Full day in Seville today. We don't have our driver today, he has to have a rest day so we are on a chartered bus which is a tad cramped in comparison to our usual roomy seats. Only a short trips to our first get off. Plaza de Espana. This place was built in 1928 for an exposition. From the outside it looks like any European stately type of building. Plain with flourishes. Walk inside and wow... This place is amazing. Huge forecourt with a fountain and moat type of water structure running around the inside edges. The building is in a horseshoe shape and is ornately decorated with ceramic tiles everywhere. Then on the ground level, there are booth like structures that represent every province of Spain. Each on is effectively a 3 sided booth ... read more

A long day in the coach. 6 hours driving broken into 3 x 2 hour stints. No really interesting sites to report, just the tour director talking most of the time pouring out Spanish history. His knowledge is amazing, quoting kings by number and dates, way too much and he stands and refers to nothing. We start off with orange groves everywhere, then almonds and finally some really arid country which he says is where a lot of the old "spaghetti westerns" were filmed. Just like a real desert scene with lots of hills everywhere. He tells us about a city that we pass that was built expressly to attract tourists. Looks and sounds very much like the Gold Coast. Lots of high rise buildings, even an amusement park. All in the middle of nowhere. He ... read more

Up at sparrows apart this morning. On tour again..... Wake up call at 0600, 0602, and 0604. Finally hung up the phone to kill the wake up calls. Then alarm goes off at 0620 so up and at em...... Today we have an early start to go to Monteresso, a rocky outcrop about 30 km out of Barcelona. Nice drive out of town and into the hills. Lots of normal tour guide stuff about the countryside, etc. but then we hit the hills. Winding roads with sheer drop offs out my window, luckily I trust our driver. Get to the top and park the bus with not too many around. Tour guide is happy. Wander up to the cathedral and check it out. Very impressive with lots of gold dressing around the church. Wander out and ... read more

Wake up and finalise packing. Make a call to the lady of the house to ask if we can stay till 1200. No problems. This is good, as our train doesn't leave till 1610. Read the news of the Nice terror attacks and feel sad for the people of Nice having spent 3 days there only 3 weeks ago. Worked out where the carnage took place and we really didn't spend much time at that end of town, but hey, a bit close for comfort. Packed the bags and slowly got ourselves on the road at 1130. We still had a few bus trips on the tourist card we had bought so decided to catch the bus to the beach cafes that we passed each day on our way in or out of town. Good decision ... read more

Quiet start to the day. Feet and legs feeling the walking from yesterday arvo. Look at options for the rest of the trip, how, when and how long. A few options that we are following up so watch this space...... Eventually out I tot he sun, after another good dump of rain this morning. Yes, we did see morning...... Out to the street and find a bar where they had Pintxos. Lots of little snacks like ham and cheese rolls (but fancier names that's that), bread with interesting stuff in it and other stuff. All went well with a sneaky little Rose. Off to the furnicular which goes up,to the hill beside our place and overlooks the cove and San Sebastián. Find that and up we travel. Pretty steep and the views agent better as we ... read more