27 June Seville to Barbate (where is that I hear you say)

The advantage for us having an apartment for the night was that we had a kitchenette so we could at least cater for ourselves for a decent breakfast

We hadn’t really decided what we were going to do today or where we were going to go. We toyed with the idea of staying in Seville another night and exploring more of Seville as we had only seen the Maria Louisa Gardens and the Plaza De Espana.

However we finally opted for travelling further south so that there wasn’t as far to travel the next day to make sure we reached the ferry across to Tangier in time. Reading the following in the Lonely Planet decided it for us…

“Arriving in the Costa De La Luz is like opening the window in a crowded room and gasping in the early morning sunlight. Bereft of tacky resorts and unplanned development, suddenly you can breathe again. More to the point you are back in Spain, a world of flat capped farmers and clacking dominoes”

We did try to tour a bit of Seville in the car to try to catch some of the sights before we left but after getting stuck in one way streets again and nearly running out of petrol we decided to head out. We did however manage to get a park near to the this fascinating bridge over the river and get some photos.

To get a good vantage point we went down to the walk alongside the river. This opened our eyes – this is the first time we have seen any squalor in Spain. There was rubbish everywhere, it smelt and there were homeless people camped there. A bit sad, sorta spoils any nice stroll along the river.

Another thing we noticed here that we hadn’t noticed anywhere else other than the parking incident in Cordoba is the number of Africans trying to sell you things, when you are stopped at traffic lights.

Short journey to Barbate, the place we had picked to stay on the Costa De La Luz, passing more wind turbines, solar farms, olive groves and sunflower plantations.

Another hazy day. Yesterday was pretty poor visibility. Today was even worse. By the time we got down to the south coast there appeared to be dust floating in the air.

It was still boiling hot so we were relieved to get into an air conditioned room at the Playa Del Carmen hotel that we had booked into.

We did however decide to take a walk down to the beach to check it out. WHOA not quite what we expected – a seething mass of bodies all shapes and sizes but also some cute little kids splashing about and building sand castles.

Late dinner as usual with views of the ocean and with the semi final of the European cup on the TV  in the foreground. Spain playing Portugal. Score still 0-0 and it is 11:15 so this little vegemite is going to bed, even though I had the Spanish colours drawn on my arm, I don't feel that strongly for the Spanish team to stay up.

another long and exciting day tomorrow...............