Blogs from Andalusia, Spain, Europe

SPAIN Nov 15th – Dec 2nd This trip will be remembered, by me anyway, for ‘The Time that the Parrots Came’!! They have been on the coast for quite a few years (noisy horrible things but quite pretty to look at!!) and I always hoped that they wouldn’t move inland. We have had one or two over the years but now there seems to be a small flock of about twenty parrots that have moved into a large tree the Plaza de la Legion. One can only hope that they disappear, as quickly as they have appeared, otherwise it will be a sad goodbye to all the small native birds, as the parrots have no predators. Parrots excepted, it was a quiet, if not busy couple of weeks. We rented Howards car again and was duly ... read more

Day one out of Cordoba was deliberately light on the pedalling front, to limit what could have been an 80km day, had we gone further east. We’d managed to fall asleep the night before despite our near neighbour in the apartment block singing his heart out to the transistor radio. A knock on his door after midnight stopped it (we’ve been told there are strict noise rules in such blocks in Spain). Misty and cool 5C at 8am was the weather pattern that followed us from Córdoba, to El Carpio and beyond. The 31km followed a good ten kilometres of cycle path, with an industrial N-road section after, and then a chance to peel off onto slightly quieter parallel (to the autovía) camino rurales. Coming into El Carpio before 2:30 was an outright record. We discovered ... read more

Well rested, but sore from my fight with the wall and sight walk, our last day would also be our only full day of experiencing Seville. Before I begin, I failed to mention when we came back from dinner last night the hotel had left us a bottle of sparkling wine, I have no idea why, but it was a very nice touch, even if it was Italian and no Spanish. The alarm went off at six, thirty minutes of snooze time, and I was in the shower, I can barely lift my left arm above my neck, so the shower was an experience. My knee is quite purple, and my ring finger also managed to sustain an injury and is a bit swollen, Jerry is stuck with me now, since the wedding ring is not ... read more

A wee compilation of photos from two visits to Las Marismas de Odiel just outside Huelva. The first was with a few colleagues from the ringing programme at Doñana on Spain's National Day. The second was tbis week when I cycled there from Mazagon. The marshes are tidal and comprise mudflats, salt marsh and a commercial salt production operation. There is also a very nice visitor centre. ... read more

Today the entire day was devoted to the Alhambra, the last stand of the Morrish presence in Spain. The Moor were present on the Iberian Peninsula for 800 years, until Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand in 1492 (same year Italian Christopher Columbus was sent off by the King and Queen to the New World, no comment on the merits of Senor Columbus. Also, to put things in the proper context of history elsewhere in Europe Isabella and Ferdinand were the parents of Katherine of Aragon the first wife of King Henry the VIII (she was divorced not beheaded). Before the history lesson begins, just a bit of the morning. We were up at 5:30, quick breakfast at 7:30 (decent breakfast, typical fare) then off to the Alhambra. It opens at 8:30, we were there at 8:15. ... read more