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MICHAEL:
We´re in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, famous for sherry production and departures of some guys named Magellan and Columbus on various sailing holidays. We´re staying a few kilometres away in an out of season beach town called Chipiona, and are going for a boat ride this afternoon up the Guadlquivir River along the edge of Doñana National Park.
We spent 5 nights at a small finca horse ranch/rural hotel outside Ronda. Rented a car for the time we were there, and toured around the Pueblos Blancos. Lots more mountain roads, wonderful vistas of hillside towns, many dominated by a hilltop Moorish fortress. It´s fun to just pull out up in some village we´ve never heard of, wanting nothing more than to find a cold drink, and find ourselves wandering through the streets and finding interesting things. Like the village of Setenil, just north of Ronda, where the town is located ina gorge, and all along the sides of the gorge, where the cliff overhangs, houses are built with their fronts sticking out, and their backs dug into the cliff. It would probably be nice and cool in the summer.
One day we drove south from Ronda to the coast at La Linea, where we parked the car for the day and walked across the border into Gibraltar. Gibraltar is kind of a zoo. It is hyperactive compared to Spain, with lots of zooming mopeds, and really only one main road running the whole 3 kilomtre length of the colony. It felt a bit grubby, but it seems that homes (condos all) there are very expensive. We took the cable car up onto the top of the rock, where the nature reserve is, and where the macacque monkeys live. They were fun to watch. They spend a lot of time picking lice or nits from each other, the young ones climb in the trees and the shrubs. They like to sits on railings directly above the 1000 foot precipitous drop to the sea, making me nauseous when I´d think they were not being careful enough. There are lots of signs telling visitors to be careful, as the monkeys associate plastic bags with food. So, we didn't carry an plastic bags. But I went into a small shop, and picked up a packaged ice cream cone. as I was approaching the till to pay for the ice cream cone, I received a body check to my thigh, and the ice cream cone was snatched from my hand, and the wicked beast ran back out of the shop, sat on a railing, tore the top off the cone, and proceeded to eat it. I took pictures, and went without.
JEANNE
Another serendipitious event during our tours around Ronda - finding a stretch of Roman road that was still being used as part of a park trail. Most of the stones were still in place, and there were gutters on both sides. The Grazelema park is very beautiful - lots of cork oak forests and stunning vistas. I liked it better than the Alpujarras. The park is a mixed use area, people still farm and collect cork and graze animals.
It´s funny the things that strike as different - the pillows are long and narrow, wide enough to span a single bed. We even had a queen bed where the single pillow ran the entire width of the bed.
MICHAEL:
Tomorrow we´ll take the bus and train to Sevilla, where we´ll see the world´s largest gothic cathedral, more Moorish gardens and palaces, eat tapas, drink sherry, see great art, and whatever else comes our way.
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