The interesting town of Mertola, Portugal

Well, we're working on a very weak cellular internet 2G signal, but at least we have internet. Sort of. But, it's working...so let's see how this goes.

We packed up yesterday morning, ready to move a little further south towards Faro. We pick up Helen and Tony at the airport there on Tuesday morning.

Made arrangements with Glen and Steve to meet them at the little village of Ameixial where there was supposed to be two different free RV parking areas...both with free electrical hookups.

Exploring a bit, and time to carry on...

We woke up to sunshine, but we knew it wouldn't last. The forecast is for more rain on and off through the weekend, so when we saw the sunshine we figured we should go out for a walk and check out the area some more.

So we set out to go see the old mine. And then sure enough, the clouds moved in again...

Here's where we are parked up....

Thought we'd show you a little more about the space we're parked in right now. It's really just a car park at a small municipal beach in town. But because this is low season, the town allows RV'ers to park for free at the car park. But the way the car park is designed, it almost looks like a campground!

And a half a kilometer away there is an RV "service station" as they are sometimes called here. It has a fresh water supply, a toilet cassette dump, and an electrical outlet if you should need it. It's all automated for a charge of €2.

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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.