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Another mosque built by the Muslim Moors which was adapted to Christianity during the Reconquista in 13th century, rather than demolishing it.
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Another mosque built by the Muslim Moors which was adapted to Christianity during the Reconquista in 13th century, rather than demolishing it.
Feeling a bit ‘cultured out’ with all the historic sight seeing we have done: Salamanca, Caceres, Merida, Cordoba and Seville, plus our knees are telling us they’ve had enough walking, a total of 34 miles.
So we left Seville on Saturday and headed to the Atlantic coast, close to the Portuguese border, 70 odd miles south west to one of Europe’s most extensive wetlands, the delta of the River Guadalquivir, Donana National Park (NP), which is the largest roadless region in Western Europe. This, the guide book says, is home to 360 bird species and 37 types of mammal, including the endangered Iberian lynx. You can only walk or cycle through it, unless you take a guided tour in a 4×4.
Unfortunately we hardly saw a dickie bird, but we saw the footprint of a lynx.
And this horny mammal …
The town of El Rocio, where we are staying, has very wide sandy streets, and lies on the edge of a lake where a huge variety of birds live including flamingoes. The town has a ‘Western’ feel to it, with more horseback riders and horse and carts than cars. At Pentecost thousands of pilgrims arrive on foot or horseback from surrounding towns and villages, and El Rocio is woken from its slumber to welcome the tidal wave of pilgrims.
Mazagon, near Huelva, 40 miles from the border of Portugal, is where we are starting our cycling adventure along the coast of Andalucia.
Our aim is to cycle to Mazarron near Cartagena in Murcia on the Mediterranean coast, 80 odd miles south of Alicante, over the next two months.
As the crow flies, it’s about 350 miles; around the coast it’s about 500 miles. However, we will be doing twice this distance in order to return to the camper each night. Also, we intend to do some circular routes inland for variety too, but will skip any coastal routes that are not safe for cycling.
So it will be about 1,000 miles over the next 8 weeks, or 125 miles a week, which should allow plenty of time for relaxing, sightseeing and blogging too. The mileometers are currently 9,500 on Penny’s bike and 704 on Mike’s (he had a new bike last year).
Interestingly, Christopher Columbus set off on his voyages to the New World from Palos de la Frontera near Mazagon in 1492. The beach bar below, Costa Colon, is the Spanish name that he adopted when he emigrated from Italy where he was born Cristoforo Colombo. In Spain he was known as Cristobal Colon; is this the origin of the word colonisation?
Did you know … there are 90 hoardings of a silhouette of a black bull throughout Spain. They are 14 metres in height and are placed 150 metres from the roadside.
We thought it was either an emblem for Spain or for bull fighting, but when we googled it we found it was previously used to advertise Osborne sherry.
When the government banned roadside adverting, Osborne painted the bulls all black to cover up their name, and they became a popular Spanish icon. So the bulls are known as Osborne Bulls, good old Spanish name!
The 150 mile route took us through olive groves, vineyards and almond orchards in blossom, which are a delicate shade of pink and look stunning. The central plain became more mountainous as we entered Andalucia and drove closer to Cordoba. The hillsides of the sierra north of the city are forested with conifers, with patches of terracotta earth showing through the gaps. Storks, kites and buzzard-like birds soar in the deep blue skies. The roads are still very smooth and have hardly any traffic; a dream drive. We didn’t see another motorhome at all along the way.
Cordoba lies 150 miles south east of Merida, and has a population of 350k, something similar to Bristol / Cardiff. We parked up for two nights at the overnight car park for autocaravanas, a large area which can cater for 50 campers, although there’s only a dozen of us here. It’s right in the centre of the city, next to a park, and took us less than 5 minutes to walk to the historic centre.
We ambled along the cobbled streets of the Jewish Quarter which was very quaint, with tiny houses decorated with geraniums and other plants.
The ancient alleyways led us to the Palace of the Christian Kings which played a significant role during the Spanish Inquisition – where torturous policies were made to convert the Jews and Muslims to Christianity 1478–1834. (We’ve read that the reason for so many legs of cured ham being hung inside and outside people’s homes was to prove that they had converted.)
Despite the history of the palace, the mosaics were splendid and the gardens were blissful.
The Mezquita is the main attraction of Cordoba, built in the 9th century as a mosque, and converted to a cathedral in 1236 when Muslim Córdoba was captured by the Christians during the Reconquista. Cordoba was then the biggest city in Europe with a population of 250,000 (London had less than 20,000). No words can describe the splendour of the Mezquita, and the photos hardly do it justice.
We rounded our stay in Cordoba off with a visit to the Andalucian horse stables and stayed for the show of dressage, flamenco dancing and music. Unfortunately no photos were allowed during the show, these were taken before.
From the freezing temperatures at Salamanca, it really warmed up in Caceres, Merida, and Cordoba; during the afternoon it was 20 degrees, and at night 5-10 degrees.
Most people wear masks when outside in towns, in fact everyone wore masks in Salamanca. On Thursday 10 Feb the law is being relaxed so masks will no longer be compulsory outside.
More people smoke cigarettes in Spain than they do in the UK.
Civil amenities appear to be much better than in UK. Buses are cheap, clean, frequent and punctual. There are lots of play parks for children and outside gym equipment for adults.
Very few people are over-weight. Most Spaniards are slim, it is very noticeable when someone is overweight.
There are very few tourists where we have been so far.
The main roads are really smooth.
Spanish people are polite and helpful.
Campsites are cheaper than UK, £15-16 a night compared to £20-30 in UK.
Spanish people are quite loud.
There aren’t many dogs.
Spain is on European time, one hour ahead of UK, Portugal is on UK time, which must be confusing for those who live on the border. Due to Spain’s time zone, in the west of Spain sunrise is about 8am and sunset about 7pm.
Houses and apartments are built right next to historic buildings, eg virtually ON the Circus Maximus in Merida and the Alcazar in Cordoba. The video below is worth a look, Mike added the sound track of Ben Hur.
From Caceres we drove the short distance of 47 miles to Merida, where we are staying in an ‘autocaravana parking’ right in the centre. Rather than a campsite its more a car park with water, electricity and toilet emptying point; there are lots of these on the continent but sadly not in UK. It’s 15 euros for the night, about £12.50.
Merida, population 60k (similar to Canterbury), has many beautifully preserved Roman buildings from BCE, including a theatre that seated several thousand, an amphitheatre used for gladiator fighting that seated 13,000, Temple of Diana, a circus and many many more. There is also a Roman Bridge which spans the river at a length of nearly 800 meters. In addition, the 9th century Alcazar, the Moorish fort is also in good condition.
We woke up to a heavy frost, minus 4 degrees and bright sunshine in Salamanca. As we only had a two hour drive of 125 miles, we set off without breakfast with a view to having brunch when we arrived in Caceres (pronounced Cath-area). As we progressed south we noticed the temps increase degree by degree, so that by the time we arrived we were glad to get our thermals off.
At Camping Caceres we have our own shower and toilet ‘house’ on our pitch which is unique for campsites which usually have a communal block. After brunch al fresco in the sunshine listening to the birds singing, we hopped on the bus and headed for the old town. The buses are punctual, clean and cheap, just £1 each way, and during siesta time they are empty.
Cáceres is a city in western Spain’s Extremadura region with a population of 96k (similar to Bath). The medieval walled city, the Ciudad Monumental, is a Unesco World Heritage Site. Founded by the Romans, it retains evidence of subsequent occupation by many different cultures, a mix of Gothic and Renaissance architecture, with cobbled medieval streets, fortified houses and palaces, encircled by 12th-century Moorish walls, including a watch tower, Torre del Bujaco.
The origins of Cáceres were in prehistoric times, as evidenced by the paintings in the Cueva de Maltravieso. The cave contains hundreds of paintings including the world’s oldest known cave painting which is a red hand stencil older than 67,000 years. This is 20,000 years before the known arrival of Homo Sapiens to Europe and therefore is believed to have been made by Neanderthals. Unfortunately the cave was closed on Mondays when we tried to visit.
Arrived at Santander, near Bilbao, after the smoothest crossing of the Bay of Biscay, we even saw dolphins 🐬
Headed to Salamanca (227 miles) via Valladolid on the A67. The scenery near the coast was alpine-like with plenty of tunnels through the mountains. Our ears were popping as we climbed from sea level to near the ski station of Pico Cordel, just 50 miles inland from the coast. It’s national park area. It’s cold, just 2 degrees, with intermittent rain and sun.
The ascent levelled off on to the plain as we travelled through Palencia, Valladolid and on to Salamanca. The sun shone all the way on the plains ☀️
We settled in to our first campsite of the trip, Camping Reggio, on the outskirts of Salamanca, population 144k (similar to Oxford), then took the bus into the centre. It’s a World Heritage Site with buildings dating back over 8 centuries. There are two cathedrals side by side, the ‘new’ and the ‘old’, though it was hard to work out which was which. The ancient university and cathedrals have intricately carved sandstone facades, as does the perimeter of the Plaza Mayor, one of the largest and most beautiful squares in Europe.
The atmosphere of Salamanca was created mostly by the university students and other young people who were in the plaza, the cafes and along the streets, it was jovial, high spirited and felt safe; a nice place to go to university. Despite the temperature hovering around freezing in the evening, the cafe and bar culture was mostly outside.
We concluded our visit at the Museum of Art Nouveau, a small palace, where there was a large collection of Lalique, a Faberge egg, a Steif teddy bear, a lot of stained glass, glassware, furniture and an exhibition of Toulouse Lautrec.
This is the Life!
Sailing from Portsmouth to Santander in northern Spain with Brittany Ferries. Fabulous new ship called Galicia, lovely 4 bed cabin with en suite shower, delicious breakfast of cereals, croissants, pains aux chocolat, juice and coffee. The staff have that elegant way about them that only the French display, whether receptionist, waiter or cleaner, they all take pride in their work. The weather is unbelievable for the beginning of February, glorious sunshine allowing us to bask on the deck in our hats and coats to admire the navigation through the English Channel and on between the rocks at the tip of Brittany. On the top deck there’s plenty of seating, a bench per person, an outside gym, kids play area, and a bar for the summer months. The Bay of Biscay was like a mill pond. We’re marking this ferry crossing 10/10 with a gold star for effort.
As we were delayed for a month, we have had a very leisurely packing up time. Usually we are in headless chicken mode when we are loading up the camper for a big trip, so this calm and stress-less activity is feeling novel. I like it. We are able to spend time with loved ones before we leave. Only hope the stress-free feeling doesn’t mean we will forget things…
Well our departure to Spain is getting closer. The motorhome is packed and ready to roll. There is a weight limit on the vehicle to be observed so everything is checked and weighed to keep us legal, both here and abroad, Mike is never far from his clip board and scales!