Santiponce, Part 1 of 2, The Monastery

Our visit this week was to Santiponce which is about a 10 minute drive from Sevilla centre, we took a cab this time, Pepe and his car were not available. We took an Uber back, I’d never been in an Uber before, this was a nicer, cleaner car that made you feel like a friend was driving, no visible signage or meter. 

https://www.andalucia.com/province/sevilla/santiponce/home

We were dropped off at the Montasterio de San Isidoro del Campo - a very, very large former monastery. The chapels were huge and had gold laden alters. The ceilings were beautifully and delicately painted with patterns and images. Everything was big and ornate, beautiful and with no cost to enter I wondered how it was financed. They are also restoring further wings of it, Ryan and Angela said we saw only about half the entire building, driving past it later it certainly looked to be very much more property than what we saw inside.

Now for the pictures from Ryan and Angela, my camera is not producing the same quality, of course that could be just me...

It is difficult to portray in pictures or describe the size of this Monastery and the grandeur of it!

Part 2 next to Itálica 

Santiponce, Part 2 Itálica and lunch

We walked to Itálica from the monastery along tree lined streets with similar but different outdoor decor than Sevilla. Itálica is free to enter for Sevilla residents and EU citizens even if we had paid it was €1.50. My previous visit with Bruce and Ivan http://bevbrucelexi.blogspot.com/2014/03/road-trip-with-our-guide-ivan.html 

We noticed, having visited before, there are more areas not available to look or walk through. Wondered if the site is degenerating by time and the authorities are doing what they can to preserve it.

Tunnels like this run the circumference of the arena

Lunch was at Ventorrillo Canario, one of Ryan and Angela’s favourite places to eat. The grilled food was fabulous accompanied by a special, spicy red pepper sauce. The wait staff were professional and entertaining. The patio was extremely large and restaurant inside had a traditional upmarket decor. 

Another good day out of the city.

Cheers, Bev 

Day trip to Arcos de la Frontera

The orange blossoms are out! In Sevilla also and the scent is wonderful! Ryan even caught the bee and fly enjoying the blossoms.

Our day trip to Arcos de la Frontera, Cadiz province was great! 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcos_de_la_Frontera  

It is a hill side town with steep streets we all agreed that people here had to have good leg muscles! It’s one of the pueblos blancos, white villages you can read more about here. https://www.planetware.com/spain/top-rated-pueblos-blancos-white-villages-of-andalusia-e-zzz-11.htm 

We had a terrible coffee at the Parador but the view from the terrace was fantastic and the Parador's interior was beautiful.The waitress said that part of the terrace had fallen down the cliff years ago, you can see the layers of earth here.

Picasso! 

Walking through town we noticed indentations either side of the windows. 

See the gap between the gate on the window, that's where the "stolen" kisses would happen, romance in the air.

Ryan asked a lady walking by what they were for and why there? She turned into an impromptu tour guide walking fast to other locations in the town, apparently she does this often, sort of an unofficial ambassador! About the indents, long ago young ladies were strictly chaperoned, this was how the potential loves could talk and kiss through the window. We walked over the town and marvelled at the ancient statues and just about everything really, pictures will explain better. 

This ancient church is now privately owned and not accessible to tourists. The parking lot was at the top of the village and we were very lucky to get a spot in it.

Private residence complete with lemon tree and chickens you can't see.

Garden outside the cultural centre

Hand painted items at an artisan shop, Ryan got told off for taking pictures.

Lunch was at the outside patio of a family run restaurant called Bar La Cárcel and portions were very generous. 

Interior of the restaurant

The proprietor explained that he would not serve the mushroom tapa I had ordered because the quality of mushrooms he had was not good enough, wow, how often does that happen? He was a jolly fellow, confident in his food and restaurant which was clean with a mix of modern and traditional decor. 

Now for some silliness, we all stood in this very narrow doorway and it certainly showed our height difference, I could barely reach up, hence my horrible expression.

That was our day in Arcos de la Frontera! Thanks to Pepe for use of his car, Ryan for driving and the photos, Angela for researching all things curious.

Cheers, Bev and the snoozing Lexi Cat

Day Trip to Portugal and Huelva Coastline

Ayamonte Plaza

Beach at Isla Cristina called Playa de Santana

I've been wanting to do more travelling this year, day trips mostly, as have Ryan and Angela, so we hatched a plan to get out of the city or do something different on a weekday. Weekdays chosen because we avoid the weekend crowds in the places we decide to go. Thanks to the kind generosity of Pepe and use of his car when he is unavailable. This week Pepe drove us to Isla Cristina, Monte Gordo in Portugal, and Ayamonte. It was "la de da" again, we went to Portugal for lunch!
The day was sunny and warm and we felt like we'd landed in summer = wonderful! and immediate shedding layers of clothing. Beachcombing was a treat with the plethora of shells. Isla Cristina is a fishing town so there were scads of different kinds of shells to look at.


The coastline was set up for bathers with boardwalk stretching kilometres above the beach, looking at the blue Atlantic ocean.

We had intended to go to the food market there but missed it and after spending quite a bit of time on the beach we were all getting peckish. Stopped at Usisa, a fish processing plant for Pepe to pick up some smoked tuna at www.usisa.com



Access from Spain to Portugal or visa versa is a very long bridge built in 1992 for the world's fair. It crosses the river Guadiana and replaces the ferry that still runs but infrequently.

One of the favourite meals in the Algarve of Portugal is piri piri chicken so Ryan looked on the web for a restaurant that served it. The one he chose did not serve meals on the patio so we drove into Monte Gordo and ended up at the Blue Parrot which advertised piri piri but we found out only for dinner, disappointed!!! The meals we had were good, the waiter was amusing and had only been working there for two weeks and eagerly answered all our questions.

This is a true expat community with, from our eavesdropping, people from Great Britain and Germany, possibly Holland. There was a volleyball game happening on the beach and restaurants stretched along the boardwalk mostly offering drinks and, of course, ice cream. We turtled at a cafe for a while in the shade and people watched.





Now it's getting to be late afternoon (not by Spanish standards though) so we headed back to Spain to Ayamonte another fishing port with a large expat community.



We head to the main square of the town and have another coffee. This square doubles as a great skateboarding park or for kids on any type of wheels. It is surrounded by tiles made in the factory that used to be in Triana.















Thank you Ryan for all the pictures! It was a great, warm, sunshine filled beach day!

In the meantime, my building has been under construction to spruce up and fix the interior atrium.




From my floor looking into the atrium, not a great picture, not a great sight.



Next week they will start with the exterior of the building... oh joy. The only good aspect of this project for me is that I am living on the top floor of the building and did not have to live with the scaffolding outside my doors and windows for the two months this has been happening, just with the dust and noise.

Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat who is closed up in the bedroom while the workers have the door open upstairs.

Day trip to Setenil De las Bodegas and Bye to Paul and Paula

Portrait on the wall at Monolo Leon we all admired.

Paul and Paula are leaving Sevilla for Montpellier, France in a couple of days so I organized a lunch at Monolo Leon’s new location at the Gourmet Experience in El Cortes Engles to say bye for now. We were them, me, Ryan, Angela and Pepe and Marta, Marta was brave to come having run the half marathon that morning, but she was bright, cheerful and had sore legs. We had excellent service and food, as we have had before at the signature location I’ve been to about three times. That is one thing you never know, isn’t it, if the quality stands up in a new location, and it did here. It is slightly higher in price of food to other restaurants but justified in my opinion. Good times and it was good to get the gang together again.

Ryan, Angela and I drove to Setenil De las Bodegas, Cadiz province to see the weird and wonderful houses built into the rocks and caves there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setenil_de_las_Bodegas

It is definitely a unique town, and a true tourist destination, and well why not, it's not something you'll likely see anywhere else! After walking around and taking pictures we lunched at Bar Zamudio, which is at the top and corner of a steep main road so the cars and tour buses come very close to their outdoor patio where we sat. 

Here are some pictures, it was a cloudy day so the quality isn't the best but will give you an idea of what we saw and "awed" about. 

Close up on the very large tomatoes that appeared around town.

We wondered about the foliage hanging down, does it get trimmed? In the stores and restaurants you see the walls and ceilings are rock, part of the caves.

I don't think I would park there! The rocks also drip constantly, walking through this passage was a bit of a wet experience.

From above, the town sits along a river gorge.

Another great day trip to a very unique town in Cadiz province.

Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat who stayed home again