Ola from Lagos, Portugal

Ola from Lagos in Portugal, 10.2.15

We ‘hibernators’ (bods who flee from the northern European winter) are in a campsite near the wonderful old town of Lagos. We explored it yesterday and clambered up and down narrow streets looking at some of the buildings, completely clad in exquisite tiles. Each of the houses has a unique chimney pot, shops even sell models of them. The old Moorish city walls are largely intact. The town is between huge surf beaches and is a working port mainly for local fishing boats. 

Lagos, tiled buildings and beautiful cobbled plazas.

Lagos, chimney pots.

Lagos more pots.

…..and even another pot.

Small streets in Lagos.

Muslim Moorish castle walls that surrounded the ancient town.

In the 1500’s explorers sailed from here to explore the new world. We are back to having the middle of the day warm and sunny except today we have had a huge thunderstorm that continued for hours, 3am to 10am. Rain still falls……Never Rains in Southern Calif….…but here in Lagos it certainly does today! Tomorrow we drive north to Cascais that is out on the coast from Lisbon.

The last couple of weeks have been very relaxing, as we have made the most of the fine weather. After leaving Carchuna, camping Don Cactus!!, we drove about an hour along the coast  to Torrox Costa and found a campsite up on a hill with a view of the sea one way and of the snow capped mountains the other way. Great spot. Again the campsite was full of ‘hibernators’ and we had a great time with people from the Netherlands, Germany and the UK. Winter activities are more organised here and the local pubs have quiz nights, karaoke and jam sessions. We heard that the jam sessions were great and were surprised to learn that the guitarist from Deep Purple sometimes played. On the night we went he wasn’t playing but the main guitarist played wonderful covers of Dire Straights, Pink Floyd, Shadows and the Beatles. With the drinks at very low prices it was a great night.

Torrox sunset, can't go wrong!

Torrox camping looking down onto Corronation Street…it really was! We were in with the Germans, Dutch and Cockneys!!

Beatutiful houses on the walk down to  promenade at Costa del Torrox.

Spain of when we were here '77. "200 years of change jammed into 40 years"!

Colin 'in the cactus' on Torrox del Pueblo walk.

One of the couples we got to know are great walkers and told us where the tracks were into the local hills. We walked to a town called Torrox Pueblo that is another old town with white buildings clinging to a hillside. Had a great lunch sitting in the sun at a restaurant in the square. Some of you may know that Spain has a tradition of cheap lunchtime deals called Menu del dia. I think Franco instituted this so workers could have a decent lunch. Anyway all restaurants need to offer these and they consist of something like 2 courses, bread, wine and coffee for around 5-12 Euros.

After the two hour upward hike we arrived in the hill village and have a lovely lunch. In the right hand side distance there are the remains of a Roman foot bridge.

Welcomed lunch in the lovely plaza from the 'menu del dia'. We even managed to complete our order in flawless Spanish….not quite!

We also visited the nearby old town of Nerja with its beautiful tiled entrances and a promenade that extends out into the sea. Nearby are a series of huge limestone caves that have the large cathedral sized spaces filled with the most intricate stalactites / stalagmite structures we have seen. They were only discovered in the late 1950’s although they contain cave drawings from ancient times.

Nejah, wonderful patterend cobbing. it's a Med thing - just like Greece.

Wonderful tiled entrance to your house.

Famous promintory on the front in Nerja.

Remarkable formations in the cave, the cave system was discovered in 1959.

Stalams and stalags that make up this wonderful display.

Free camping is called wild camping on this side of the world and there are certainly many ‘hibernators’ doing this. As we drove passed Malaga and Marbella we saw parking lots full of campervans. We spoke to a couple who never use campsites and they say the biggest problem is filling their tanks with water. We like the luxuries of hot showers etc too much to make this a regular undertaking.

We camped in La Linea near Gibraltar and had a day exploring this small place. We walked across the border and caught a bus that drove us across the airports runway and into town. We wanted to go to the top of the rock but the cable car was closed for maintenance and the tours to take you up only gave a short time at each of the stops. So after talking to a local Bobby (looking like a UK Bobby) who told us where there was a lift and escalator to take up some of the way (about 25m!!) we walked to the top. Really pleased we did as the views were amazing towards the mountains of Morocco and the coast of Spain and we could take our time. As soon as we entered the nature reserve we saw our first group of Barbary Macaques, apes, sunning themselves. We walked passed tunnel systems and fortifications, which have been used during, sieges. We came to a set of about 600 steps for the last part of the climb to the top, which was covered in apes, there were signs that they could be aggressive. A couple of guys who live in Gibraltar were walking down and had a toy rubber snake, which they swore frighten them away. They offered to sell it to us for 20 quid but we managed to walk up unscathed without assistance.

On the way to Gibralta.

Andaluccian coast.

Gibralta, The Rock, a 430 odd metres climb on the menu for the next day.

Local Barbary Ape as meeter greeter about 1/3 of the way up! Pretty much used to photographers - must be a media trained ape! 

Some of the 600 plus steps.

Top with Africa in the background. 

Towards Africa.

Bit of preening going on here.

Top of Gibralta.

400m straight down.

Part of Castillo 'El Guzmån' el Bueno Tarifa. Built in 960 by the Abd-ar-Rahman III, Caliph of Córdoba.

Moorish/Arabic script on the castle wall.

Continuing along the coast we had a walk around Terifa and the old castle and old town. We stopped for a couple of nights in Conil de la Frontier to catch up with washing etc before driving north to Seville.

Part of Castillo 'El Guzmån' el Bueno Tarifa. Tarifa, From the castle towards the south west, or entrance to the Mediteranean. 

Seville, what an amazing place. We think it is the most beautiful city we have seen with a mixture of wide avenues with date palms, the old town with winding streets too narrow for cars and a really lovely waterfront along the Rio Guadalquivir. Again, as in Grenada, the city has a beautiful Moorish palace, the Alcazar and a very large cathedral that is supposed to be almost as big as the Haiga Sophia in Istanbul. Christopher Columbus is buried here. His coffin does not touch the floor of the cathedral - it is held up by four statues of powerful looking church officials. We climbed the bell tower, Giralda, for a great view of the city. This tower was originally the minaret of the original mosque on this site in the 1100’s. We took a walking tour of the old part of town with a guide who said he spoke English but he used Spanish pronunciation so lots of tongue out between the teeth and spitting. So….standing a little more than standard social distance from him…… we had to concentrate very hard but he took us to some very interesting places. We ended in up an old square, 2.30pm on a Friday. There must have been 400 to 500 people drinking beer and eating chips. The guide explained that it was the usual end of a working week! In our full time working lives we were certainly in the wrong jobs or we were in the wrong country!!

Seville, French camping method!

Seville, German camping method, the Merc sports car was stored in the rear, in the lower story!!

Giraldi tower, Moorish Minaret of the Seville cathedral.

Christopher Columbus in church, may or may not be?? Photo courtesy of our friend Gideon Heimann

Part of Seville cathedral, as big as Haiga Sofia in Instanbul!

Seville cathedral.

The Alcazar, original arched entrance.

The Alcazar, magnificent.

The Alcazar, detailing.

Remarkable art/ religious work in the Alcazar.

The Alcazar, later Spanish influence, wonderful tile work 

Hhhhmmm ?? in the Alcazar

Amazing architecture combining geometry and tile art work

Alcazar, another beautifully domed room about 20metres diameter.

Alcazar, another beautiful courtyard / room with marvelous detailing.

In 1929 Seville sponsored the Spanish Americas’ Exposition that had buildings from each of the colonies. Remarkably they all remain, a wee bit different to the London Crystal Palace remains! We walked around many of them and took a few shots of the Spanish offering.

Half of the Spanish pavilion from the 1929 exhibition of the Americas.

Night  - Spanish pavilion from the 1929 exhibition of the Americas.

Night - Spanish pavilion fountain.

Seville is the home of Flamenco (not the birds which incidentally we saw hundreds of in the salt marshes just north of Cadiz) we attended a marvellous performance in the courtyard of an historic house in the old town. There were 4 performers, a stupendous guitarist, strong singer and wonderful male and female dancers. They were all excellent with dancing the couple did must be the most sensuous we have ever seen. Each dancer then did a solo with foot stomping and hand clapping providing the complex syncopated rhythms. 

Right to left, Dancer, guitarist and leader and flamenco dancer.

Right to left, Dancer, guitarist and leader.

We wus snapped by our friend Gideon Heimann!

But where would they spend the money? Attributed to Gideon Heimann

A wonderful night. The other wonderful aspect to our visit was the food. The tapas were yummy and we tried a range of these. The weather was cool but by lunchtime it was warm enough to sit outside in the old squares and enjoy lunch.

So now we are trying to learn at least the basic courtesies in Portuguese and now have enough language to order a coffee and hot chocolate.  Those of you who know Colin well will know about his addiction to custard.  Well the Portuguese specialise in custard filled pastries (pastel de nata), Pasteis de Belem is the famous shop in Lisbon where we will certainly aim for! Colin is in love.