Si and Jo Where the Frick are the Faux's: Seville

The GiraldaTower

Seville (Sevilla) (day 151)

On the way to Seville, we wild camped on a beach in Costa Ballena & watched the windsurfers in the breakers it looks very skilful. While we were sat there we were paid a visit from our friends the Guardia Civil, they must know us by now.

Gelves Marina on Rio Guadaira

Next morning we left early for Seville, the journey didn’t seem to take long on arrival I had a little confusion with the co-driver and the grid co-ordinates, although this time Jo decided to look at the map so we had half a chance of finding Gelves our destination. You have to be sharp the Seville, drivers take no prisoners, we only nearly crashed once so all good stuff. Puerto Gelves is a small marina just outside Seville on the Rio Guadaira, it’s not the prettiest marina but it has everything you need and it’s close to the city, costing only €14.00/noche for a sea view, well almost. The next day we took the bus into the city €1.40 each then went for mooch around.

The weather was very warm and there was an overpowering smell of orange blossom from all the trees, which are everywhere, it looks like snow falling and has the smell of Jasmine and not the usual smell of a Spanish city. Seville fells very clean and fresh, there are lots of students walking about looking cool & chilled along with the tourists.

Fabrica de Tabacos

The Cathedral and Reales Alcazarea Palace

We left the bus at the Rio Guadalquivir and headed into the old town, taking in the sights. Seville is an impressive city, full of palaces, churches, museums towers, city walls and plaza’s. Some of our favourites were:- The Antigua Fabrica de Tabacos, this was where the first tobacco came into Europe and is now the university and the Cathedral and its Giralda tower, which was the ancient minaret of the Almohad mosque and dates back to 1184. Close by the Reales Alcazares palaces, dating back to the year 700, and the Plaza de Espana. Around every corner there is another wonderful building. We came upon another square with a couple of bodegas and decided to stop for a refreshing drink. After wondering around the small and atmospheric streets, we decided to head back to the van and relax by the river. We headed back the following evening to sample the sherry and tapas, along with a little more sightseeing.

A typical Bodega off a square

At the Plaza de Espana " Little Venice"

After staying in Seville for four nights, we decided to make our way to Portugal, making a couple of stops on the way, firstly to the town of El Rocio, otherwise known as “cowboy town”. The town has no tarmac, only wide, sandy streets with a frontier like feel l to it, and apparently in the evening at the weekends the locals arrive on horseback wearing cowboy hats. It is situated at the edge of a natural park, alongside a large lake with Flamingos. We decided to park there for the night (Friday), however as soon we pulled up and the heavens opened and it rained and rained, so much so that ‘roads’ turned into rivers, because there are no storm drains and we had to find somewhere save to stay. (we didn’t even have time to take any pictures). We drove 18 km down the road to Matalascanas, a ghost town this time of year and parked on a car park near the beach.

The next day we checked out a few wild camping spots in Mazagon, and spotted a particularly nice one by the Parador. We passed the city of Huelva and arriving at El Rompido, parked up on the estuary; alongside other motorhomes, mainly Spanish owners enjoying the start of the Easter holidays ‘Semana Santa’ and walked into the village, a busy place with lots of fish restaurant’s and decided it would be a nice place to stay for a the weekend, spending Sunday sampling the local fare and later taking a walking along the estuary.