Greg and Deb's Travel Blog

We explored the city by ourselves today. We got away from our hotel around d 10:30’ish, a “Spanish” start to our day.
We headed down to La Caleta to start our day with a walk on the beach and a touch of the Atlantic. The beach was fairly busy, lots of people of all ages out sun baking and a few even were in the water. It was fun just doodling along at the waters edge.
From there we walked out to Castillo de San Sebastián via the scenic stone causeway. The causeway has a few openings in it to allow the oceans waters to flow through it to and from the bay. One of them is large enough for small fishing boats to pass through. It’s about 500m long and provides great view back to Cadiz. Continue reading →

Did I mention that the sun doesn’t get up here until 8:20am (and sets at 8:08pm), so slow starts are almost compulsory, and we are on holiday.
When we checked in we noticed they asked for you to book a breakfast time, so we booked 8am for this morning. A great plan, sleep in, easy morning, no rush. Mmmmmm we woke at about 8:15, so we threw insole clothes and rushed down to breakfast. We should have taken our time, the breakfast are was 1/3 full at most, and the breakfast on offer wasn’t something you’d rush for!
This morning we had a guided tour of some of the more remarkable historic sites of Cadiz, and a walk around the historic streets, generally taking in the feel of this ancient city.
We eventually met our guide, Elizabeth, in the lobby of our hotel at 10:10am and set out to explore. Continue reading →

Happy birthday Sarah. Hope you were spoilt.

I think I broke Deb yesterday. I must remember 20k+ steps with nothing stimulating to see or do, feels like a lost opportunity.
The Seville “Mushrooms” are close to our hotel, so I took advantage of a slow morning and took a walk to see them (via the laundrette in search of a missing sock, no luck!). Metropol Parasol or Las Setas de Sevilla is a large wooden structure located in Plaza de la Encarnación, It is 26m high and covers an area of 150x 70m. It claims to be the largest wooden structure in the world. It’s impressive to look at but seems out of place in this city, why? keeps coming to my mind.
We packed ready for our next city. Today we travel to Cadiz. It’s one of the oldest continually settled cities in Western Europe, having an occupied history of over 3000 years starting with the Phoenicians. Continue reading →

Today was a day to ourselves.
We set out to explore Seville, our first destination was the river. What we thought was the river next to the Bullring was actually Canal de Alfonso XIII, go figure huh, looks like a river to us. But if you look at a map the “canal” comes to an abrupt stop just north of town. So we set out on a mission to see the Guadalquivir River. It is a 657km long river that runs from the Sierra de Cazorla to the Atlantic Ocean at Cadiz. Its the only major navigable river in Spain these days and in the past was a lifeline for the civilisations of the Phoneticians, Iberian, Romans and Moors. By that description it was definitely worth an hours walk! Descriptions can sometimes lead to over expectations, this was a good example. Underwhelming comes to mind. But hey, we saw it in all its “glory”. Continue reading →

At about 8:40 we headed out for a half day tour of Seville, taking in the Cathedral, Royal Alcázars and to explore what makes the essence of Saville.
Unfortunately our tour company had changed our schedule and forgotten to tell us. We eventually rescheduled our tour for 2pm.
So we took a walk down to the river and found the Bull Ring was open, so we went in and had a look around. It was built in the 18th century, making it one of Spain’s oldest Bullrings. It was built in a blend of Baroque and Newcastle’s with an ornate facade and ma y archways. It is considered the one of the most prestigious bullring in the world and regularly hosts bull fights. It has a museum dedicated to bull fighting, its equipment people, costumes and of course the bulls. It was really interesting to look around. The seating is hard, all seats are concrete/brick, with the higher priced seats having a little more room. General admission cost from 20 to 60 euro with premium seats costing up to 200+ euro. The stadium seats around 12,000. The bullring itself was a raked orange clay, it looked similar to the colouring of clay tennis courts. You could very easily imagine the roar of the crowd when you sat in the stadium.
Continue reading →

Left the hotel at 9:50 and were at the train station at 10:00. We had to wait to find out what platform we were leaving from before we could go through security ,(a bit like airport style but very loose) and check in.
Well we did that, found our platform and on the train in our seats by 10:50. It took about 10 mins to complete all that, not quite the “sh!t fest” we were expecting.
The train left at 11:00, it is an AVE High Speed Train capable of speeds up to 300kph, but averages a bit over 120kph, and guess what, no seat belts! One of my GPS apps clocked us at over 278kph
In the countryside on our way to Seville there were lots of olive trees and quite a few large solar energy farms. I’m not sure why, but my ears popped several times on the journey, something to do with the speed I guess. Continue reading →

Some facts about Madrid
The city of Madrid has a population of about 3 million, greater Madrid around 7 million.
Madrid became the capital of Spain in 1561
Our day began with a half day tour of Madrid city. Our guide, Mari Luz, took us straight up to Plaza Mayor.
There we were given a quick history of Madrid. Continue reading →

It’s time to go to Spain. We were up at 4, ready for our 5am airport transfer at 4:50am.
We were at the airport by 5:10, but our check in counters didn’t open until 6:10! Our hour long flight took off at 8:30 and we were at our hotel in Madrid around11:30am (Madrid time), so a bit over 5hrs from hotel to hotel in different countries!
We were very grateful that our room was ready on our arrival, and we made the most of it with a few hours of relax time. Continue reading →