Saturday 2 February 2008 It was an early start for Barbara who woke to plan our next move as we had to check out by 11am and we didn’t know where we were going yet. Michael was still exhausted and slept. We wanted to go to the carnival in Cadiz but could not find any accommodation available there so decided to go to Seville instead. Barbara booked accommodation in Seville and researched bus routes to get there. Barbara woke up Michael in just enough time for him to pack and check out of the hostal in time. Our bus would leave at around 3:30pm so we decided to leave our luggage at the hostal and have a relaxing day hanging around town because we liked Tarifa so much - it really is a beautiful place.
We went to the supermarket and collected some goodies for lunch and took them down to the beach. The beach was just as beautiful as we had left it only a few days earlier (photos). We sat basking in the sun for quite some time and enjoying our picnic lunch before going for a little stroll. Along the way Michael found a huge Wind
Rose (photo) which points to all of the different winds that thrash the coast of Tarifa. Barbara spotted some cool murals along the walls at the beach (photo). Its so nice that each time we are in Tarifa we find more things we like about it. Unfortunately our time enjoying Tarifa was almost up so we headed back to Hostal Facundo to collect our bags and walk over to the bus station.
The bus station was closed - as usual - so we assumed we should buy our tickets on board when the bus arrived. Except it didn’t arrive. There was a bus strike! That afternoon that we learned two new words in Spanish - Servicios Minimos! (photo) There had been no notice on the Comes bus company’s website when Barbara had checked the time. The bus company was running only basic services and ours had been axed. The only service that day going to Seville had been at 9:30am - BUGGER! We were stuck with no transport and didn’t know what to do. At 3:30pm a gambling situation arose - a bus was leaving for Algeciras. We hadn’t had enough time to check yet if there were services
from Algeciras to Seville but we decided to take the risk, worst case scenario we would either stay in Algeciras for the night or return to Tarifa. During the 45 minute bus trip to Algeciras Michael was frantically calling the train company to see if we could get a train to anywhere but no trains left until the next day. We gave up and called the hostel in Seville to beg that they move our booking to the next day as the circumstances were out of our control - they agreed!
We arrived in Algeciras ready to look for a bus back to Tarifa or accommodation for the night when Barbara thought she’d just take a chance and ask a bus driver for advice. Hooray! The bus driver said that there was indeed a bus going to Seville that afternoon so we lined up and bought our tickets Lineus - a bus company we didn’t know about - and settled into the bus terminal to wait a couple of hours for our bus. We quickly called our hostel back and switched the booking back before they could give our beds away.
While waiting, Michael decided to stretch his
legs so he went for a little walk. He was not discouraged by Barbara’s previous experience as he was more interested in the exercise than the scenery. He wandered down to the port and watched the big boats for a while (photo). He wandered then into a quieter part of town that Barbara had not dared venture into by herself and he found some lovely historic buildings (photo).
By the time he returned it was time for the bus. It was a long bus ride and we didn’t arrive in Seville until after 8pm but we were relaxed and content to be back in Spain - the big bulls in the hills reminded us of this all during our bus ride (photo).
Spain's Flag
Map of Spain