We spent our first night back in Europe in a big free campsite on the border between Spain and Gibraltar then made our way to El Puerto de Santa Maria, where we've stayed before, for a few days of luxury on a very well organised and comfortable site. From there we had an enjoyable day trip to Jerez, then moved to a campsite outside Seville and spent a relaxing day rediscovering what a lovely city it is. On this visit we realised that the famous Giralda is indeed just an Islamic minaret with a bell tower and statue stuck on top.
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| The Giralda, Seville |
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| Minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque, Marrakesh |
Since then we've made a loop through a bit of Southern Portugal and back to El Puerto de Santa Maria, to catch the 'Carnaval' celebrations in Cadiz.
We thoroughly enjoyed Morocco, but on our return to Spain we were surprised by how relieved we felt, and how much it felt like coming home! The town of La Linea de La Conception, which looked so sad and dowdy on our way out, looked so neat and prosperous when we returned. After two months in Morocco even Franco's unlovely 1960s port of Algeciras looked like something out of Switzerland.
The part of the Algarve that we visited was, as we'd expected, full of Northern Europeans basking in the warm sunshine. However, it was also very pretty and peaceful. We visited the Rio Formosa National park, which is great for bird watching and saw flamingoes, spoonbills, curlew, egrets, storks and geese as well as many other types of wader that we didn't recognise.
The campsite we stayed at, Camping Moncarapacho, was very characterful; a big field with scattered vans, scattered animals (horses, camels, a pig, a macaw, highland cattle, an alpaca), scattered circus vans, including a human cannonball cannon. Only 7 euros a night including electricity, showers & wifi, almost as cheap as Morocco, but you know you're not in a Muslim country any more when there's a pet pig on the campsite!
We also took a scenic drive through the cork oak region, then paid a short visit to Alcoutim, a quiet little town on the Rio Guadiana , which forms the border between Portugal and Spain. Strangely, although you can see Spain clearly just over the river, there is no bridge or car ferry to allow you to cross here. We stayed the night at a smart new aire. Free water, waste dump and even electricity as well as a view across the river. Perfect we thought. Unfortunately, although the town was quite sleepy, the local dogs were having a festival of barking that night so it wasn't as peaceful as we'd hoped.
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| Sanlucar de Guadiana (Spain) from Alcoutim (Portugal) |
We decided to add a week to our journey home, and backtrack to El Puerto, because we'd been told that the Carnaval celebrations of Cadiz are among the best in the world and are definitely worth seeing.
The first challenge was getting to the event. We arrived at the ferry port in El Puerto de Santa Maria planning to catch the 12:00 ferry and joined a spectacular queue of Spaniards, many in fancy dress, waiting surprisingly patiently.
We finally crossed at 14:00 and joined the thronging mass of revellers enjoying the day's festivities. We'd read that Cadiz carnival is famous for the satirical groups called chirigotas, who perform comic songs, accompanied by guitars, kazoos and drums. We knew that we'd have little chance of understanding the satirical songs, but could certainly join in with the eating, drinking and admiring the parades. As it turned out, the chirigotas were spectacular and very entertaining to watch; and they were everywhere. Some large groups were on floats being pulled through the crowded streets by a tractor.
Some small groups were performing at street level.
Some were clearly High School pupils.
and oe group even gave an impromptu performance on the ferry back to El Puerto.
One of the best things about the festival was how very good natured it was. The streets were packed with people, all of whom seemed to have been drinking all day, yet we didn't see any sign of arguments or even bad tempered shoving. Everyone, from babies to grumpy old ladies seemed to be entering into the spirit of the carnival and having a good time.
Return of the wine (and food) blog.
One of the first jobs when we returned to Spain was to uncover our cache of hidden wine.
Back in December we found ourselves about to cross to Morocco with much more than our permitted alcohol allowance. Despite our best efforts we knew that we couldn't drink it all before we crossed. So we wrapped our excess booze in black plastic bags and hid it in bushes on the beach at La Linea de la Conception. However, as we travelled around Morocco we met many Northern Europeans who had stocked up with wine and beer at Spanish supermarkets before crossing; they obviously knew something that we didn't, or knew how to grease palms at the border. Goodie-Goodies that we are, we arrived in Morocco with 1 bottle of cava and 1 bottle of Torres brandy with which to celebrate Christmas and the New Year.
On returning from Morocco we were initially alarmed to find that all the leaves had fallen off the bushes that were our carefully chosen hiding places; but delighted to find all our wine was safe.
We really aren't cut out for life in a Muslim country. It is possible to buy wine in the big French style supermarkets in major towns, but anything that has to be imported is extremely expensive. The few Moroccan wines that we tried were ok, but they just don't compare to a nice Spanish or French wine.
As for the lack of pork; that was even harder to bear. Especially when you're so close to Spain with their delicious Iberian pork, 'albondigas' meat balls and the wide range of jamon. Our first night back in Spain involved a feast of pork products, which of course formed a perfect accompaniment to a good drop of Rioja.
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| 'Presa Iberica' - Pork with a ham garnish |
One more previously undiscovered gem that we've recently come across is 'Tortilla de Camerones'. These shrimp fritters seem to be a speciality of the Cadiz region, they were selling them all over the place during the festival, and they are delicious! Sadly we're not going to be able to stock up on them so we'll just have to trawl the web for the recipe when we get home.
Our plan now is to have one more night in Spain, at an aire in Zafra about 100km north of Seville, then cross back into Portugal and loop through Lisbon and Porto before heading back towards Spain. From then on it's a fairly direct route back to Britain, though obviously we can't come home until we've made a final trip to Rioja and Bordeaux.
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