Homeward bound

Our last few days at El Puerto de Santa Maria were quite relaxing. We ambled down to the marina again at Puerto Sherry where there is always a selection of different craft to look at.

The coastal path makes very pleasant walking and you can often meet a friend or two along the way.

Last week end we moved on to a place called El Rocio. An extraordinary village which overlooks a section of the Donana National Park. This is no ordinary place - the thoroughfares are all sand,  the buildings have verandahs with hitching rails to tie up your horse, and of course there are horses, lots of them.

It was just like being in a western movie. We saw young boys riding masterfully, families out riding, and folk in horse drawn carriages. Even saw a single file mule train with 7 mules and a covered wagon (unfortunately we didn't have our cameras that afternoon and we didn't see them the following day, pity as it was quite something).

As always in these places the Church is the main focal point and pilgrims travel from near and far to pay their respects to the "Virgen del Rocio", a tiny wooden image in long bejewelled robes.

Up to a million pilgrims descend on El Rocio every Pentecost. The pilgrims dress in bright Andalucian costume and sing, dance, drink and romance their way to El Rocio arriving on horseback, elaborately covered wagons and by foot. It was a lot quieter when we were there but there was still a fiesta feeling about the place. We even saw a group of young Spanish men on a stag week end - the groom was dressed in traditional Flamenco style (a woman's dress) and they were having a ball. I wonder if they acquired the dress from a shop like this! That was our second photo opportunity missed that afternoon.

We left El Rocio on Monday morning to undertake the long drive to Aranjuez to enjoy a few days of rest and relaxation before making for Bilbao on Saturday and our ferry home.

Our time here in Spain has passed very quickly and we have enjoyed seeing old friends and making new ones.

Once again, thank you all for sharing our travels and we hope you have enjoyed reading about our experiences as we have had experiencing them.

Love to all

Kath and Harry xxx

PS We noticed these in El Rocio - don't think they will replace the horse!

Jerez de la Frontera

An early start for us the day we went to Jerez. We arrived at the station, bought our tickets at the machine, we are getting experts at this now and had time for a coffee before the train arrived. It was only a short hop, 12 minutes but a chance to see some of the surrounding countryside. On arrival at Jerez we were impressed by the facade of the station.

Whenever we arrive in a new town or city we always head for the tourist information office to get a copy of the town map so that we can find our way around but for some reason this proved to be a bit more difficult. We located the tourist office only to find it had "moved" so we then had to start again.  Eventually we found the "moved" tourist office, got a town map and then had difficuty getting away from a very enthusiastic tourist information officer (or maybe she just wanted to practice her English!) At last we were on our way - We decided to start our tour of old Jerez with a visit to the Alcazar, a 12th century fortress. It was very interesting and in the palace's tower we took the opportunity to attend a presentation of the camera obscura which provided a live panorama of Jerez which was something neither of us had seen before and was quite fascinating.

We also undertook the historic walk of the town, this is a picture of the town's Cathedral which was completed in the 18th century.

Wandering around the back streets we could hear flamenco music being played and came across the Centro Andaluz de Flamenco (Andalucian Flamenco Centre). The town was extremely busy despite it being a public holiday. Most of the shops were closed but the bars and restaurants were full and I'm sure come nightfall the place would have been electric.

By late afternoon dark clouds loomed overhead so we decided to head back to the station and return to the van - a wise decision as it turned out, as not long after we got back the heavens opened to a crack of thunder and we had a "little rain".We chose well with our pitch, others were not so lucky and ended up in a mud bath.

We shall potter around here for another week and then we are moving on to a place called El Rocio which appears to look quite interesting. Not too sure when we will be on line again so it may be a couple of weeks before the next blog.

But until then lots of love

Kath and Harry xxx

El Puerto de Santa Maria

Hola!

We have settled in, sussed out the train timetable and are looking forward to some new adventures. Always keen to exercise our legs we ventured along the coast to Puerto Sherry where there is quite a substantial marina with a modern feel about the place in stark contrast to the old town of el Puerto de Santa Maria. These murals at the marina are particularly impressive as too are some of the vessels that are berthed there.

And of course, there are plenty of bars along the way just in case one has to rest awhile and where better than to watch the ferry leaving Cadiz en route to the Canary Islands.

One of the reasons that we have extended our stay in el Puerto is that this week is "Semana Santa" (Holy week) and every day from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday there are large richly bedecked images and life size tableaux from the Easter story which are carried through the streets on huge floats (pasos) to the Cathedral accompanied by large processions. These rites have been going on in their present form since the 17th century when many of the images were created. The processions are organised by different "hermandades" (brotherhoods), usually with 2 pasos (sculptural representations from Christ's passion). The pasos are carried by teams of about 40 bearers called "costaleros" who work in relays as each paso can weigh up to 2 tonne. The pasos move with a hypnotic swaying motion to the rhythm of their accompanying bands and the commands of their bell striking leader.

The following pictures show just how ornate these pasos are and you can just see the feet of the bearers and the headgear that is worn as support.

The pasos have followers (penitents), many of them wear tall Klu Klux Klan like capes which cover their heads (except for eye slits).

As you can imagine, the streets were thronged with people and although a solemn occasion with incense filling the air, there was also a carnival atmosphere lurking beneath the surface. Everyone was dressed in their Sunday best and although we didn't stay until the end we felt that they would be celebrating long into the wee small hours. That was only the first night - this is going on every night all week.

We mentioned in our last blog about the beach close to the camp site and here it is.

Tomorrow we are going to Jerez de la Frontera on the train which is known for it's sherry bodegas, but Jerez is also Andaluca's horse capital and has a large "gitano" (Roma people) community that is one of the hot beds of flamenco.

More of that next week, until then adios!

Lots of love

Harry and Kath

Pastures new

Hello again

There were fond farewells from friends and staff at Calpe and then we were on our way. We had a good drive to Beas de Granada arriving at 1.30pm, then sat outside eating lunch in glorious sunshine with the temp of 24 C, overlooking the snow capped mountains of the Sierra Nevada.

The next morning we were on our way again to El Puerto de Santa Maria, which is situated across the bay from the historical city of Cadiz in the southern tip of Spain. Our camp site is situated on the outskirts of the old town and across the road from a lovely beach looking across the bay to Cadiz. There are plenty of walk ways and cycle tracks close to hand and a large supermarket so we don't go hungry. Our plan is to stay awhile and explore the area.

Cadiz is listed as being possibly the oldest city in Europe and it was here that Chistopher Colombus sailed from on his second and forth voyages to the Americas. Back to history lessons so off we went. We took the ferry (catamaran) across the bay to Cadiz where we spent a very pleasant day. There was so much to see in one day, so rather than rush we decided we would come back for a return visit. For our first visit our first stop was the tourist office to get a map of the city which showed the major points of interest. Our walking tour of the ciy included picturesque gardens, fortified castles, Cadiz Cathedral, lovely buildings with lots of ornate tiles as can be seen in the photo of me sitting on a bench (at the end).

It's still only March but just look at the plants that are available for sale on the market.

It's hard to think that just across from this expanse of water is Africa!

On our return to the ferry we took the opportunity to go on board the Galleon - La Pepa which was berthed not far from our departure point (picture at the end of blog shows Harry playing 'Master and Commander'

Further visits will include a trip to Jerez (part of the Sherry triangle), a return trip to Cadiz and where we are staying in El Puerto de Santa Maria.

So, until next time - Hasta luega

Kath and Harry xxx