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

Day Trip to Huelva and Surrounding Area

Ryan, Angela, Pepe and I took a day trip to the coast around Huelva province and city. Thanks to Ryan for some of the pictures.

Pepe drove and provided a detailed history of the area. We first took a tour of the town Mazagon, along the beach front and the many places Pepe has lived while in his university years. It is beautiful along the beach with cliffs rising above it. 

For me it was a treat to see the ocean again, it's been a while.

Stopped at the University in Huelva to pick up Pepe’s Electrical Engineering degree diploma.

Then on to the goal of the trip, the Christopher Columbus museum and Wharf of the Caravels where the replica ships are docked in Palos de la Frontera. I last visited it in 2014 with Ivan and Bruce. http://bevbrucelexi.blogspot.com/2014/03/sail-boat-trip-with-ivan-and-raul-and.html 

The totem pole carving in front of the museum

The village where they stocked up before leaving.

Stocked and loaded, I doubt they would have had fresh herbs aboard though.

It's a fascinating place and I still can't believe these replica ships were actually sailed in 1992 prior to the Seville Expo.

Lunch at Meson El Lobito in Moguer at a former stables with a wood fired grill they use to cook on. 

The round bits are the bread, tastes wonderful!

Bread is cooked next to the meat served at the table with fresh clove of garlic and olive oil, this bread goes back to the late 15th century and was used on the voyage to the new world. 

Depiction of the oven they cooked the bread on then in the village.

Moguer was established prior to the city of Huelva and held the seat of power based around the ancient church which still stands there (shown in the link for Moguer). Walking around the charming town Pepe told us of the numerous legends depicted in statues of the town, one of the many was the legend of the furry donkey Platero.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platero_and_I 

Children with the furry donkey statue

Huelva province is strawberry country with kilometres of plastic covered half round tents. Huelva city is very industrial and Pepe spoke at length about the waste products from the chemical mills that are not disposed of in an environmental manner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moguer. This link is information about the Moguer. Next two links are about Huelva. 

https://www.britannica.com/place/Huelva-Spain  

https://ejatlas.org/conflict/huelva-industrial-chemical-complex-spain - posted online 2014 

All in all a very good day with my three amigos.

Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat who stayed home

Happy 2020 New Year!

Feliz año Nuevo, Frohes neues Jahr, Bonne Année for 2020!

Plaza Nueva

I went to Parceria with Angela and Ryan and met Sam, lastly from San Diego but has lived on the east coast of the US also. A lady in her late twenties who has the bug for travel and when she outlined her next two months in Europe we were amazed, and not with envy. She called her travel "efficient", well it is certainly that, at most two days in each city and a wide range of cities in that time. She seems quite independent and not the tour type, does research ahead and has a plan of action, good for her! It was good to go to Parceria again, Cata and Andres are always welcoming and Gil burnt his hand with steam that day, I’m hoping it won’t be too serious, (wasn't) he kept working but by the time we left he was looking pretty pale.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Mar%C3%ADa_Magdalena,_Seville

I went into another church, above link. It is Baroque style with fabulously painted columns and ceiling, showing some wear. They didn’t have a belén but had a lovely Christmas wreath on the Dias. Intention was to visit the Christmas markets at Plaza Nueva, didn’t get there, made a wrong turn somewhere, but the bonus is that even if you are a bit turned around it always presents you with something that you haven’t seen before. This time it was a socks shop, the entire small shop had socks hung from ceiling to floor, unfortunately none of the designs jumped out at me. 

We’ve had a lot of rain this last week and my doors upstairs were leaking again. The wind blows in the rain, Pepe came over and re-hung the big bamboo blinds and tied them down which did the trick. That Spanish sun in the summer really does a number on the finish of the doors and the wood itself. I had them re-done only two years ago and they need doing again.

Carrot salad for Christmas lunch, my first clue should have been when the recipe said “put it in your food processor” doh, all done by hand folks with the usual grating of my thumb at the knuckle. Peeling and grating that many carrots caused for

a warning to everyone to enjoy because they won't be getting it from me again. Oh well, the upshot is that it tasted good and I did it the day before so no panic for the day. I served baked chicken in herbed panko crumbs, mashed potatoes, stirred fried snow peas and asparagus, the carrot salad, bread and butter, Pepe’s mom’s olives, pistachios, honeyed almonds, chocolates, red wine (everyone brought a bottle) and a bottle of cava (Spanish sparkling wine). Dessert was brought by Liz, a German stollen cake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stollen and we had Turrón liqueur (like Bailey’s but we all agreed better, Ryan calls it crack) and coffee.

My guests were Angela, Ryan, Pepe, Pepe’s mom, Liz and Benny. Benny is a new acquaintance to me, he’s a lawyer from California, living here now, his dog is Ottie that Ryan and Angela take care of quite a bit while Benny is traveling. They came about 2:00 pm and left about 9:30 pm, typical timing for a celebratory Spanish lunch. It was a jolly group and I really enjoyed having them here. 

Boxing Day and I prepare to box, made soup from all the left over carrot salad, then another from the veg and chicken and froze them. This is now my third day of cooking and tomorrow I will not be in the kitchen except to make coffee, no complaints though, I enjoy cooking but missing Bruce’s advice usually "more salt", etc.

I made it to the Christmas market, second attempt successful! Realized where I’d gone wrong the first time and now I have another area to visit again. The market is not what I would expect of a “Christmas” market at all, much better in my opinion, or more to my interest. It’s called Feria de Artesanía Creativa de Sevilla, sponsored by the City and the Federatión Artesanal de Sevilla. 

The poster, same image on the brochure and the paper carry bags.

It is an artisan market and the products were beautiful, each in their own way, in 72 different stalls. Products included leatherwork, jewellery, pottery, silk painting, weaving, and a few more but those were the main items on show. This is the 20th anniversary of the craft fair and I was impressed with the quality of product, I am certainly no expert, but have been to many artisan’s studios over the years in Canada. The brochure and signage are professionally done and every purchase was carefully wrapped and put in the logo’d bag. The brochure cites where the booths are located by number and categorizes their speciality, and includes a listing of each booth participant with name and contact information. It was a sunny warm day, I left the house later than usual, after Rocio cleaned, had to kick my ass to get outside, but was well worth it and very glad I did and since it was Sevilliano lunch time there were no crowds which made it easy to enjoy each booth and actually see the product.

Good wishes for the year 2020! Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat

P.S. I want to know why we don’t have flying cars and laser guns (maybe a good thing) and all the things they portrayed in the Sci-Fi movies yet. Those creators were visionaries but slightly off the mark to real creations for today.