After another late night last night watching football go into extra time, we slept in again. A late breakfast (at 10am) on the roof top was this morning accompanied by live guitar music. It seemed fitting to be sitting on the roof of the hotel looking over Seville eating breakfast with classical guitar music in the background. And the guy was even quite good.
We drove back today from Seville to Vilamoura. We decided to drive back via Huelva (pronounced Welba) which is a port town in Spain. It was where Chris went to seek out the support of the Franciscan monks for his second exploratory voyage. From the look of Huelva, that was the last good thing that happened there. If you are ever tempted to good to Huelva, don’t make the mistake we made. It was a waste of fuel and the 30 minute detour.
It was much cooler today with the temperature only in the mid 20s. We also saw the most clouds in the sky (and even a few drops of rain) than we have seen since the first day we were here. Besides the few drops of rain the trip back was uneventful and easy. The landscape on the trip is a lot like the lowveld in South Africa. It would be easy to believe that a lion or elephant could just walk across the road at any moment. I am pretty sure though that it would freak out the people of Portugal if that did happen.
With the hour time change we got back to Vilamoura at about 12:30pm and just in time to re-stock the kitchen and have some lunch and then have a Portuguese siesta. It feels good to be back at our house again – almost like coming home. We are very comfortable here already navigating around the neighborhood. A late afternoon walk around the neighbour (just Helen and I because the kids were too clearly too tired from the active day), dinner and 2 episodes of our other favourite TV series (Suits).
As you know, I always give some thoughts on the countries we visit and I generally restrict my comments to a maximum of the number of days we spend in the country. As we only spent 2 days in Spain I think it is fair to only restrict myself to two comments:
1. Something strange happens in Spain. The men (according to H & C) and women (according to P, S & M) are generally quite attractive when they are young but at some point all the women & men morph into the same shape, size and demeanor. The men become short, squat, white haired and grumpy. The women become stooped, grey haired and grumpy. How they get from the young, pleasant form into the old, grumpy form is the mystery we are yet to solve.
2. Seville is a beautiful city and really worth a visit. Over the next few years of visiting Portugal I am pretty sure we will go back again. It is one of the loveliest cities we have visited in Europe. If you are ever anywhere near Seville – do yourself a favour and spend a night or two in the city – you won’t regret it. Make sure though that your hotel is in a good position near the Old Town so that you can simply walk around – a car is not necessary then and will save you the hassle of driving around.
Until tomorrow … P, H, S (there was some reason why he got promoted but I can’t remember what it was just that I promised to promote him), M & C
PS: I was castigated for wrongly saying that Chloe had translated Real into Palace when she had in fact said it was Royal. Her Spanish honor is at stake and so I humbly apologize for defamation brought to her Spanish character …