Blogs from Arcos de la Frontera, Andalusia, Spain, Europe
nighttime in Arcos
We spent an evening and day wandering around the maze-like streets of Arcos, the streets so narrow between the white buildings in this town perched upon a cliff top that we wondered how cars (and full sized garbage trucks for crying out loud) manage to maneuver safely through them. They were built for horses, not diesels. Many of the cars here have completely mangled side-view mirrors, cracked, scratched, hanging by a thread. There is simply no room for error and if you’re a tourist and end up driving through the old town you’d better just hope to whatever higher power you believe in that that full insurance coverage is going to be enough of a safety net. The streets, especially when the cars aren’t coming down them, are so charming they’re almost surreal. You feel like ... read more
Pots of geraniums are a common sight in Arcos
The trip from Marrakech back to Madrid went smoothly. No problem with customs reentering the Eurozone, even with our bundle of carpets and other goods. The Spanish agents seemed much more interested in Europeans bringing items back than they were in Americans who were going to take their goods back out again. We talked over our next destination after we landed and decided that after Morocco, we needed a quiet place to chill out. We ultimately decided to try Arcos de la Frontera. Although it is a fairly long drive from Madrid, it is also pretty far South, so we're likely to get reasonably warm weather, and the town is small (about 35,000), so it won't cause us any problems with traffic or locating hotels. I had reserved another car for our last 6 days, and ... read more
Gibraltar
Arcos is a great little town, but we are staying here three nights we are planning a couple of day trips. We had planned to travel to Granada, but Ruth had studied the maps lat evening and when we met for breakfast suggested it would be an aweful lot of traveling and thought a southern trip might be better. I've long since learned to listen to Ruth, soo when we hooked up with L&M we made the suggestion. They have been there on previous trips, so if we were ok with saving it for another trip they we up for the alternate plan. I took a picture from our bedroom window of our breakfast table, then we were off. We had been trying to follow the roads indicated in green (scenic) for most of the trip ... read more
The view from our hostal
Hi, We are in a small town right now called Arcos de la Fronterra. We have been here for several days now; we found a cheap hostel and are using this opportunity to rest. The town is our favorite so far. It is a rural place, and is very hilly. The main town consists of two hills. The hill where the old town is has a cliff, and on the edge of the cliff there is a cathedral and several other buildings from the same era (13th century, give or take a hundred years). From the cliff you can see much farther than is ever possible in Los Angeles. There are orange trees and a river below, and hills in the distance. All of the houses are white, and Arcos is one of a string of ... read more
Pub at El Rocio
Travel blog 13 Saturday 19th went out for a meal in the evening in El Rocio. 6 of us sat around a table against a mirror, which made us into a table of 12, so we enjoyed a Last Supper - last time we would all be together indefinitely. Sunday morning went back into El Rocio to see the parades by the brotherhoods, interspersed with the letting off of rockets. No health and safety here just 4 ft rockets fired from the hand in the middle of the crowds. This time followed a brotherhood into the church and listened to the very noisy service. The temperature last few days extremely hot, reaching 27 C. Late afternoon enjoyed a BBQ. Vultures had left the Costa's for the weekend and had perched in the trees in the surrounding ... read more
Acros Street
Last night we had a nice solid meal at a pizzeria near our hotel. Today we had a chill day in Seville. Instead of catching the morning bus to Arcos de la frontera as planned, yesterday we got tickets for the 5 o clock bus with an arcos arrival at 7. After our 8 o clock wakeup and gnutella and toast breakfast, then got caught up on the blog front. After we showered and checked out at 1130 we went to the nearby supermercado for lunch bread as well as bottled water. We then walked around Seville to the bull ring and to the casa pilatos (aside from being closed, its the biggest waste of time and strike 3 for lets go) So we took the bus and what a ride it was! these drivers are ... read more
The BMW 116i
Driving in the Rain in a BMW…still fun! Before I go on, I got my first chance to drive a Bimmer today and it was a ton of fun, even if it was a small Bimmer not sold in the US (Model 116) and a rental car. I have always stayed away from BMW’s because I feared that once I drove one I wouldn’t be satisfied with any other car. I can say that it was fun to drive but nothing absolutely amazing…I still had a blast either way. More about all this in a minute… Leaving Sevilla For our last night in Sevilla we went out for a fairly early dinner (about 8pm) figuring that we needed to go to bed early for our departure and because I was sick. I currently have a ... read more
