Mar 15
We did something a bit different this time, instead of staying in the city overnight, we chose to go outside of town to find our hotel. There were a couple of reasons for this, hotels are less expensive, they are easier to find, parking is not an issue (can cost up to 20 Euros a night ) and as we seldom partake of the night life, we will not be missing anything. The location we chose was the Hotel Santa Ana in La Carlota, about 30 km from Cordoba. Turns out the hotel was at a roadside truck stop. Price was right 50 Euros ($75) a night, parking was free, whiff fee (European pronunciation) was free and we got a free breakfast. What a little gem of a place it was. Quiet and clean, in the countryside, not right in town and there was a bar, lounge and restaurant. And we were in a true Spanish town, very little English spoken, but with lots of pantomime, little bit of my knowledge of Spanish and a firm belief that whatever we ended up with would be just fine, if not a bit of a surprise, we managed.
this was the sign that indicated we were where we wanted to be
some sort of seed plant, but no hotel visible......
......actually it is, turns out our hotel was in the back, to the right, behind the trees -
not my pictures but a sampling of what it looked like - in the morning, when we went down to breakfast, the place was a buzz of activity. There were truck drivers enjoying a breakfast coffee break and two bus loads of tourists on their way to Cordoba, doing the same. A very popular place. It was such a pleasant little setting, we didn't want to leave. When we checked out, the hotel gifted us with a half liter bottle of local olive oil.
new season plants growing - the main economic activity in the area is agriculture and traditional products are dry cereals; olives and oil; vineyards and wine; sunflowers; sugar beets and cotton.
I am thinking these are sunflowers
wildflowers in the roundabout
We started our journey home and our first stop was a lovely town about the size of Campbell River population wise, named Ecija
one of the local town squares - parking is underneath this square
lots of towers in this little place, many use blue tiles as decoration
a funeral was taking place at this church - the bells were continually tolling, one ring about every 30 seconds to let people know what was happening and call them to the service
the door to this small church was standing open, so we ventured in for a look
very intricately carved wooden altar piece
another doorway that was open, so I peeked inside
back on the road
very cool roundabout at El Saucejo
one castle....
...two castles, second one is on that knob in the center
largest body of water we have seen in Spain (dammed)
Arab castle on the hill at Zahara
looks like a wild asparagus
We have done all this travelling in the countryside, but have seen very little evidence of animals, wild or domestic. Today was just a bit better - it started out by seeing some wild partridge along the road...... and then this....
sheep
goats
this little goat really, really wanted to get at the leaves on this tree, we watched him attempt to climb it several times, to get to the tasty bits
more goats
after many kilometers of winding, narrow, climbing roadway, travelling no faster than about 40 km we came upon this town Grazelema
and more animals - pigs this time - trying to get at this coarse prickly plant
a couple more catching some rays
this fellow was strutting his stuff
some chooks were noisily searching for food
village of Gaucin off in the distance
