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Published: February 25th 2009
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Since the 4th of Feb. We have been moving around a bit. I really should update this blog more often.
We’ve done a strange sort of circuit really.
North to Lisbon, east to Evora, across the border into Spain and back south to El Rocio/Seville (almost completing the circuit back to the Algarve.) Then we have driven to Marbella and are presently in the Cabo De Gata National Park just east of Almeria on the far east bit of Andalucia.
Our current total mileage is just over 7,000 miles and we’re about to start heading north on our long return from the sun.
It’s exciting to tour again but the roadwork can be draining and we need the odd recovery days to rest.
To try to sum up the last few weeks I’d say It’s been a month of contrasts .
Take Lisbon for starters . After the comfortable tranquil Algarve it came as a culture shock. We stayed in a city centre camp site and caught the local buses to see the sights. Trips such as these take you through the local areas before terminating in the centre and it was a warts-and-all
tour of the city. One journey took an hour, which seemed like an eternity as we sat at the rear of a packed bus in rush hour with a group of cocky, gobby 13 year olds from the wrong side of town who were wagging it off school to go to the shopping malls. We endured an excruciating 20 minutes while they decided to “entertain the rest of us” with a competition as to who could make the most ear splitting screechy noises with blown up balloons being deflated through tightly stretched balloon necks!! They don’t know how close they came to making those noises from their own tightly squeezed necks...bless ‘em don’t you just love teenagers?
Lisbon itself is full of contrasts. The shabby but characterful old town (Portugal’s relative poverty in Europe really shows here) and the slick shiny modern architecture of the Expo 98 area with its superb views of the endless Vasco Da Gamma bridge. We spent a great afternoon at the latter at the huge Oceanarium.
The 3rd morning at Lisbon I got out of bed and felt my stiff joints from walking the town. Feeling every year of my age and
a bit more, I was slow to get moving. I snapped back at Martin’s nagging to get moving and said something like “give me a break I’m not as young as I used to be !” He told me off for being negative and went out of the caravan door in a bit of a temper and with his spring-chicken like coordination and flexibility promptly fell off the step.
I didn’t really see him go down but found him on the ground, clutching his leg sounding like a demented motor boat going f**k f**k f**k f**k..... I stifled the urge to laugh and say “serves you right” and administered sympathy and first aid.
Anyway, this injury meant that we Left Lisbon early and were unable to tackle the hills of Sintra as planned. (It’s taken a couple of weeks to heal but he reckons it’s better now.) We moved instead to the complete contrast of lovely Evora. A neat , whitewashed , peaceful place known for its World Heritage history including a Roman temple and a Chapel of Bones , complete with hanging mummified corpses! Creepy.
The long drive back to El Rocio was
somewhat fraught round the Seville ring road in rush hour. Trying to merge into 3 lanes of jostling, honking, Spanish traffic with an outfit just under 12m is a true challenge.
This time we managed to see one of El Rocio’s Sunday religious brotherhood processions ( see previous entry “Crusties and Cowboys”) and spent an exciting if hair raising few minutes watching the sky as the procession’s aerial firecrackers went off, dodging 3 feet long rocket sticks hurtling down from the sky like arrows into the surrounding crowds! (Health and Safety? What’s that?)
We returned into Seville proper (without the van) for a visit . Friends told us it was easy to park. Traitors! After an involuntary tour around the riverside we finally found an underground car park. It was all worth it though as the old town was simply stunning. We toured the Royal Palace and lofty sumptuous cathedral, climbed the famous Giralda tower , marvelled at Christopher Columbus’ tomb (even though he’s not actually in it!) and had lunch in a tapas bar set in an old Arabic bathhouse.
From Spanish culture at its best to the brash and trash of the Costa
del Sol; Marbella ( Cabo Pino ) was our next stop. It’s over 20 years since we last came to this area and it hasn’t improved much. It’s bigger busier and just as keen to take your money. You are never away from traffic roar with Its delightful motorway winding its way through the heart of the resorts.
The Cabo Pino campsite was very busy with sun seekers of all nationalities and it was a convenient walk (across the motorway) to what was, to be fair, a rather nice beach and posh marina. We did the obligatory trip to grotty Gibraltar which seems to be being rebuilt. Even the cafe at the top of the rock was being refurbished. The endearing baby apes saved the day for me, with their charming antics , hamming it up and showing off to the visitors like pros. The best thing was the diesel at 63p a litre at the Morrison’s supermarket where we stocked up on pies, mushy peas, bacon, curries, teabags, parsnips(!) chocolate, chutney etc that we’d been craving for 6 months.
In contrast to the endless Costa we took a day’s drive through the snow-capped mountains to see
dramatic and classy Ronda.
It’s grown since we last went but it still thrills with its cliff top location straddling a deep gorge in the middle of a magnificent panorama of mountains. We also did a circuit which included the eye popping chasm of the Garganta Del Chorro near Malaga.
Cabo Pino unfortunately left its mark on Martin, who suffered a nasty rash in many nooks and crannies after getting a poisonous hairy caterpillar trapped in his towel in the showers! Apparently they are fatal to dogs but thankfully only rarely dangerous to humans.
We are currently at a tiny place near San Jose called Los Escullos in the Cabo de Gata National Park which is in the middle of nowhere and a breath of fresh air from the in-your -face noisy resorts and cities . Martin’s leg and skin appear to have recovered and we’re taking a couple of “rest days”.
Hard work all this holidaying.
D &M
PS. Tomorrow can’t wait to ask someone; “Do you know the way to San Jose?”
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