It was time to buy train tickets for when we leave on Saturday. After weeks of changing our lodgings every night, it is great to just stop in one place to wind down, get back into my exercise routine and take the opportunity to get a feel for a place. It also means there is time to make bookings for events that need to be arranged ahead of time. We thought we had plenty of [...]
We went for a walk today along the 3km shoreline of Cadiz, or was it Cadiz? Various names have been given to the continent’s oldest city but it’s been Cadiz now for a very long time. Yet it is the old city that takes true ownership of the name. The long stretch of beach that we followed was outside the city walls and though it is also Cadiz, the old city people refer to those [...]
It was viewing time already in the cobbled street gallery, as the sun had been busy painting the buildings and cobbles slowly, while continually adding more light, creating changing combinations of light and dark in true Baroque tradition, although its technique preceded it by infinite years. We entered the museum of art uncertain of its contents but inspired by the natural paintings already seen. The primary painter was a Spaniard named Francisco de Zurbaran, a [...]
We paid our seven euros and were led across a dimly lit room of 50 tables with seating for around 200 to a table where ‘Coralie 2’ and 2 Ukrainian names were written, against a wall covered by flamenco artists. One of the artists seemed to have dropped from a photo and was standing silently, wearing a large, bright pink hat with a ‘don’t mess with me look’, as I gingerly sat on my non-favourite [...]
Corrie’s knees don’t like the hills like I do so I climbed the spiral hill (like a real outdoor hill - no steps) on my own. I realised when I got to the top that if you don’t like crowds, it’s a great place to go because many others also don’t enjoy (for various reasons) a steep climb. The view was superb and it was like a tour of the old city in a few [...]
Today it was a bookshop/cafe tour to find a ‘good book’ and the ‘best croissant’. We googled the bookshops and received advice about croissants from the best hostal owner in Spain. We’re staying here for a while and he is determined to ensure, as guests leave, that we are upgraded to the best room. Nothing is any trouble; he engages us in conversation whenever he sees us, and we get on like old friends. Two [...]
We never go on a walking tour, but today we did. Pablo was very entertaining as he led us with his pink umbrella through the tall and narrow streets of Western Europe’s oldest continuously inhabited city. These streets were so designed to keep the uncomfortable weather away both providing nearly continuous shade from the fiery sun and protection from southern Spain’s mighty winds. As he informed us that Cadiz had one of the world’s first [...]
I’m a little obsessed about where I sit and am not too sure where it comes from. I’ve thought about potty training but have no memories of that. So once seats are booked and I don’t have one up the very front, that’s okay, but if they are free flowing seats, that’s when it’s scary. So I determine where the bus will arrive, have Corrie put the luggage on, while I try to be first [...]
We sat on the steps of the local cathedral behind a Faro flautist listening to the enchanting sounds of his silver flute. I could have stayed there all day, watching people stopping, some momentarily, others longer. The power of the flute that has no argument, no need for conflict, no hidden agenda. Instead passers-by responded in their own unique ways. Three men wandered up the steps and sat quietly, their backs against the ancient city [...]
Usually we are in the centre of the old town wherever we are. As we walked, it meant that we were on the camino, having easy access to food and other services, useful because we have to be prepared for unknowns when walking many kilometres and having destinations that need to be reached that day. Now it is very different because we are freer to make more relaxed choices. To this extent we booked our [...]
