That’s right, dinosaurs. Well, maybe 100 million years ago, but they did leave some footprints in the granite wall on the way to the beach. Pretty cool. The wall is vertical, so I’m guessing some weird geological events happened way back. You know, volcanoes blowing up, freaked out dinos wondering why their tootsies are getting toasty, and big rocks being thrust up to make mountains. A grand time to be alive. And speaking of grand….that’s where we were today. Praia Grande, a very nice beach surrounded by high cliffs. Lots of sand, walkers, dogs, surfers, and some smallish waves today. I’ve read though, that the highest recorded surfer waves (like…
Almocageme – Capuchos and the National Forest
The first couple of days in Almocageme we were getting our bearings. There are not a lot of guidelines in the out of the way places and dealing with groceries, buses, and the general day to day is very local. They are not geared to the tourist here. Having said that though, the people have been exceptionally friendly and helpful and a lot of them speak English which wasn’t the case in Spain. Our host, Claudia, went above and beyond to be helpful, from picking us up at the train station in Sintra, to providing endless amounts of information about what to see and where to go. She even took…
Almocageme / Sintra
Sintra was where we were initially going to stay but thank god we didn’t. It’s the main attraction here just north of Lisbon and it’s a very busy place. We are actually in Almocageme, pronounced (Al-mu-sa-jè-mê), and we have been here for the past week and I must say, absolutely delightful. The small village of Almocageme is in the middle of the Sintra National Forest and where we are, up on the hillside, one can see the Atlantic ocean as well as the lush valleys and surrounding forest. More on this in another post. It’s a 20 minute bus ride into the heavily touristed town of Sintra, which we visited…
Tavira
Where is everyone??? Well this is interesting. After complaining about all the tourists, we seem to now be unable to find any? We’ve been here for 2-1/2 days and the weather has been really nice. Sunny and 26 degrees. We arrived in Tavira after about 6 hours travel from Jerez via Seville by train and bus. A bit long but it was broken up with having to go back to Seville to catch a bus as there are no trains into Portugal from southern Spain. There are trains from each side going to the border, but the tracks don’t meet up. At least this is what we are told. …
Cadiz
I was going to title this one ‘Hordiz’, but you probably are getting a little tired of that spiel. Too bad, it’s a cute title. And the tourists here aren’t quite the same as the ones that are trekking thought Spain like us to check out castles and monuments. They are forcibly brought here by big-ass f****g cruise ships! So, a small town; a 4000 – 10,000 strong invading army wearing shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops; and…well, you get the picture. Cadiz, (pronounced CAD-ith) is considered to be, the oldest continuously inhabited city in western Europe and the oldest port city in Europe dating all the way…
Jerez – Part Two
I think I’m done with ‘parts’. . . Boring . So, I am going to start labeling the posts as something different. Right now we are in Tavira, Portugal (more on that later) but I still need to write some things about Jerez, although the weather here is super nice and it’s getting harder to find the motivation to write as opposed to eat, drink, and take in the ocean view. Anyway, this one will be about Horses, one of my favorite subjects, as the people at my ‘ex’ work will tell you. One of the things that one needs to check out in Jerez is the Royal…
Jerez – Part One
So, we’ve been a little slack in the blog department. The last few days were perfect for spending time on the computer, but they were also perfect for NOT doing anything else. It has been a cold, wet, and windy week here in Ronda and Jerez. The temperature is 10 to 12 degrees below normal so instead of 25 it’s 13. And wet. But change that to was. Today, Saturday, is a balmy 20 with brilliant sunshine and endless blue sky. It’s not that we didn’t do anything, but we had to pick our battles between the downpours. It was reminding us of the wet coast but I think…
Ronda – Part Three
Yes, you get a part three. Because we like it here 😊. More pictures and lunch, or dinner, or whatever it’s called here. We went to our hosts’ casa for mid-day meal today, almuerzo, consisting of an egg/potato tart, bread, and paella all washed down with really good local Ronda wine, brandy (which I was told was one of the best in Spain), and some kind of national liqueur which tasted a lot like Jägermeister. All in all, a damn fine meal. The casa, on the outskirts of Ronda, was a nice home, large yard with a swimming pool, a Labrador Retriever, and up until last year,…
Ronda – Part Two
After a couple of days of taking it easy here, we wandered around the city, as in a-round. The weather has cooled off a bit and we’ve had a little rain. We went down into the valley from where we are staying and walked along the base of the plateau through pleasant farmland and pastures. The route took us along some narrow cobblestone streets and over the old Roman bridge where we could look up at the old walled ramparts and the Moorish castle. We made our way over to the gorge spanned by the Puente Nuevo and started the hike up to town. Some great…
Ronda – Part One
Well, it’s just like the google images I originally showed everyone back in Vancouver, awesome scenery. After an easy bus ride here, Ronda is a breath of fresh air. Literally. A magical place and definitely more relaxed than Seville. There are still tourists of course but the numbers are less as most seem to be here on day trips. And it’s definitely worth that trip here from Seville, Malaga, or Jerez, with old mountains, rolling hills, and a beautiful 100+ meter deep ravine, El Tajo, cut out by the Guadalevin river many millennia ago. Ronda sits above the gorge on a plateau overlooking the green valleys below and it…