Spain, 30thSeptember

Monday, 30th September 2019

We leave Portimao this morning, headed for Seville Spain. I have really enjoyed our time in Portugal. I found it so vibrant, and friendly and in parts of the countryside, a lot like Australia. Our journey today is a 2 and a half hour trip, but we have a stop we are going to make along the way. We plan to go to a Cork tour to see how it all produced. I noticed on the way to Portimao, what I thought was Cork trees, so it will be interesting to learn more about it. I have always liked cork, but never knew how versitile it is. After an hours traveling we arrive at Novacortica, Sao Bras de Alportel, and timed it perfectly, as the tour is about to start. The tour is an hour and a half long, and we learn so very much about the product, and how it is harvested. They can't harvest the bark from the Cork Oak tree for 25 years, and then only after that every 9 years. It is an amazing tree, and when harvesting is happening, the harvesters are not allowed to damage the tree in any way. The tree can live up to 300 years old, and because of the way the bark is harvested is how they can continue to keep getting the cork from it. It is a product that is fully sustainable, and yet the tree is not knocked over or cut down for its product. We are told about the difference in Corks for wines and Champaines and why. There is nothing that goes to waste with the cork that is harvested. Not only is Cork a great floor covering, it is also used in building for soundproofing, and can be used for insulation. There was so much informatioin, and in the reception area of ​​the office, where was a lounge covered in Cork fabric. Both Bob and I learnt so very much from this tour,
We continue on our trip, and when we cross the Portugal boarder, we loose an hour. We stop at a road side fuel stop and fill the car, and then ourselves. This part of Spain appears to be very dry, and reminds me of our own country and how dry it is out there.
We arrive in Seville, and after a few wrong turns and corrections we get to our next nights accommodation. Bob is still unwell, and I have done the drive today. Driving in these different cities, the roads are so very different to back home, and when the gps tells your to go left or right, and you look at the street, you wonder if it is even a street. And then sometimes, there are roundabouts, that are not on the gps, and sometimes you have to take the second left or second right, which can be quite confusing. But we muddle through.
Bob is not up to eating tonight, so I wonder down to the resturant, and have a lovely meal, and thankfully one of the wait staff is able to speak some English. Right next to the Resturant, is a stadium, with a running track and some atheletics things, as well as a grassed oval in the middle. It seems that this might be used for some events, as there is a lot of seating. Makes for an interesting view.

Tuesday, 1st October 2019

Wow, can you believe it is October already. Next it will be Christmas before we know it.
After a breakfast in the Hotel resturant, of which Bob particaites in, we head into the City of Seville. Our plan for this moring is to catch the hop on hop off bus, and maybe a cruise on the river. And once again after a couple of wrong turns, with me at the wheel, we get to a car park and set about exploring Seville with what time we have. We go to what we think is a shopping mall, but everything is shut. We are too early, as most shops don't open until 10am. But we do do find one shop open, the tourist information place. We get the tickets for the cruise on the river, and also information and directions for the Hop on Hop off bus. The river cruise doesn't leave until an hours time, and we have a 15 min walk to there it leaves from. We stroll along the riverside, observing the houses on the other side, and looking at the statues, and sculptures that are on our way. There are a multitude of poeple riding bikes or jogging or walking also. When we get close to our destination, we decide to take the Hop on hop off bus tour while we wait for the cruise, and besides the cruise leaves every 30 mins or so. Again we arrive at the right time to catch the bus, and we get onboard and head upstairs. The weather is perfect yet again. The bus tour was good, and there was so much colorful things to see, and many historic buildings. The tour was a couple of hours, and very enjoyable. When we get back to where we started from, we ask which boat is the one we need to be on, and we have fluked it again and arrive just a few minutes before it is due to depart. So we join the line up and board the boat, choosing to sit upstairs again. Looking at the seating onboard, we can assume that there will be no high speeds today, as all the chairs are green plastic ones that are not attached to anything. The cruise is an hour long, and is very relaxing sitting and listening to the audio telling the history of certain buildings and bridges. Seville, has quite some history, ranging from the Romans, the Arabs, Moorish, Gypsies, to name a few. A good few photos were taken this morning, and as we end our boat cruise, we disembark and make our way back to where the car is parked. We pass the Second oldest bull fighting ring, but do not go in, as we will more than likely come back to have a look at this and a few other buildings in Seville. There are also a couple of horse and carriages doing tours too. How wonderful it would be to go in one of them. as all the chairs are green plastic ones that are not attached to anything. The cruise is an hour long, and is very relaxing sitting and listening to the audio telling the history of certain buildings and bridges. Seville, has quite some history, ranging from the Romans, the Arabs, Moorish, Gypsies, to name a few. A good few photos were taken this morning, and as we end our boat cruise, we disembark and make our way back to where the car is parked. We pass the Second oldest bull fighting ring, but do not go in, as we will more than likely come back to have a look at this and a few other buildings in Seville. There are also a couple of horse and carriages doing tours too. How wonderful it would be to go in one of them. as all the chairs are green plastic ones that are not attached to anything. The cruise is an hour long, and is very relaxing sitting and listening to the audio telling the history of certain buildings and bridges. Seville, has quite some history, ranging from the Romans, the Arabs, Moorish, Gypsies, to name a few. A good few photos were taken this morning, and as we end our boat cruise, we disembark and make our way back to where the car is parked. We pass the Second oldest bull fighting ring, but do not go in, as we will more than likely come back to have a look at this and a few other buildings in Seville. There are also a couple of horse and carriages doing tours too. How wonderful it would be to go in one of them. and is very relaxing sitting and listening to the audio telling the history of certain buildings and bridges. Seville, has quite some history, ranging from the Romans, the Arabs, Moorish, Gypsies, to name a few. A good few photos were taken this morning, and as we end our boat cruise, we disembark and make our way back to where the car is parked. We pass the Second oldest bull fighting ring, but do not go in, as we will more than likely come back to have a look at this and a few other buildings in Seville. There are also a couple of horse and carriages doing tours too. How wonderful it would be to go in one of them. and is very relaxing sitting and listening to the audio telling the history of certain buildings and bridges. Seville, has quite some history, ranging from the Romans, the Arabs, Moorish, Gypsies, to name a few. A good few photos were taken this morning, and as we end our boat cruise, we disembark and make our way back to where the car is parked. We pass the Second oldest bull fighting ring, but do not go in, as we will more than likely come back to have a look at this and a few other buildings in Seville. There are also a couple of horse and carriages doing tours too. How wonderful it would be to go in one of them. we disembark and make our way back to where the car is parked. We pass the Second oldest bull fighting ring, but do not go in, as we will more than likely come back to have a look at this and a few other buildings in Seville. There are also a couple of horse and carriages doing tours too. How wonderful it would be to go in one of them. we disembark and make our way back to where the car is parked. We pass the Second oldest bull fighting ring, but do not go in, as we will more than likely come back to have a look at this and a few other buildings in Seville. There are also a couple of horse and carriages doing tours too. How wonderful it would be to go in one of them.
We have lunch at McDonalds, which is close to where the car park is, then find the car and leave Seville for Arcos De la Frontera. This is a trip of around 1 hour and 20 mins. We cross the country, looking at the vast difference in soil types. and how very dry it is. There is Cotton growing in paddocks, and some that has been harvested. It seems that there is alot of farming happening, as there is much land that has been tilled and plowed, and waiting for a bit of moisture to plant what ever the next crop is that they grow around here.
We are journeying through the country side, and look at what appears to be a castle on top of a hill, and then not 10 mins later we round the hill and a white town appears out of nowhere. The castle was part of the town, but one would never suspect it was there from the other side. We arrive at our next accommodation around 4pm and park the car to find exaclty where it is. We find the residence, and again we are shown around but the hosts grandmother, who does'nt speak or understand any English, and we don't understand much of what she is telling us. But we nod our heads and smile and hope its at the right times. This is to be our home for the next 30 days.
The town is built in and around hills and once again is very white. We take only essentials inside for the moment, and then settle in and explore what is about this unit. Bob is still not a 100% tonight, so it is a scratch dinner for us, which is good. I get to use up some of the last of the vegetables that we have.
  
Wednseday, 2nd October 2019

Today, is a quite day. We just chill out for part of the morning, and go for a walk about to see what is in our immediate vicinity. We walk up to a hill, which has a Cementary on it. We walk past it, as most of the cementaries over here are closed up and have high concrete walls around them. We have a look at what surrounds us, and see the city and it beauty of the old and the new blending in together. The stark white of all the buildings embedded against the landscape. Arcos de la Frontera is built in a valley as well as the hillside. It is very interesting to view. We find a small grocery shop near to us and get  a few things, and also finding a bar/resturant  that is handy to us aswell. We come back to the Bar and have a quite drink and a meal, although dephicering what is on the menu is a bit tricky, but we get something that feeds us.  


Thursday, 3rd October 2019

Quiet day today, In the afternoon we went and found a shopping area to get some food supplies, and found a couple of other little shops that were about. Driving about this place is very interesting, as the streets are up and down hills, and with some of the down bits, there is roundabouts at the bottom of them. It is going to be a great place for us to get a little fitter if we walk around the streets here. 

Friday, 4th October 2019

Not much done today, although with these few quiet days we have had, I have managed to complete my tapistry cushion cover that I was working on. Now to send it back to Australia so it can wait for me to get home and complete the rest of it. 
The weather here has been great so far, with clear sunny days. I did some washing today and actually had a clothes line to hang it out on. It was ontop of the building, but it was good to get the clothes out in the sunshine. 
In the afternoon we went for a walk up the street and up another street, which were all up hill, so this was good. The even better part is the coming back down the hill. We did stop however at the local bar near to us and had a quite drink to refresh us.  

Saturday, 5th October 2019

A quiet day today. We explored a bit more around the town on foot. We managed to get a little misplaced as to where the unit was when we were coming back, but it turned out ok, cause we did find it again. Bonus is, we walked a good distance, which is helping us to get fitter what with the up hills and down hills. We walked up the bottom end of the street we are in, and it is a real killer, and Bob mentioned to me, that he wasn't going to walk up this end of the street, but in this case he had no option but to do so. 

Sunday, 6th October 2019

Today we went into Jerez, to venture a look about this place. Jerez is about 30 mins away from Arcos de la Fronteria. Jerez has the Royal Andalusian School of Equistrian Art and I am wanting to go and see a show at some point while we are in the area. We drove about this city, as it has a population of 213000, and like a lot of towns and centres here, they have a lot of history.  It also is a Capital of Motorcycles, so we found out. 
We found a park and walked about heading to a cafe for a bit of lunch. We had just finished eating when this lady with her little dashound came and was about to sit next to us, and she said something, in which i replied to her, and she said, " oh your english", and we comfirmed her statement and then she listened  more to us, and said "your Australian" and we confirmed again. I invited her to sit with us, as it was starting to get a little crowded at the cafe, and we engaged in conversation about the area, and where she was from. She was from Ireland, and had been in Jerez for 18mths, but previously before that she was in Portugal. We learned much about her, but she was able to give us the heads up on some things around here, including where to sit when we go to the Horse show. After some timeshe gave me her email, and suggested that we catch up when we are back in Jerez, and we could have a coffee somewhere. So after that, we headed back to the car, and headed back to our accommodation.