Hello Portugal!

A bit of a longer drive for us yesterday. We had originally planned on doing it over two days, but decided to go meet up with Glen and Steve a day earlier than planned because the weather forecast for Friday through Sunday isn't looking great, and they told us it's a really nice spot and we wanted to enjoy it with some sunshine.

So we said goodbye to Bonnie and Dave, with the hopes of bumping into them again along the way.

A stash of 1,700 year old coins

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Seville is a great place to spend your birthday, and we had a great time exploring and celebrating.

Once again, the weather helped out a lot. It's been perfect here in Seville, although we did get a little shower go through late yesterday afternoon.

Seville, day two...The Alcazar

Arguably the top attraction in Seville is The Alcazar (The Royal Palace). We knew there would be a lineup, and we knew it would be pricey...but we wanted to go. And, my Dad had visited The Alcazar back in 1954 and we had several photos that we wanted to try and replicate.

So, we headed over that way. We got there just after 11:30am, and stared at the lineup. Yikes. I hadn't expected that much of a lineup. In fact, it almost scared us off because we hate waiting in line with all the tourists.

Wow...impressed with Seville, Spain!

We packed up and left the campground yesterday morning just before 10:00am. It had rained a little bit overnight, but the skies were clearing and it was looking to be a nice day. Got the holding tanks emptied, and the fresh water tank filled, and we were on our way.

Heading for the city of Seville. I have to admit, I had done very little research on Seville. Most people have obviously heard of both Barcelona and Madrid, and of course we knew of Seville, but I think it flies under the radar compared to the other two. We are impressed with Seville!

Bicycle ride to Sanlucar

When Louis's owners were getting him ready for us, they asked if we wanted the bicycles. They explained that they're old, and not in the best of shape...but we figured we might use them so we said yes. Well yesterday, we used them for the first time. The campground we're staying at is located right on a cycling path that runs between the towns of Rota and Sanlucar.

We're only about 7 kms from Sanlucar, so we took the bikes off the rack and got them ready.

No wonder people can't find the place!

Yesterday, we drove from Cadiz to Chipiona...only about 56 kms (35 miles) up the coast, but we had to drive inland in order to do it. That's okay, because we got to drive across the new La Pepa bridge. I say new, but it actually opened in September of 2015.

Other than the bridge, it was an uneventful drive. Until we went to find our campground. Then it was a little more interesting!

Our own private band concert...

It rained on and off most of the day yesterday, but that didn't stop us from doing more exploring. Besides, the things we wanted to see were mostly indoors anyhow. And Ruth has a raincoat with her and there's a couple of little travel umbrellas in the motorhome.

So a little bit of water didn't bother us too much.

Lots to see in Cadiz, Spain!

Yesterday morning we moved from our beach camping spot near Roche to the ancient port city of Cadiz (pop 124,000).

Along the way, we stopped in at a huge Carrefour grocery store and did some stocking up. They had some good specials on, including some "buy one at regular price, get the second at 70% off" deals. These are especially worthwhile when they apply to the already cheap booze!

What does it cost to RV in Spain for a month?

Well, we had a kind of a relaxing day yesterday so we'll mix our daily post together with our expenses for the month of January.

If we have proven one thing, it's that doing a motorhome exchange is a very economical way of exploring another country.

Almost beach camping...

Went for a walk around the town of Conil de la Frontera before heading out. Glen and Steve are staying there another night, while we scout out on ahead to see if there's a better spot for us.

Not much to see in the town of Conil, even though it's been settled for a long time. There's a couple of old houses from the 15th century, and a tower that's been there since the 12th century.

Back to the beach!

We took our time leaving the campground yesterday morning. Filled the fresh water tank, emptied the toilet cassette, paid the bill, and we were on our way just before noon.

First stop was to get fuel...filled up with 63 liters (16.6 gallons) of diesel at €1.169 per liter (about $4.90 USD per gallon, or $1.68 CAD per liter). So we've spent €123 ($178 CAD, $133 USD) on fuel and we've done 1,116 kms (692miles) so far in three weeks. Not bad.

Then, it was off to the beach. We had been in touch with friends Glen and Steve and they had themselves parked up beside a tidal river in the town of Conil de la Frontera...steps from the Atlantic Ocean.

63 years later...

One of the reasons we're in this area is because of my father's pictures. He had done a trip to Europe way back in 1954 (he would have been about 26 years old at the time) and he took a lot of slide photographs. Ruth had scanned all of those photos, and we have a file from the ones he took in Spain.

We're trying to find some of those locations to see if we can replicate the spot he stood to take those photos.

We found one of them yesterday, at the roadside village of La Barca de Vejer!

Our second Spanish campground

It had rained a lot Thursday night, and it was supposed to continue on and off for most of the day Friday. We were due for laundry and showers, and our battery was getting low as well. So I did some online research and found a campground in a forest near the town of Vejer de la Frontera.

Many of the campgrounds along the coast are quite expensive, and you're packed in like sardines. Not our style, and we won't spend more than €20 ($29 CAD, $22 USD) per night including electricity.

Back to the top of The Rock

We set out at around 10am yesterday morning, walking back across the border to Gibraltar. It's not that big of a place, and yet even after two full days of exploring there was still more that we wanted to do.

The main goal yesterday was to walk The Mediterranean Steps...a 1.5 km (1 mile) long hiking trail on the steep side of The Rock. It's a short enough hike...but it still took us an hour to do it!

Day trip to beautiful Ronda, Spain

We had originally planned on taking the motorhomes up to the mountaintop city of Ronda (pop 35,000) but that was last week when they had an oddball snowstorm up there  so we never made it. But, we thought we might be able to head there on our way back through towards the end of February.

Instead, I saw that there is a train that goes from Algeciras to Ronda and the reports said that the train journey itself is quite scenic.