Tuesday 21st May From Ronda to Seville
Down from the cliff tops and through the mountains, the trees were quite different - that meant not Olive or Almond, Some of them were, we were told, Cork Oak - it was difficult to get a photo as we were going so fast along the winding road - but you should be able to see where they have had the bark cut away. At first they are a rich reddy brown colour but then over the years revert back to the grey, if I remember correctly it is about 12 years before they can be de-barked again
I will try and get a better photo as we are on the way to Portugal - maybe I just find this interesting because I worked in flooring?
It was a day of stopping for views and villages. First stop was Grazalema, voted one of the prettiest of the white villages in Spain, apparently there is one white villages that was painted blue because that is where The Smurfs were filmed, they were supposed to have their village painted back white, but decided to stay with the blue because of the interest that it caused. Tourism is a big industry in Spain, and especially helpful in the small villages.
From Grazalema, looking back on the way we had come, on these cliff tops we saw some large birds circling whilst driving towards Grazalema, Griffen vultures, but too high up to get a photo.
A couple or pretty doorways in the township.
We travelled through some lovely forest, could have been NZ but trees were a bit further apart and the wildflowers growing in between, beautiful. We came down to farming land once again, fields of wheat and sunflowers,
Unfortunately the sunflowers were facing away from the bus and towards the sun, but the potential is there, in fact we are just a bit early, another month or so and the fields will be truly golden.
Argos de la Fontera - The frontier in this instance was between the Christian and Moorish lands - so prior to 1492.
We then travelled on to Jerez ( Herez) which means sherry. We visited the Winery of Tio Pepe where we had a sherry tasting and Tapas for lunch.The winery is quite old and has casks of sherry signed by many famous people, royals, actors, racing car drivers etc.
I was happy to see Jacques Cousteau.
We had three sherries to taste, just little bits in my glasses but we had a merry time and most of us dozed off at some time on the next part of our journey, I would guess that there are only two of our group that are younger than me, but most are very fit, some in their eighties !
Next stop. Seville - specifically the Plaza España, builds for an Exposition in 1929. There were mansions along the way built by Spains Colonies, Guatemala, Argentina etc. but Spain built this…..
And for some closer detail
We reached our hotel about 5 pm, it is in the Jewish quarter made up of a few houses and courtyards, bit of a winding route through a maze of passages and courtyards to our rooms, easier to get to reception as there are arrows in place but a challenge going the other way.
We then went to a Flamenco demonstration, in the Flamenco School, One guitarist, two singers and three dances, two women and one man, They were all extremely talented, we were unable to photograph but the hour we had watching them flew by, it was a wonderful experience, there was a tour group of Japanese there also they were whooping and clapping along.
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