Another great day in Spain!

We relaxed for the morning, and did some computer work. We didn't have a good signal when we arrived here, but the other day they installed some better wi-fi, and now it's working great! While I was doing the blog write up, Ruth walked with Helen and Tony to the grocery store in town. While there, they found out that last night was the big carnival celebration parade in this little town of 1,400 people.

So we made plans to go to the central plaza at 6:00pm to take part in the celebration!

The cave houses of Setenil...amazing!

Definitely better weather yesterday. Not a drop of rain, although there were still lots of clouds coming and going. We packed a lunch and left around 10:30am headed for the town of Setenil de las Bodegas only about 37 kms (23 miles) away.

And we had bypassed the town of Olvera the day before, so the plan was to stop in on our way home if we had time. But, there is just so much to see!

The magical town of Zahara...in the rain!

Not the greatest weather yesterday, but there's too much to see in this area so we're not going to waste any of it sitting inside waiting for blue skies that may or may not come.

So yesterday, we drove over to the mountainside town of Zahara de la Sierra to do some exploring, and despite the weather we are really glad that we did!

Spain Never a Dull Moment on your Trip!

Discover the most enchanting Spanish cruises for their gentle pace and tropical year-round weather. Taking a river cruise is a great way to get a feel for the natural beauty and rich culture of Spain, amidst the unique chance to discover Andalusia. Seville from a different, privileged perspective on board, river cruising along the River Guadalquivir. Also, enjoy the River Guadiana, Spanish-Portuguese border on the coastal bay of Cadiz meets other travellers in a fun and friendly atmosphere.

Smoke in the air

We first noticed it the day before we visited the Cathedral in Seville. A little bit of a haze in the sky. It was worse the next day, and then yesterday it was actually quite bad. We think it's smoke from forest fires, and yet we can't find very much info on the news.

Yesterday was a badly needed day of rest. Although, you know us...we can't sit still for very long. In the morning, Tony went out with the girls for a walk around the town while I caught up on some computer work.

Everything went according to plan...and then some!

Wow...busy day yesterday. Sorry, this is going to be a long blog post! But, entirely worth it because you get to see what we saw.

We had a lot to accomplish. First, I wanted to go buy a new smart phone. Then, we were going to meet Helen and Tony where we would all tour the fantastic Seville Cathedral, then back to Louis the motorhome in order to head to the outskirts of town to do a big grocery shop, then a two hour drive to a small town in the mountains to an AirBnb accommodation where we will spend the next week.

Let's see how smoothly that all goes...

Shopping and exploring in Seville

We're not big on shopping.

While I don't mind shopping online, and we don't mind shopping for groceries, going shopping for anything else is not our idea of fun. But, we need a new smart phone, and to have to buy one while in Spain is a bit of a pain.

So in between exploring, if we came across a store that sold cell phones, Tony and I went inside.

Phone problems!

Yesterday, we drove across the Portugal border back into Spain. I hadn't mentioned it previously, but I've been having problems with the iPhone. This is an older model 4s that our son had donated to us when he upgraded.

It's been suiting our travel needs just fine until we arrived in Barcelona January 2nd and I tried it out with a local Spanish SIM card. At the time, I had to mess with some settings, and got it working. And when we crossed into Portugal, it worked fine there too for several days...until one day last week when it simply wouldn't connect to the internet, and then it wouldn't even receive a signal.

In the market for new luggage...

We're tossing around the idea of getting some new travel gear, and one of the websites we're looking at  is www.eaglecreek.com. Our old wheeled backpacks are still doing fine, but they're looking a little worse for wear. Also, new materials and new designs have made the new wheeled backpacks even lighter and more durable than what was available five years ago.

Given that we're doing more flying on discount airlines here in Europe, we need to be able to stay below their weight and size limits to avoid paying extra.

A much better day!

We didn't have a long drive planned, so before we hit the road we decided to search out the rocky coastline that we originally came to the Albufeira area for. Helen and Tony had checked their photos from when we were here ten years ago, and we managed to find the road that led down to the beach where the trail was.

The beach is called Praia dos Aveiros, and it's just a tiny beach, but it leads to the path taking you to a larger beach to the east.

Not one of our better days...

It was pretty much 10:30am by the time we left Salema Eco Camp and headed east. We had made a rough plan to drive as far as Albufeira. Not for the touristy town itself, but for the rocky cliffs that we remembered exploring when we were all here ten years ago.

But apparently our memories aren't very good!

Portugal's rocky Atlantic coast...

We took Louis for a drive yesterday to explore the Atlantic coast a little bit north of here. It's in the natural park area that takes up much of the south west coast of Portugal, so there are a lot of areas to hike and we were looking for a decent walk.

First, we stopped for fuel and put in just enough to get us back into Spain. Portugal fuel is about 10% more expensive. Ruth and Helen ran into the grocery store to pick up a couple of things, while Tony and I parked Louis across the road.

The seaside town of Salema, Portugal

It didn't turn out to be quite as nice as what they were calling for, but still a decent day and we did see some sunshine and blue sky, with temperatures of around 18C (65F). But it was a little bit windy too. Still, a nice day to go out exploring, so we walked down to the seaside town of Salema.

This is the second blog post today...if you missed it, you can see a tour of our friends Glen and Steve's motorhome here...

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2017/02/showing-you-another-european-motorhome.html

Showing you another European motorhome

There are a lot of differences between European motorhomes and American motorhomes.

Last month we showed you a short tour of what we're driving over here. Yesterday, our friends Glen and Steve opened their doors for us to be able to show you their motorhome. Instead of taking a bunch of pictures, I figured we'd do a couple of video clips.

We're taking a vacation!

We had to get to Faro airport by 9:30am or so to pick up Helen and Tony. We had been parked for the night only a half an hour away, so we planned to leave around 8:30am. But we had a lot of rain again overnight, and we were parked in an area that got quite soft when it was wet.

We were a little worried about getting out okay!