Trekkin

Day 68, 69 & 70 – 15th, 16th & 17th September 2023 – Barcelona, Espana to home

Our ten weeks of holidays are over, we had a wonderful three weeks of cruising, seeing & experiencing the Norwegian fjords, then a few days in beautiful Copenhagen.  Two weeks driving around Iceland & seeing its amazing rugged beauty.  Then bus touring for four weeks, South & North of Spain, Portugal & Gibraltar. Beautiful & so rich in culture & history. We have truly been blessed with good weather, wonderful countries & people. Another wonderful holiday.

Post script.

Our flight home was with Korean Air, a long flight but good customer service, good food & well-presented air crew. We would fly again with them.

Our flight over was with Air France, a long flight, poor customer service, poor food & an old plane. We will not fly again with them.

Day 67 – 14 September 2023 – Barcelona, Espana – day 2

Off to Montserrat today & we head out at 7.45 am in an effort to get ahead of the hordes of tourists our local guide tells us go there every day. The traffic is heavy coming into Barcelona so to start with we are a little held up, but soon we are making good time with traffic in the other direction at a standstill or crawling along.

It doesn’t take long once out of Barcelona to start the climb upwards, the scenery is beautiful with high mountains on both sides & the river cutting through the valley. The road to the top of Montserrat is narrow with lots of sharp bends, being so early there is not much traffic. The views of Montserrat are stunning with the rugged exposed rock formations & many small peaks. We are the first bus in the bus parking area & our driver gets to choose where he wants to park, he chooses the one that is easiest to depart from.

The Benedictine Monastery tucked in under the peaks high up on the mountain was founded in the 11^th Century with the church or Basilica started in the 16^th Century. The first recorded Monastery here was from 880 AD. Over the years there have been numerous buildings added to house the pilgrims that visit the site plus cater for the many tourists that visit every day. This site is still an active Monastery. There is a railway station here that operates a cog rail electric train system from the town at the bottom of the mountain. Additionally there is a funicular that operates two balanced cable cars that run on a very steep track from the Monastery to the very top of Montserrat.

Inside the Basilica we are the second group through the doors, the first group is only 5 people, so we only have a short wait to walk up to the alabaster portal & past mosaics of female saints across to the small room that houses the carved black Madonna with child dating from at least 880 AD. They are protected behind a glass shield with a small cut-out so that the devout can touch the sphere the Madonna holds in her hand for a blessing. Tereza & I touched the sphere as well & made a wish just in case, like everyone else, that miracles happen. This is the reason most visitors come to Montserrat. The artwork, sculptures & carvings are truly magnificent. As we walk away there is a long row of candle mounts for the devout to light candles to assist their prayers being answered, with a man busily cleaning old wax off so that more candles could be mounted & lit. They must do a booming trade in candles.

The main area of the church is simple & elegant, with a large collection of incense burners of all different styles & sizes hanging along both sides. As we leave the church a large line-up of tourists are waiting to go in, it is only 9.30 am. We walk into the nearby gift shop, it is very large, with lots of books on the history of the Monastery plus lots of religious gifts. Next door is a museum with a collection of religious relics from the middle East plus a collection of religious art by famous painters, including Picasso & El Greco.

We enjoy the incredible views of the rugged peaks of Montserrat & marvel at how anybody ever built some of the small brick/stone chapels at seemingly impossible to reach spots on the sides of the mountain. The views down the valley are equally magnificent. There is a constant throng of people walking in from the carpark plus the train has arrived full of more tourists. I am so glad that we got here early.

The bus parking area is overflowing & some buses are parked in, not us though. The drive back down Montserrat gives us spectacular views over the Catalonian region of Spain, the hills are covered in trees & there are houses dotted all over the place. The drive back into Barcelona is very easy, the morning rush has finished.

We are taken on a drive past some of the Barcelona apartment creations by the architect Antonio Gaudi, then once again parking & walking to the Sagrada Familia again. It still looks magnificent & we notice there is some more hessian protection & scaffolding that has been erected since we were here nearly three weeks ago. Our tour guide is the same woman that took us through last time & she remembers Tereza. We enjoy the tour of the Sagrada Familia & afterwards we spend a little more time exploring the construction museum downstairs, it is very interesting with more information about Gaudi & some of his design works. There is also a window into the workshop where 3D models of the new building works are being created in a very large 3D printer. Outside we admire the school house Gaudi built, it is an amazing structure & you can only wonder about the architect’s vision.

Back to the hotel & some free time before our farewell dinner as today is the final day of our tour, we all depart & head our separate ways tomorrow. The farewell dinner is at the Dolca Herminia, the same restaurant where we finished our last tour at. I had the same Spanish sausage, absolutely delicious, & Tereza dared to be different & tried the chicken Spanish style this time, another excellent dish. We had a great chat with our dinner companions & it was a little sad that we would be all together for the last time.  Chad gave a nice farewell speech, we have been lucky to have such a nice caring tour director. Back at the hotel we spent a lot of time chatting & saying our farewells to all the fellow travellers, we have become good friends in a short time, once again Chad can take a lot of the credit for that. Farewell to all these lovely people that we most probably will never meet again.

Day 66 – 13 September 2023 – Barcelona, Espana

Away at 8 am again for a long drive from Valencia to Barcelona along the Mediterranean coast. There are lots of hills close to both sides of the highway that have ruins of watch towers, stone defensive walls or fortresses, or sometimes, all three. Also big churches in most towns & the odd monastery or convent building. The flat land is now mostly full of crops, with riverbeds having more intensive agriculture, such as vegetables.

Around 9.30 am we turn off to Peniscola, another old port town with an intact fortress guarding the town & the harbour. Again this was originally a Roman fortress in the 1^st or 2^nd Century BC, the Arab fortress was built on top of previous fortresses, then the Christians with the Knight Templars rebuilding all of the fortress again in 1307. More rebuilds & renovations until now, with a large church & whitewashed buildings packed inside the walls.

There is a large temporary enclosure built on the beach & when we follow it along we come to a makeshift bullring, there has been bullfighting here recently. We walk along some of the outside wall & a man is fishing with some cord & a large fish bait, don’t know what for. There are masses of people on the beach & in swimming, it is around 25 C & sunny. The town is packed with apartment buildings, some right on the beachfront. Apparently Peniscola is a popular tourist destination for not only Spanish, but other nationalities throughout Europe.

More farms & more mountains with the agriculture getting a little more intensive with grapevines becoming more prevalent than olives. We stop at Sabate I Coca vineyard for a look through the small wine making museum, a talk on making wine & afterwards a tasting. One of the owners is very good at explaining how the vineyard was separate properties owned by his grandparent’s families, his father married the daughter from the other vineyard (his mother) & now they have one large vineyard. It is interesting how they have separated all the 72 grapevine fields into 18 different soil types on the 40 hectares under grapes. They also grow around 5 different types of grapes for the various wines.

The museum is very interesting with all sorts of old wine making tools & apparatus on display. Then he takes us to the winemaking area with lots of stainless steel tanks full of wine, some still actively being processed with stirring the must of the grapes occurring as he is talking. His explanation of the different processes they use for the different wine types is very interesting, especially the sparkling wine they make that is double fermented. Then we walk down 10 metres into the cellars where the wine is stored & matured, some of the bottles are more than 10 years old. The sparkling wine has to be turned a quarter turn every week now & he explains that process, as the bottle is under seven atmospheres of pressure & they have to be careful not to knock the bottle as it will explode. Upstairs again & he takes us through the bottle cleaning, removing the sediment from inside the bottle by freezing, then re-corking, labelling & packaging. All very interesting.

Now for the best part, tasting. Outside under the shade of umbrellas some salami & local cheeses are on plates on the top of old wine barrels with wine glasses. He fills our glasses with sparkling wine & explains the tastes of the wine, then takes around more bottles of different types before finishing with a red wine that is also very good. All the wines we tasted were grown on this farm. As we leave there are tractors on the roads towing trailers either full of grapes or emptied. Grape picking is in full swing in this part of Spain. As we drive towards Barcelona we see a high range of mountains in the distance with sawtooth like peaks, it is called Montserrat (serrated mountain)

It is not far into Barcelona & after we check in to the hotel we are taken by bus up to Parc Guell. We have been there & toured the site on our previous trip, so we let the rest of the group to enjoy the work of Antoni Gaudi & we went for a walk around that part of Barcelona & had a bite to eat whilst enjoying the fantastic hilltop view over Barcelona & out to sea. Afterwards we are driven past the old Barcelona Bullring, now no longer in use as bullfighting has been banned in Barcelona, to the old Olympic port. We walk around the port area enjoying looking at the boats, the ocean, the beach & the sun setting over the city. Plus a gelato. Another great day.

Day 65 – 12 September 2023 – Valencia, Espana

Away at 8.00 am from Granada, the city is still asleep & the sun is just starting to rise. Around an hour on the road to Valencia we pass the area of Spain inhabited by “troglodytes”. These are people that for centuries have lived in caves, often dug by hand into the sides of hills. The caves are visible from the road, many now with houses near them. Chad tells us that these are Gypsies that settled in the area centuries ago.

We pass by more olive groves, wheat fields and citrus groves with the occasional small town. There are small bare mountains in the distance. Some of the larger towns we pass have large churches that stand out, a few towns have a fortification on a nearby high point. Some of the fortresses we wonder how they even managed to build on top of the rocky mountain peak. After a break for morning tea & lunch we arrive in Valencia around 3.00 pm.

Valencia has some smart looking buildings, very modern & stylish architecture. We are puzzled by the first large roundabout though, sculptures of large fish hooks with a water fountain. Our hotel is across the road from the new Museum of Science & Arts water park that has some amazing buildings & landscaping.  After settling into our room we go for a walk to explore. The buildings are extraordinary, real architectural masterpieces in a beautiful water setting. The complex is situated in the old riverbed, the river was diverted to reduce the flooding effect on the heart of the city. There is also an extraordinary covered garden with palm trees growing & tropical parrots in the branches. We could spend all day here, it is an incredible set of buildings.

Next we are off into the old part of the city, more amazing old buildings with beautiful sculptures & the main squares are paved with red marble. Chad stops outside the Cathedral & shouts us a traditional Valencia street drink, Orxata, made from crushing a local nut called a Tiger nut. The drink is ladled out of a chilled container into a paper cup & tasted nice, a little sweet, but refreshing.

There is a nice fountain in the marble paved square behind the church, a man lounging in a tub of water. We explore a lot of the old city, so many old beautiful buildings, so much marble paved streets, & so many people walking the streets. Valencia has a good feel about it. Our group meets up again outside the Cathedral then we walk up near to the old city gate & “la Cigrona Restaurant”.

The la Cigrona is an old restaurant that specialises in traditional Paella dishes & tonight we all sit at one long table, a plate of salad in front of us & are given a demonstration on how to cook Paella the traditional way. The chef has a huge Paella dish & takes us step by step through the process, it is very interesting. He then starts cooking & the secret to the Paella, once the rice is put in, do not stir.

The Paella was dished out to each of us, traditional rabbit & chicken, delicious & too much, plus a generous serve of delicious ice cream all washed down with vino tinto or blanco, then coffee.

We walk out to the old city gate, it has huge doors & is the only part of the old city walls still standing, this gate is huge. We were going to walk back to the hotel along the old river bed, however, a storm was threatening so we decided to take the bus. Good move, we had only just got back & the heavens opened. The couple that chose to walk got absolutely drenched & had to get a cab back to the motel. Another good day, for us.

Day 64 – 11 September 2023 – Granada, Espana

Bags out & breakfast at 8.00 am & watching the sun rise over the Mediterranean then on the bus at 9.00 am for our next adventure off into the mountains.  Our first stop is at a small town called Colmenar & here Chad shouts us a coffee with the local brandy which is a local speciality. Others could have the coffee with Baileys Irish Cream if they wanted. This was a good opportunity to stretch our legs & have a short break. As we walked in the local Police walked out, they had just finished their coffee break. The coffee must be good, or maybe it is the only place in town.

Our next stop is an even smaller town called Alfarnate where we visited the local olive oil co-operative mill & the local guide took us through the complete process from picking to unloading to cleaning to weighing to sampling the olives for chemical analysis of the oil content. Next we moved into the crushing & extraction shed where the olives are crushed & the oil extracted. It is a simple process, however, a process that extracts the most oil from the olive. No part of the olive is wasted in any of this process. The olive oil is stored in large stainless steel vats & bottled then boxed for shipment. After tasting the oil with some bread we each received from Chad a 500ml bottle to take home & try.

Next we drove the short distance to the next small town called Alfarnatejo, full of whitewashed old style houses with narrow clean cobblestone streets. We were shown through an old house furnished as they used to be, it has low ceilings & gives us a great insight into the simple life these farmers led. Then we are broken up into groups of ten & each group was taken to the house of a local woman for a local traditional lunch.

The whitewashed house outside is absolutely beautiful, inside is very modern, neat & tidy. Our host cannot speak a word of English & our Spanish is very poor, however, we got on well & had lots of laughs with our host. We started with a shot of the local brandy, then salad, salami, Jamon ham, cheese & bread, then a large plate of pork meatballs was brought out & a plate of baked potatoes, all delicious. The meal was washed down with either vino blanco or vino tinto. The meal finished with slices of sweet juicy watermelon, all very tasty. A coffee, homemade biscuit & liquor topped it all off, we were all so full it was difficult to walk. It was so lovely to be invited into her home & have her cook a meal for us. It was cuddles all round when we left & a cheerful good bye.

Driving back out of the mountains is very scenic & as we get lower down the olive groves spread as far as the eye can see. A couple of hours further along the road we drive into the city of Granada, the capital of this region of Spain. We drive through the city & up the hill overlooking Granada to the Alhambra, the old Arabic fortress where the Arabs ruled the Iberian peninsula for many years.

The Alhambra was commenced in 1238, building on the top of former Arab & Visigoth structures. The Alhambra was a fortified fully self-contained city containing at least six palaces that overlooked the city of Granada. At the Alhambra’s western end is the Alcazaba fortress, supported by many smaller towers & fortified gates along the walls that surround the Alhambra. This is another UNESCO world heritage site.

Our tickets to enter were booked & paid for months in advance, with all our Passport details also required as there is a limit on the number of people allowed to enter per day of 7,500. It is a long walk from where the bus drops us off to the entrance & along the way we spot a bride waiting to get married in the gardens, she is a Spanish beauty dressed in white. Our first stop is the Spanish Royal Palace that was begun in 1527 but never finished. It is unusual in that it has a rectangular shape on the outside, but the large inner courtyard is circular. We walk through some more gardens then walk inside the first building.

Wow, the Alhambra is amazing, the tiles, the ceilings, columns, geometric patterns, the window arches & doorways, all stunningly beautiful & different. Each part of the building we walk through is another WOW moment, the detail on the walls & ceilings are amazing, the tiles & patterns of tiles are stunning. Our local guide, Alberto, does an excellent job of explaining all the interesting & best parts of the Alhambra, he has been guiding here for more than 40 years. The pool of reflection in the main courtyard is wonderful as is the fountain in the Palace of the Lions, marble lions are holding a large water fountain on their backs with water spurting from their mouths, beautiful. Some of the ceilings have such intricate detail & are stunningly beautiful, they amaze us. One ceiling has a painting of all the rulers of the Alhambra on it, again, beautiful.  Room after room continue to amaze us with the sheer beauty of the designs.  He showed us the Sultan’s quarters, his four wive’s & concubines quarters.

We move outside & get to admire the gardens & the views over Granada. We walk out through the gardens & spot the Spanish bride again, this time with the groom getting photos taken. The gardens & water features are another beautiful feature of the Alhambra, we walk away tired but very pleased we have finally visited this wonderful location.

Thanks to Chad & Antonio while we were enjoying the Alhambra they had our bags already in our rooms when we get to the hotel & we went for a walk down to the river then turn for a walk back into town. The church next to the hotel is beautiful inside & the old town of Granada is ornately beautiful with all of the beautiful old architecture. We call into the Granada Cathedral, it was nice but not stunning inside. Next door there is a science museum so we walk in & have a look, the building has more Islamic doorways, ceilings & artwork, beautiful. The streets of Granada are beautiful to walk in & we take our time enjoying the amazing buildings, the parks, the trees & the atmosphere of the city. Another great day.

Day 63 – 10 September 2023 – Torremolinos, Espana

A late start at 9.00 am for the short drive into Malaga to visit the Castillo de Gibralfaro, a former Arab fortress built on the hill overlooking Malaga & the port. Our local guide took us into the Interpretation Centre, the former Powder Magazine, & explained to us the history of the Romans, the Visigoths, the Arabs & then the Christians. A familiar tale throughout Spain.  Construction of the Arab fortress first started in 787 with additions & improvements over the years by the various Arab rulers. There is a fortified walkway, the Coracha, linking the Gibralfaro with the Alkazabar, a fortified Palace complex lower down the hill.

Our guide takes us out onto the walls of the fortress & explains a little more of the Alkazabar & the town. He points out the Malaga Bullring, the Christian Cathedral, the port & some of the prominent landmarks, such as the Lighthouse. The views up & down the coast are fabulous, our guide says that on a clear day you can see the Pillars of Hercules (the Straights of Gibraltar), not today however.  We walk around some of the battlement walkaways on top of the walls enjoying the views & exploring more of the Gibralfari. There is a large garden area in the middle of the fortress that now has a variety of different plants, including a large eucalyptus.

Back down the narrow road into Malaga & our local guide takes us on a walking tour of old Malaga. Firstly he takes us to a large square with a column commemorating some fallen soldiers. In one corner is a bronze statue sitting on a park bench, Pablo Picasso, the artist who was born in the building close to the park & our guide pointed out the apartment that the Picasso family lived in.  He then goes on to describe some of the life of Picasso, his wives & his children.

Next we walk past a church that has distinctive Arabic influence with the tiles & the shape of the doorway arches. The walkways in old Malaga are paved with marble, astounding. When we walk past the Picasso Museum the line to enter is very long, apparently the museum houses the large private collection of the Picasso family. His legitimate son passed away 2 years after Picasso’s deaf, his legal wife ended up inheriting his painting & she donated them to Piasso’s birth town.

The Malaga Cathedral is very large, however, our guide explains to us that it is unfinished. The Cathedral took hundreds of years to build as the church kept on running out of money to complete the building. It is only in the last 50 odd years that a roof was put over the Cathedral. He points out the empty locations where statues of saints would normally be placed are empty. On the other side of the Cathedral he shows us the rough rock that was left so that another part of the church could be joined on. He points out that the Cathedral only has one tower completed, the base for the second tower is there, however, the spire has not been built. The Bishop’s Palace, on the other hand, looks very smart & complete with a beautiful marble entry façade.

Continuing on, we walk past the narrowest street in Malaga, it is only 80 centimetres wide, this must be the narrowest street we have seen anywhere. A little further on we come to the walls of the Alkazabar, the lower fortress. Our guide then explains that when the Alkazabar was being restored, the team found some unusual stone constructions, so they dug deeper & discovered a buried Roman Theatre from the 1^st Century BC. Malaga was an important Roman city & port. Under a large glass prism in front of the theatre is the excavated display of a fish sauce manufacturing facility from the 4^th century AD where the guts of fish were left to rot in large stone vats before being made into the fish sauce that the Romans considered a delicacy. The city of Malaga is built over the top of the ruins of a Roman city.

We are all invited to a nearby café & Chad shouts us all, a flourish, most of us enjoy a sherry, a local fortified wine & it was very tasty. The guided tour ended here so then we had some time to walk & explore a little ourselves, with the aid of another Gelato to give me some energy.

Back to the hotel & a little relaxation before our dinner tonight. The bus takes us on a very long drive around the streets of Torremolinos to get to a spot that is about a 15 minute walk from our motel. We are dropped off on a street corner & walk through a small shopping area to the ocean front & the Casa Florido Restaurant. This is a seafood restaurant. Our table is at a seafront window looking out at the busy footpath. All through our meal there are lots of people walking past, mainly tourists.

Firstly we are served a salad then a plate of small pipis with lemon, they were very tasty. Next was a sizzling bowl of garlic prawns, delicious, however I ate a piece of cooked chilli that was amazingly hot & I broke out into a sweat, my tongue was burning. Crumbed & deep fried anchovies were followed by deep fried calamari rings. Bite sized battered fish were next. All very tasty & we were all very full.

However, out came the piece-de-la-resistance, a very large pan with salt covered, slow cooked sea bass. The restaurant owner uncovered the mounds of salt from the fish then started to take the fins off the fish & then the skin, she was very good & made a real show of the star of the show. The sea bass was delicious. After all that delicious food ice cream was served. Very enjoyable dinner was washed down with some nice wines.

After dinner most of us walked back with Chad to the motel along the waterfront promenade, the night was beautiful & balmy.  The lights along the shore made for a pretty sight. We chatted with our fellow travellers on the walk back & enjoyed the atmosphere, there were lots of others out walking as well, both locals & tourists. Another great day.

Day 62 – 9 September 2023 – Gibraltar, the rock of and Torremolinos, Espana

Another early start as we drive through the mountainous national park of southern Spain to the Spanish city of Algeciris. The massive rock of Gibraltar looms into view as we near Algeciris, the rock certainly towers above the surrounding landscape. The bus drops us off just inside the Spanish border & there is a massive line of people queued up to cross into Gibraltar. Chad talks to one of the border guards, apparently all these people are British citizens wanting to cross the Spanish border into Gibraltar. We are not British so we are ushered past this massive line-up of people to go through the no-British control – we are the only ones there so we go through Passport control easily. There were a lot of people in the large queue that were not happy & wanted to follow us, but the Spanish guard told them to get back into the line. Apparently, since Britain has left the European Union all these border controls have been put in place.

We meet our local guide Derek & we split into two groups, the 20 seat bus is old & uncomfortable, however, we soon find out why we need a small bus. Firstly we drive under the airport runway, a new tunnel has been built, previously all traffic drove across the runway using traffic lights when planes took off & landed. The streets are very narrow in Gibraltar & even this small bus has challenges making its way along the streets & around the corners. We are taken past all the old walls, gates & battlements that were used to defend the city over centuries of battles. Pouring out of a cliff is a waterfall that we are surprised to see, it is the excess salt water from the de-salination plant that is used to create drinking water for the city.

Europa Point is the southern-most tip of Gibraltar & we get out of the bus for a look around. We are disappointed that we can’t see South Africa today, the sea mist reduces visibility too much. There is an old fortress here with gun emplacements & an old gun still in-situ. A lighthouse provides guidance to the users of the Straights of Gibraltar. Something that looks out of place is a large mosque built here that was funded by the King of Saudi Arabia for the use of the muslims living in Gibraltar. There is also a sporting complex here & a large children’s playground.

Our next stop is Saint Michaels Cave & as we drive up the side of the mountain we get great views over the harbour & all the ships laying at anchor in the bay. Our guide points out a small British naval ship at a berth in the harbour. The road to the cave is very steep & narrow, passing other vehicles is a challenge, it is so close. When we stop at the cave there are some monkeys looking for a feed near the cave entrance. There is a tunnel carved into the rock leading into the cave, this cave is huge, stalactites & stalagmites everywhere. There is a light show running that has constantly changing colours lighting up different parts of the cave. In the first part of the cave the shadows & the light make it appear that an angel is hovering in the cave, an extraordinary effect. We move through the cave up & down stairs until we reach the main chamber, this is a huge area with hundreds of seats so that you can sit & watch the light show while listening to the music. The light & music show is good, though I don’t see how it relates to Saint Michael, I was expecting something in this cave that had more religious undertones. The cave, however, has nothing at all to do with religion, it is only named after a similar cave in Italy.

More monkeys await us as we exit the cave looking for handouts of food. They put on a show for us, very cute. The drive down the mountain is interesting, the views are amazing & we get to have a better view of the fortifications that Gibraltar was built around. The bus drops us at the main square & as we enter we see a group of men in red soldier uniforms forming up. Tomorrow is Gibraltar National Day & they are rehearsing their part in the ceremony. The square is busy with people & a large stage has been set up for the ceremonies tomorrow. There are 4 police lifting & checking manholes for bombs. We see a photo of last year, this place was packed, glad we won’t be here amongst all the crowd. The first restaurant we went to didn’t have the fish & chips that was advertised on their billboard, so we walked around to another, Latinos, plenty of spare tables so we sat down. The service was quick, the food & drink served quickly & the food, Mongolian Lamb skewers plus seared tuna skewers tasted great, we enjoyed the food & a pint of beer.  The price was reasonable, but dearer than Spain.  Back on the little bus, back through passport control on the border, then back onto our big bus for the comfortable ride to our next destination.

Mijas is a beautiful little town perched high in the hills above the Costa del Sol. The road is narrow & steep & when we get into town, we find that some type of festival is occurring. All the buildings are whitewashed & the town looks very clean. We walk through a carnival area that is not operating at the moment, across to a terrace that looks out & over to the sea, the views are stunning. In one corner of the terrace is an old church hollowed out of the rock, the Santuario de la Virgen de la Pena, built in the 17^th century. The church bells start playing as we arrive & step inside. The altar area is a mass of yellow flowers.

Nearby we talk to the owner of a shop & he tells us that there is a festival being held in the main square in town, so we hurry off to find the Plaza Mayor. We walk up past a collection of scrawny donkeys that are lined up to pull carriages around the town. The old bullring comes into view, the Plaza de Toros, then not long after we start to see girls wearing beautiful flamenco dresses & we start to hear the music. It appears that the girls have just finished dancing & are heading away. The music gets louder as we get closer & we find that it is some type of rock band making loud noises. Time to head back to the bus & we walk quickly so that we get back just in time.

Our hotel/resort in Torremolinos is on the beach & our room looks out over the ocean so we walk over onto the beach to have a look. The sand is dark & the water is flat & a bit discoloured so we walk back & up to the rooftop pool at the hotel. The views from up the top are fabulous. That night before dinner Chad invites us all for a pre-dinner drink with some nibbles, we have a sangria & a nice chat before walking into the dining room. We enjoy a smorgasbord dinner at the hotel, the food is good & we eat too much again. The sangrias we have are also very good, followed by the red wine. After eating we stay chatting, drinking & laughing at the table with some of our fellow travellers.  We head off around 10pm to bed. Another great day.

Day 61 – 8 September 2023 – Cordoba, Espana

Away at 8.00 am for a day trip to Cordoba, around 130 kilometres from Seville. The sun is just rising over the Seville airport as we leave the city & the traffic is flowing easily, everyone is going into the city for work. We pass a huge shiny post sticking up, Chad tells us it is the Fuentes de Andalucía power station called Gemasolar & uses molten salt as the energy storage system. The tower is 140 metres high & is surrounded by concentric rings of mirrors that direct sunlight onto the tower. The power system can supply power to 27,500 homes & was completed in 2011. The tower is blindingly bright with all of the concentrated sunlight shining onto the upper reaches of it.

We pass through lots of farmland, mainly olives, plus lots of ploughed fields & freshly harvested wheat fields. It takes around an hour & a half to reach Cordoba & the bus pulls up close to the Roman Bridge. This is called the Roman Bridge, however, that bridge was built in the 1^st Century BC & the current bridge is several reconstructions later, the Moors, the Christians, etc. with the latest reconstruction in 2008. Two thousand years after the first bridge being built on the site, the bridge is now pedestrian only. At either end of the bridge are defensive towers, built during the Middle Ages then reconstructed in the 16^th Century. Slightly downstream is the ruins of another bridge or dam structure, from the waterwheel on one end, I am guessing it was a weir to build a head of water to drive water wheels to grind grain for flour.

The very large building in front of us is the church, formerly the Mezquita. Our local guide points out to us the parts that are still obviously Moorish, including a huge doorway with a horseshoe shape design above the door surrounded by Islamic designs. The Romans were originally building here, then the Visigoths built a church on this site, then the Moors built their first mosque here in 786 that was extended by further Muslim rulers in the ensuing centuries. The Muslims re-purposed the old Roman stone columns & finials to decorate the tops of the columns. Then when the Christians conquered the city in 1236 they used the mosque as a church before modifying the mosque in the 1500s by building a Roman Catholic church inside the mosque.

Inside the mosque/church is amazing, the pink & white striped arches & the rows of columns, all in geometric patterns, is stunning, we have never seen anything like it previously. The Roman Catholic church built inside the mosque is beautiful as well, with all the usual extravagances that are put inside Cathedrals. The choir stalls, the organ, the ceilings, all stunning.

The prayer chapel for the mosque is still there as well, the first time I have seen two different religion sites inside the one building. The Islamist prayer chapel is decorated with Arabic inscriptions & the ceiling looks stunning as well. The mosque is still huge inside, even with the Christian church & chapels inside it. The geometric patterns, arches, straight lines & sheer size of this mosque challenges our senses, it is stunningly beautiful.

Afterwards our local guide takes us a on a walk through the narrow back streets of old Cordoba. Some of these narrow streets are lined with blue flower pots hanging on walls, so pretty. There are small courtyards she takes us into, small shops we walk through, houses we peek into as the doors are open. Everywhere is so clean & well kept, such a beautiful old city. After the tour we wander on our own for a while, exploring & enjoying the sights of a town, culture & lifestyle so different to ours.

The bus trip back to Seville was pleasant, enjoying the farm scenery again plus seeing the giant solar tower with its blinding light. Tonight in Seville we are treated to a Flamenco dance lesson & performance at the Triana Flamenco School & Theatre. Firstly we are introduced to Flamenco & all the facets of the dance. A young lady explains it all to us, she is great, teaching us how to clap, stamp our feet & move our fingers, wrists & arms in the style of Flamenco. It is a lot of laughs as we all show how incompetent & uncoordinated we all are. Afterwards we are treated to nibbles & a drink before being treated to a Flamenco dance performance.

Flamenco dance is exhausting to watch & must be so exhausting to dance, all of the fast feet movement, the hand movement, the twirling & swirling. The woman & man dancing are lathered in sweat, it is glistening on them. The two singers & the guitar player provide a fantastic backdrop to the dance, the performance is amazing and we are all exhausted at the finish. Another great day.

Day 60 – 7 September 2023 – Lisboa (Lisbon), Portugal to Sevilla, Espana

An early start as we have a long drive today, breakfast is delicious as always, then on the bus at 7.30 am.  On the drive we pass lots & lots of cork tree plantations on both sides of the road, stretching as far as the eye can see at times. Some of the trees have had the bark freshly harvested & in one farm we see workers gathering the slabs of cork. The trees are only harvested once every nine years & have a life expectancy of around 250 years. We also pass lots of eucalypt plantations, then as we move into Spain again, the farms change to grape vines or olive trees, with, in some farms, grapes planted between the rows of olive trees. There are lots of farms with large mature olive trees, but the number of farms with newly planted olive trees are staggering, in some places new olive trees stretch from horizon to horizon. We see the odd hilltop monastery & the odd church as we drive past towns, the churches don’t seem to be as prolific as in the northern part of Spain.

Sevilla is a big & beautiful city, we arrive at around 2.30 pm & stop outside the Plaza de toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballeria de Sevilla, in other words, the Seville Bullring. This is a grand white & yellow structure dating from 1761 & still used for bullfighting. In other parts of the country this is banned, not in Seville, though debate is happening around to stop it. Apparently there is very big money involved with bullfighting for a lot of people.

We pass lots of beautiful old big buildings as we drive into town to the Catedral de Sevilla, a large Catholic church with a belltower 105 metres tall, originally a minaret of the mosque that stood on the site dating from the time of the occupation by the Arabic Moors. The original mosque on the site was used for Christian church services after the Christian reconquest of Seville in 1248 & the new Cathedral was commenced in 1433, nearly 200 years later. There are still parts of the Muslim mosque that can be seen in the Cathedral, the most prominent being the belltower. This is yet another UNESCO World Heritage listed site. The Seville Cathedral is the third largest in the world behind St Pauls in Rome & St Pauls in London.  There is again a long line of tourists waiting to enter the Cathedral & we go to the front of the queue with our pre-booked tickets.

Inside the Cathedral the high vaulted ceilings are wonderful, the main altar is huge, with gold & silver glittering everywhere. The amount of money that has been spent on this building & decoration is staggering. The organ & the choir stalls are also amazingly beautiful, with intricate carvings of mahogany wood everywhere. Down at one end of the church is the above ground crypt of Christopher Columbus, supported by the statues of four men. The detail is extraordinary.

The Cathedral also has 80 chapels scattered around inside, most of them elaborately decorated and built by the wealthy that wanted to be buried inside. There are displays of silver & gold chalices, platters & other instruments used in church services. The stained glass windows are also works of art, plus there are lots of original religious art works on the walls.

We are taken on a walk of the old town of Sevilla, down narrow alleys & tiny side streets that twist & turn around the many beautiful old buildings. The atmosphere is good & everything we see is clean & tidy. We walk past a number of old gardens & parks, all well maintained. Then off to our hotel & check in, our bags are already in our room.

Next we are taken to the site of the Plaza de Espana, a very large semi-circular structure that was built for the Iberica-American Exposition of 1929. Outside the building is stunning, inside it takes your breath away, the Plaza de Espana is stunningly beautiful. There is a canal with rowing boats and four elaborately tiled bridges with tiled balustrades. In the centre of the square is a large beautiful fountain. Around the outside of the square are many beautiful tiled alcoves with tiled benches representing the different states and territories of Spain. The staircases to get to & from the upper levels of the building are also beautiful, overall this is a stunningly beautiful building & plaza combination, we are so pleased we got to experience it.

Dinner tonight is another delightful experience, we are dropped off by the bus near the tribute to Christopher Columbus & the waterfront walk where we walk through the streets of Seville once more to the Plaza del Cabildo, an amazingly beautiful & small, semi-circular plaza that has the El Cabildo Restaurante in the building in one corner of the square. We have a delicious 6 course meal, all local Seville specialties & thankfully all small portions, again washed down with liberal amounts of wine followed by coffee & dessert. We were entertained during dinner by a Spanish guitarist playing & singing traditional Spanish songs, Paco was fabulous & we had a really good time. Tom & Mary from our group got up & danced the Macarena with Chad, it was hilarious. The walk back to the bus was beautiful with the lights on a lot of the buildings & at the river the bridges were lit up as well. It was a beautiful sight. The bus trip back to the hotel was great with more singing & laughing, another good day.

Day 59 – 6 September 2023 – Lisboa (Lisbon), Portugal

On the bus at 8.30 am for a local guide tour of Lisboa & we drive down to the River Tagus, the same river that encircles the city of Toledo in Spain that we were at a few days ago & around 400 kilometres away. Lisboa is where the Tagus River empties into the Atlantic Ocean & is a busy port city, a cruise ship is at dock & container ships.

Our first stop is to look at an ancient fortress that stands in the river & was used to guard the city & collect taxes from ships using the port. It is an impressive structure with holes for cannons in the walls & stands surrounded by water. It is the last one left of a number of river forts that stood centuries ago & is called the Torre de Belem (Belem Tower). This tower is a UNESCO World Heritage site built between 1514 & 1519, it was built on a basalt outcrop that was out in the river. The huge earthquake that nearly destroyed Lisbon in 1755 changed the height of the river banks & the river channel so that now the tower is very close to the land.

Nearby is a statue of a seaplane that was the first to fly from Europe to Brazil in South America in the 1920s. A little further along is a monument commemorating the Portuguese seafarers that conducted so many voyages of exploration to the Americas, South Africa, Indonesia, and Japan during the 16^th Century. In front of the monument a tiled map of the world details the countries, cities & years that the Portuguese seafarers visited these remote countries. It is very insightful the distances that these men travelled in such relatively small boats. For example, the Portuguese seafarers visited Japan in 1541 and Timor, a former Portuguese colony, in 1512. For us this is astonishing, a full 250 years before Captain Cook made the voyage to Australia. Our local guide talks us through most of the main characters in the sculptures on both sides of the monument & why they are placed in the order where they are, again, most interesting.

From this vantage point on the river we also get a great view of the long suspension bridge crossing the River Tagus, it looks very similar to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, USA (it was done by the same designer).  As we walk back from the monument we notice that the tiled pavement looks like moving waves. The artist that designed the mural on the square has been very clever in the design, it gives the viewer an optical illusion that the ground has waves, when in fact the ground is level, amazing design & very clever.

Across the road & formerly riverfront before the earthquake is an impressive very long building, it is the former Monastery of Jeronimus, built in the early 1500s & seized by the Government in 1833. It is now a public museum space & a UNESCO World Heritage site. We spent a nice time exploring this beautiful building & its large spaces, the intricate stone carvings are amazingly beautiful & the architecture is stunning. As we moved from area to area it was another WOW moment. This monastery has the buried remains of the royal family from that period plus eminent people, such as the famous Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama.

After we finished the monastery tour, Chad was waiting for us with a box of special Lisbon pastries from the “Pasteis de Belem”, these are the famous custard tarts that Lisbon is renowned for, the Jeronimus “Pasteis de Nata” from a recipe that was invented by the Jeronimus monks. They were delicious.

Afterwards we took a drive to the Portugeuse coast & an area called Cascais, this is the expensive coastal area (the Riverina) of Portugal & is full of luxury homes, luxury hotels & luxury shops. Our local guide does a great job explaining the highlights & the history of the area before we stop in the seaside resort area of Cascais and go for a walk. Tereza & I walk to the waterfront & have a look at the beach & buildings before returning back to the shopping area & stopping at a famous (our guide) gelato store called Santini. The gelato was delicious.

Our next stop is another special place, the Palace of Quelez, a former summer palace of the King of Portugal (also seized by the government). My goodness, this is an impressive building from the outside, but inside it is special, it is stunningly beautiful inside. The chandeliers are glass Murano, extremely ornate & beautiful, there are mirrors on the walls everywhere, the rooms are furnished with original items, all beautiful. Then we see the ballroom, my goodness, it takes our breath away, so large & beautifully decorated, even the ceilings are decorated & have beautiful paintings. We move from room to room, beautiful furniture, beautiful vases, clocks, plates, cups, glassware, all amazingly beautiful. Even the beds are ornately beautiful. Painted tiles on the walls add to the overall charm & character of the building.

Then we move outside, the gardens are amazing. There is a canal for rowing boats along with painted tiled walls & decorations, a tiled bridge, a monumental staircase. The fountains are beautiful as well that blend so well with the manicured garden & the palace backdrop. We are so blessed & privileged to be able to see something that is so beautiful.

Back to Lisboa & we pass more beautiful buildings, gardens & architecture on the way, we also pass one of the vintage streetcars that still circulate around Lisboa. Tonight we are bussed to the river for a ferry ride across the Targus River for dinner at a seafood restaurant close to the ferry terminal on the other side. We watch the sun setting behind the suspension bridge with some sailing boats in the foreground & a departing cruise ship in the background.

The Café do Rio is fully booked by two tour groups, the waiter waits for us with cold beer before entering the restaurant.  We indulge in a seafood feast, delicious seafood, around six different courses with vino tinto (red wine), vino Verde (green wine & very drinkable), soft drink, water & beers to wash it all down. We finish with a very nice port & ice cream for desert.  We can hardly walk out, we are so full. Back on the bus, we drive over the suspension bridge back to the hotel, the merriment continued on the bus, Chad played some of our age vintage songs so the merriment continued with a bus load of laughter & singing.  We fall into bed. A very long, wonderful day with some great memories.