably to allow access via a mule. Stunning views can be had from the top of the tower.

The remainder of the week was spent relaxing around the campsite – reading, more Spanish lessons and of course the weekly Quiz. This week we managed a respectable 5th place after loosing out to a monetary 4th place prize by the tie-breaker question.

Always next week…

We decided that on Day 2 we would catch the boat to el Puerto de Santa Maria. This leaves from the dock area near to where the cruise ships visit and the single price is less than 3 Euros. Today though, only one of the Catamarans was running and the outbound journey was via a bus.

We arrived in el Puerta de Santa Maria late morning – the port know locally just as El Puerto and known by the British as Port Saint Mary – nestled on the banks of the Guadalete river.

In 711, Arab (Moors) from the North of Africa conquered southern Spain. They renamed the town Alcante or Alcanatif which means Port of Salt, due to the old salt industry of Phoenicians and Romans.

In 1260, Alfonso X of Castile conquered the city from the Moors and renamed it Santa María del Puerto. He organized the land distribution and conceded a charter under the Crown of Castile. Having received a royal charter the city was then allowed to use the title “El” prior to the name of the city itself. This is a distinguishing property and even though Madrid is the capital of Spain it has not earned this distinction.

Christopher Columbus’s first expedition to the Americas set sail from El Puerto de Santa María. His pilot, Juan de la Cosa drew his world map (the first including the coast of New World) in El Puerto in 1500.

In the nineteenth century the city became the General Headquarters for the French Army during the Peninsular War under the reign of Joseph Bonaparte (1801–1812). The town is steeped in history, museums and monuments.

Our first stop was the Castillo de San Marcos, a medieval castle. This was erected by King Alfonso X as a fortified church and it was built on the site of a mosque of which the wall of the qibla still survives.

This room is the prayer area of the original muslim mosque, which itself had been built on Roman foundations and utilised the marble columns which are still visible today. The columns are original, but the soft sandstone used to construct them is attacked by humidity so mostly this has been clad is some kind of plaster / mortar render.

On one of the columns, can be seen the original stonework.

Lunch was a recommendation from one of the Spanish ladies at the Castle. “La Liba” was situated along the waterside of the Guadalete river. As often happens, although we only ordered small portions these turned out to be larger than normal Tapas. I guess there’s a lesson not to order it all at once!

We then headed to the Plaza de Toros de El Puerto or, the Port of Santa Maria bullring. Today though was Tuesday, and many places are closed on Tuesdays. The arena is 99m in diameter with the central section measuring 60m and the bullring, one of the largest in Spain, with its capacity of 12,186 was, sadly, closed.

Late afternoon we caught the catamaran back to Cadiz and wandered around the old streets of Cadiz. We enjoyed nice views of the town of Cadiz and the “Constitution of 1812 Bridge” which opened in 2015 and has a total length of 3,092 metres. The bridge links the towns of Cadiz and Puerto Real.