Lori's Travels

My 8:30 breakfast was in the hotel this morning, in a small area off the lobby where they have a few tables and a continental buffet. I was the only guest there, perhaps because most Spanish tourists stay out late drinking and don’t want to get up early. Or perhaps there are only a few guests in this small hotel.

It was overcast to begin the day, but later changed to partly cloudy.

I joined a free walking tour of Seville that gathers people from area hotels by 10:30 a.m. and then segregates this large group by language into smaller groups. My English-speaking group was about 20 in number, led by Ruben, a native Sevillano with passable English and a man bun. (He probably would have benefited from some time in Vaughan Town.) We followed Ruben and his purple umbrella around for the next 2.5 hours and he told many interesting stories about the history of the city. We ended up at the Plaza de Espana, built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition, and the location where some scenes of Lawrence of Arabia and the second episode of Star Wars movies were shot.

After the tour ended, I bought a sandwich for lunch at a restaurant we had passed and returned to the hotel for a siesta. Here is another photo of a typical street near my hotel in the Santa Cruz area of Seville.

My dinner was simple fare bought from a little grocery store nearby: a small, fresh baguette, some cheese, and an apple. Sadly, no wine. But I learned of a sweet wine made in Spain from oranges, vino de naranja, that I want to try and find tomorrow.

 

Saturday was a long, final day of birding in the Donana wetlands. At dinner afterwards, we tallied up the species seen and counted more than 140 kinds for the trip. We celebrated the great birding and our nice trip companions, plus Pau being an excellent guide. The restaurant provided flamingo-shaped desserts at the end of the meal.

This morning we left El Rocio at 9:00 after breakfast and drove the hour to Seville in the sunshine. I was the first one that Pau dropped off because of the location of my hotel on the close side of town. Ann and Mike were taken to the train station, Linsay and Dean to the airport to return to Scotland, and Malcolm was accompanying Pau back to the Valencia area where they both live.

Pau couldn’t drive all the way to my hotel, which is in the old part of Seville along very narrow streets. But I was dropped off within a 5-minute walk of my hotel about 10:15 a.m. Here’s the street my hotel is located on.

 I dropped off my bag and checked in to El Rey Moro Hotel, but of course my room wasn’t ready so early. So I set out to explore the area. I quickly found Sevilla Cathedral and La Giralda, the Moorish tower adjacent to the cathedral. 

 

I walked around quite a bit, exploring the old city. I stopped for tea along the Guadalquivir River that runs through the city. And I sat in a small park for a while, watching people. I wasn’t really hungry, since I had eaten a lot for breakfast, so I just bought an apple and water at a little store nearby. About 2 p.m. I returned to the hotel and my bag had been placed in my room already. 

At 5:30, my tapas and flamenco tour from Devour Seville started in a nearby square. The guide was Sofie, an English and Spanish speaking French woman who was really knowledgeable about tapas and flamenco. 10 people were on the tour: two couples from Atlanta, an American woman who lives in Paris, two men living in Minnesota, and two women from India, plus me. Sofie took us to three tapas bars, where we sampled sweet vermouth, various ham, cheese, shrimp and veggie tapas, two different sherries, and wines. Plus, from 7 to 8 we watched some flamenco – guitar, singing and dancing in a small venue. Sofie did a great job of explaining everything beforehand. The tour ended about 10:30 p.m. and I walked back about 10 minutes to my hotel.

 

Yesterday, we left Trujillo in the morning and drove south to the Andalucia region of Spain, to the small and unique town of El Rocio. It was another sunny day and we birded at a few stops along the way. El Rocio is located on the edge of Donana (spelled and pronounced with a tilde over the first n) wetlands, a national park. We arrived around 5 p.m. which is peak tapas time and happy hour. It was also Andalucia Day, a holiday for the region that commemorates the start of the provincial autonomy. So there were lots of people in town, probably many who came for a day trip from Seville.

One thing that makes El Rocio unique is that the streets in the town center are just sand, not paved. That’s because lots of the locals ride their horses into town at tapas time to socialize on horseback. They also have horse-drawn carriages that families take rides in, drinks in hand, talking to other people they know who are also in carriages or on horseback. So the downtown is a crazy mix of horses, carriages, and cars. And bars all over the place with places to tie up your horses while you go inside, or high bars where you’re served drinks while you are still on horseback.

Dinner was at 8 p.m. before the hotel restaurant got busy with Spaniards. A macaroni starter, tuna steak with vegetables, a cherry mousse for dessert and of course…what?…WINE! The bars were still busy and loud after dinner, but with ear plugs I brought along, I had no trouble getting to sleep. I think the bars were quiet by 3 a.m. or so.

This morning was foggy to start, but cleared up and was sunny by noon. After our buffet continental breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we drove to more wetlands and the coast near the city of Huelva. And we saw lots of birds. Pau is an excellent guide who knows just where to go to find lots of birds, new species each day. Today we saw many shorebirds near the Atlantic and in the wetlands.

The other unique thing about El Rocio is the pilgrimage/commemoration that takes place here every May. A commemoration of the miracle of seeing the Virgin Mary in a drop of water, which happened here at some time in the past. Evidently, thousands of people come here at that time each year. Two of the Spaniards in Vaughan Town last week told me about it. I haven’t researched it myself, so take that story with a grain of salt.

 

 

Last night before dinner, we walked around more of the old town of Trujillo. Here are some pics. 

My dinner was a local version of tomato soup, sea bass, and creme caramel. And wine, of course.

Today was another sunny day of birding the steppe area around Trujillo. More good birds. We had coffee and a pleasant picnic lunch in the town of Santa Marta de Magasca.

Tomorrow we check out of our lodge and move toward Donana wetlands and the town of El Rocio, our next stopping point. We also leave the Extremadura region and into the Andalucia region.

Today was a day much like yesterday. First of all, sunny yet again. Breakfast at 7:30 and departure by 8:15. But today we went into the nearby national park, Monfrague. We spent the day there at several different locations, culminating at the Monfrague castle that sits on top of a mountain. It provided an excellent viewpoint looking down onto soaring vultures and storks, but also has history dating back to the 12th century.

Among the birds we saw today were the black vulture, black stork, and the great spotted cuckoo, just arrived from its migration from Africa. Each day we’re seeing quite a few new birds.

Lunch was a picnic in the park and dinner will be at the same restaurant in Trujillo tonight. It was warm again today, maybe more than 70. Another great day!