We have enjoyed a day of travel into Spain! It was a great, quick and easy trip, on the really big highway, from Tavira. Our first exploration stop, after a quick pit stop to pick up a map at a small town gas station, was Sevilla! Literally EVERYONE we asked about Sevilla, said they loved it and what a nice city it is, the thing is they did not just say this.....their face would melt into a smile, with kind of a soft glaze in their eyes and a dreamy tone to their voice, as they said it!! This was every, single person.....so we knew it had to be true!
We were a bit worried about finding our way to the 'right' part of the city for a quick, 'Coles Notes version' of a visit......you know the place.....quaint, yet traditional.....unique shopping area....the heart and pulse of a great city. We were very fortunate to have found it right away and not only were we lucky about that, we had a very friendly man notice us looking at a map, once we parked and were heading out, on foot, who asked us if we needed some help finding somewhere. Well....he ended up being so very helpful, not only related to Sevilla, but he offered some very interesting suggestions for where we should go, outside of Sevilla! His suggestions were not on our 'planned route' for these 3 days but, hey......he seemed to be very knowledgable and very invested in making our visit to Spain, an interesting, beautiful and memorable one! E decided to let him be 'the wind' that directed our journey into this new and beautiful country!! :) Here is a picture of him and I......
Today (May 1st) is apparently a big civic holiday in Portugal and Spain (& maybe other European countries as well??....) it is "Worker's Day"..... We somehow missed the memo about this, so.....we arrived in Sevilla on a store-closed day! This was too bad because I really wanted to shop for some beautiful Spanish leather boots!!! This 'closed' status did not hamper the amazing 'energy' in the parks.....at the outdoor cafes.....and in the stunning garden/street squares! There was a vivid 'hum' of laid-back-let's-enjoy-this-worker's-day-off-work energy everywhere and it was WONDERFUL! We walked about the streets a little bit.....had lunch .....witnessed a bridal party celebrate a young bride's up and coming marriage and devised a plan that involved heading out to another part of Spain (as suggested by our impromptu travel guide/friend) and return to shop and explore Sevilla, on Friday, for a full day.
We arrived in the exquisite small city of Cadiz, which is a peninsula on one of the farthest south points of Spain. It is LITERALLY encased by 14 kilometres of soft, sandy beach!!! Seriously.....this place is amazing.....the sand is the space between the city perimeter and the Atlantic Ocean!! We arrived in the late afternoon to find people 'playing' on the beach.....volley ball, sand castles, jogging, fishing, swimming, walking/strolling, sunning, and it looked like some nooky as well!!! It was 'alive' with the energy of people who love the beach and were really into it!! We were, once again, in awe of this new shade of 'BEAUTIFUL'!!
We took our sandals off, walked the sandy shoreline, for a couple of miles, dipping our feet into this corner of the Atlantic Ocean!! Once again, the water was clear and the waves were lapping vs.crashing! It was so beautiful, we decided to spend the night here, so..... we booked into a hotel that is about 50 steps from the sandy beach and we are, now,wonderfully settled into this comfortable place. After watching a exquisite sun set on the beautiful beach of Cadiz (sitting on the sand with a glass of vihno) and then, walking along the promenade (which is right at the sand's edge) for over an hour (being wonderfully entertained by the harmonic chorus of many different languages, spoken all around us), exploring the way to 'the Old Town' (which we plan to spend some time in tomorrow morning), we sat on our balcony enjoying a glass of wine, before settling into our room. Our 'travel guide' told us there is an amazing market in the 'old town', so we will rise to the shine of the sun on the water, tomorrow morning, and head out to absorb the rich beauty of this stunning little city! :).
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Just had to check in even though I am exhausted from a very loooooooong day. We love those impromptu changes of direction and try to allocate freedom for just that sort of thing into a travel plan. Love reading your journaling about the European way of life . . so rich in history ad tradition.
ReplyDeleteNitey nite . . . will check back tomorrow . . you are probably just waking to May 2 right about now.
I love the picture of the goods in the front window of the bakery!!! YUM!!
ReplyDeleteYet another beautiful post!