Our host left early today and left us with his ‘houseminder’, another ex-Brit from Wales. He has been teaching English language here but has quit recently to do some writing. He was looking for somewhere we will not get disturbed and has found the perfect spot. In return he keeps the house fires burning and the animals fed while the hosts return to the UK for winter.
We had a good conversation with him, asking all the important questions, like are there snakes and scorpions here. He told us that most of the snakes are harmless. He did see a 3 meter snake recently down by the beach in the dunes recently. Evidently quite harmless as they only eat other snakes. But that makes me ask the question, if he is there, he must have the diet to sustain himself, therefore there must be a lot of snakes around! He also told us about the birds of prey. Every type of bird of prey can be seen in this part of Spain. Eagles, buzzards, falcons and even vultures. The Vultures fly over from Africa. If you see a group of three or more birds circling very high, they will be vultures.
We left Tarifa and headed to Seville, via Cardiz. Cardiz is the oldest city in Europe dating back beyond the Phoenician’s who left evidence of their architecture there. Unlike Christopher Columbus, who left here on several of his journeys, and there is no evidence that we could see that he had been here. As you look around the city you get the sense of how old it is. You also get the sense that this was a fantastic city … once, and it could well be a fantastic city again. But for now, it is looking very tired and chronic need of some maintenance. Maintenance that they have suddenly decided needs doing. It makes you wonder why they take 800 years to realize that.
We left Cardiz and headed to Seville through the wasteland dirt that the landscape had become. Actually it wasn’t so much dirt, as just dust. This country really is chronically dry. As we got nearer to Seville, we began to see some cropping in the form of very dry looking cotton fields. But the crops that are most evident in the southern part of Spain are the huge wind farms, and the huge fields dedicated completely to solar panels. Wind and sun are both things that they have plenty of.
We arrived in Seville and after driving around in circles we finally found our accommodation, with some difficulty. Extremely narrow streets (as in tuck both your mirrors in to drive down), one way streets that go around in circles, and then roads blocked off for road works. These places are crazy. Regarding finding our room … well we thought we had. We found out when we got there that they hadn’t kept our room and had given it to someone else. But they did find somewhere else for us nearby.
While Justine was dealing with that, I had found myself a friend. I have always been critical of the beggars that could do something to earn their alms. I found one that does. He dressed himself up a bit, he hangs around the centre of the old city, and he helps visitors find their hotels (for a tip of course). One part of me says that I can find it myself, the other part says, good on him for creating a business for himself doing something useful.
However we were to find that finding the hostel/hotel is one thing, finding parking is another matter altogether. We were told of a certain road that was safe to park in, that was free, well lit, and there would be plenty of parking at this time of night. Wrong. That street was lined on both sides for several kms with barriers as they were preparing to do road works. We spent two hours driving around in circles looking for somewhere reasonably safe to park and finally ended up in a parking building for 18 euro per day.
We had a good conversation with him, asking all the important questions, like are there snakes and scorpions here. He told us that most of the snakes are harmless. He did see a 3 meter snake recently down by the beach in the dunes recently. Evidently quite harmless as they only eat other snakes. But that makes me ask the question, if he is there, he must have the diet to sustain himself, therefore there must be a lot of snakes around! He also told us about the birds of prey. Every type of bird of prey can be seen in this part of Spain. Eagles, buzzards, falcons and even vultures. The Vultures fly over from Africa. If you see a group of three or more birds circling very high, they will be vultures.
We left Tarifa and headed to Seville, via Cardiz. Cardiz is the oldest city in Europe dating back beyond the Phoenician’s who left evidence of their architecture there. Unlike Christopher Columbus, who left here on several of his journeys, and there is no evidence that we could see that he had been here. As you look around the city you get the sense of how old it is. You also get the sense that this was a fantastic city … once, and it could well be a fantastic city again. But for now, it is looking very tired and chronic need of some maintenance. Maintenance that they have suddenly decided needs doing. It makes you wonder why they take 800 years to realize that.
We left Cardiz and headed to Seville through the wasteland dirt that the landscape had become. Actually it wasn’t so much dirt, as just dust. This country really is chronically dry. As we got nearer to Seville, we began to see some cropping in the form of very dry looking cotton fields. But the crops that are most evident in the southern part of Spain are the huge wind farms, and the huge fields dedicated completely to solar panels. Wind and sun are both things that they have plenty of.
We arrived in Seville and after driving around in circles we finally found our accommodation, with some difficulty. Extremely narrow streets (as in tuck both your mirrors in to drive down), one way streets that go around in circles, and then roads blocked off for road works. These places are crazy. Regarding finding our room … well we thought we had. We found out when we got there that they hadn’t kept our room and had given it to someone else. But they did find somewhere else for us nearby.
While Justine was dealing with that, I had found myself a friend. I have always been critical of the beggars that could do something to earn their alms. I found one that does. He dressed himself up a bit, he hangs around the centre of the old city, and he helps visitors find their hotels (for a tip of course). One part of me says that I can find it myself, the other part says, good on him for creating a business for himself doing something useful.
However we were to find that finding the hostel/hotel is one thing, finding parking is another matter altogether. We were told of a certain road that was safe to park in, that was free, well lit, and there would be plenty of parking at this time of night. Wrong. That street was lined on both sides for several kms with barriers as they were preparing to do road works. We spent two hours driving around in circles looking for somewhere reasonably safe to park and finally ended up in a parking building for 18 euro per day.
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