Via Verde de la Sierra - Olvera

We've headed out to what is known as "the best cycleway in Spain" at Olvera. The weather however has other ideas and it's very windy with quite dark clouds around. The cycleway has been constructed on the old trainline so we are assuming it will be flat and we have our batteries for our bikes incase it's not.

As we drive along we see a town and castle perched up on a very steep hillside and are both secretly hoping that it's not the place we are making for.  A few miles on and, yes it's our destination and it becomes obvious that the old station is through the town and down a steep hill on the other side. As we approach..... there are also roadworks, which means we have to negotiate an even narrower steep road until at last we arrive. Are we surprised we are the only ones here?

However as you can see from the photo's the area is certainly picturesque and even with the wind and clouds we decided to give it a go only to find that we were at the highest point on the track....... very beautiful anyway and even the lights in the tunnels came on as we approached.

 

We are here for the night and by late afternoon two more vans have arrived, not so lonely after all tonight.

Cadiz

We were hoping to go over to Cadiz on the Catamaran but because of expected high winds a coach transfer has been arranged instead. We set off early with our new found friends Stewart and Jenny arriving in Cadiz at 10.30.  All was quiet and as still rather chilly we opted for a warming hot chocolate and churros in the main square before heading into the numourous narrow streets containing very tall balcony fronted buildings.  It's a lovely town with lots of history going back to the Romans but most had to be rebuilt after our (the Earl of Essex 's) assault on Cadiz in 1596.....oh dear!

Flower market

Fried fish is the thing to eat here so of course we thought we should, visiting the fish market first, where standing only bars are in abundance, we eventually opted for a nice seated café with wine included. Oh, and before that Les had bought a cone of little shrimps..... They were lovely too but I couldn't help thinking I could have been eating insects as you eat the whole thing.... rather spoilt the experience for a bit.

The sun is still out but there is an unseasonal cold northerly wind so the coats are definitely on again for the next few days. 

Cathedral

Tarifa

At last we are at the seaside, the southernmost part of Spain and the sun is out.  There's quite a strong wind but that's what brings the kite surfers to the area, but the sky is blue and we are feeling proud of ourselves after clocking up 1500 miles.  We've stocked up supplies in Lidl,  spanish wine for €1.59 and lots of different hams and fresh pasta so something to fall back on when parking next to the beach.  There's lots of motorhomers about from all corners of Europe so we just have to spy them out and, voila, our overnight stop is found.

Spot the oranges

Tarifa has an attractive old town and fort from which we can see Morocco, it's a bit hazy but if you squint under the branches of the palm tree in the photo below you might just see a mountain in the distance.....that's Morocco!

The view without the mist!

The cake shops, or Pasteleria, are wonderful and we couldn't resist just one or two sweet somethings from this one......not sure what they are but hoping they will be good for our desert tonight....Mmmmmm, yes they were lovely. Might be putting some weight on me thinks.

Being this far south we have lost the TV reception, as we thought we might, so had purchased some DVD' s from local charity shops before we left so we have those to fall back on.  In the meantime we are catching up on series one and two of Broadchurch which we had missed when it was originally screened...... saves me beating Les at cards...he gets so upset, not!

By the way.......there is a more detailed diary on the right side menu entitled January 2018 on the desktop version.

Journey down to sunny and snowy mid Spain

Five days into our trip and we are enjoying the sunshine in mid Spain. We have experienced mixed weather so far but it has but quite mild until getting down to zero degrees last night. Once the sun comes out it warms up fast so we really enjoyed the snowy scenery as we approached the mountains near Madrid. A bit of sight seeing at the tiny medieval village of Pedraza and later at La Granja palace. Tomorrow we will spend the day at Segovia.

San Sebastian

Pedraza

Pedraza

Palicio la Granja

2018 : Two months in search of the sun!

It's been a long time since our unforgettable year away.  We now have a new motorhome and a new house in a new county, Somerset, and we are now ready for another winter trip.  Now that we live nearer to Devon and Cornwall we have explored that part of the UK for the past two summers so it's now time to hop on a ferry from Poole to Cherbourg, and travel down to southern Spain.  We leave Poole on 14th January so more blog posts to come when WiFi allows!