Back into Spain

I’d like to be able to write that we started the next day (Wed 16th) with a hearty breakfast but ‘I cannot lie to you’. If truth be told we were not really sorry to be leaving our naff accommodation. (By the way, Keith, I haven’t started moaning yet) We loaded up the bike, paid our bill and took our leave. The weather had improved somewhat from the previous evening, although there was still a considerable amount of low grey cloud hanging about, I think most it over the accommodation, and the temperature seemed to be hovering around the 13 to 15 degree mark.

So once again with the satnav programmed we headed due east, we were on our jubilant way, riding our sturdy steed heading out of Portugal back into Spain, destination - Badajoz (pronounced Bathaajojjj). The weather picked up, the grey clouds dispersed and the sun broke through with temperatures soaring to 17 degrees (I’m sweltering but Ann is still wearing all 5 layers of clothing - It’ll probably take Morocco before she starts to shed a layer or two). Life is good and we are really enjoying the easy carefree way of life, I reckon we could get used to this!! Anyone want to join us??? The roads are a joy to ride, very little traffic, great tarmac surfaces and gloriously twisting and turning bends – what more could you ask for?

We made Badajoz in good time and made a Bee line (Lisa you might appreciate that) straight for an eatery as we were ravenous. An hour or so later feeling fuller we set about finding a place to stay. The first port of call is generally the Tourist Info, whom to date have always been immensely helpful and in most cases multi-lingual. As most of you will know, languages are not a problem for me - I just ask Ann, “What did they Say”. Actually all joking apart we do really well with the communication and somehow it works out, it really is part of the fun!!

We located suitable accommodation and made our way to the hotel Condedo. D. I Cronin dismounted the bike and went about her business (for those that don’t know, D I stands for Detective Inspectoress). Ann is extremely thorough and generally puts the hoteliers through the wrangle (I’m sure it should be the other way, but there we go), she checks out their credentials and ensures the room is up to standard and meets her specification, sometimes she might even try to squeeze a little bit of discount, depending on how she feels. I’ve been told by one or two of the Hoteliers as we’ve been leaving, they thought she was from one of the Government Depts - I didn’t like to ask which one, just in case - hehehehe.

Badajoz appeared to be quite a modern city but for us it was only really a short stop over on our way to Seville,and with the weather turning a little nasty we didn’t get the opportunity to explore the sights. We did however, visit a few bars and even had the opportunity to watch Arsenal play Barcelona on the TV.

Thursday 17th Feb 2011, we loaded our kit onto the bike, had breakfast at a great little Spanish Bar just up from our Hotel made good friends with the barman who happened to be a biker, in fact he showed us a picture of his beloved Honda CBR on his phone which was more than I could show him on mine –food for thought. We bid him farewell, mounted our steed, set the Sat nav –destination The Beautiful city of Seville, heading due south and staying at the Hostal Jenthoff which we had booked over t’internet .

The journey took us about 2.5 hours we covered approx 205 kilometres (for you Keith just over 120 miles). The weather was dry and clear but very very windy and somewhat challenging riding the bike, the roads were once again beautiful to ride, undulating and winding, we eventually finished our journey into Seville on a dual carriageway and for those worldly travellers it was route 66!! The sat nav brought us to our destination and by 15.30 we were back in our civvies and walking into the centre of Seville. The sky above was azure blue, the sun was shining and temp soaring above 17 degrees, isn’t life good!!!

We’d decided to book a couple of nights in Seville, so Thursday was a bit of a recky for us in preparation for a Friday tour extravaganza, and my goodness that’s exactly how it turned out. I can only describe our visit to Seville as brilliant, it really is a magnificent city, steeped in history with many, many outstanding buildings both architecturally and historically. We took a total of 70 photographs whilst we were in the city, I’m pretty damn sure that’s got to be a record for us, however we will not populate the blog with all 70 so you can breathe a sigh of relief. There were many highlights and I’m not going to describe them all but there were three that stand out in my memory:





1. The Cathedral (Cathedral y Giralda) I’m just going to say ,outstanding, we were in there for over 4 hours (some pictures to enjoy).

2. The Bullfighting Arena (Plaza Toros Maestranza) – we had a thoroughly enjoyable tour of the Arena from a very well informed tour guide. She was excellent and we were lucky enough to have an extra 15 mins or so afterwards with the guide on our own when she told us all about the history of bullfighting. I only occasionally interrupted her just to put her straight on a couple of points that I felt she’d gotten wrong , (I think she took a bit of a shine to me, but I can’t tell you why, I probably reminded her of a famous Torero - Fr Ted (Marky Elsmore you might appreciate that).

 3.Plaza de Espana - An awesome building, built for the Spanish Exhibition in 1928. (some pics for you to enjoy) I should also mention the University, another outstanding building which we walked through and somehow had a bit of an impromptu & unofficial tour (we took a ‘wrong’ turn and managed to get on to the upper floors) we just walked around enjoying the facility and nobody asked us for id, well I suppose they must have recognised D I Ann Cronin!!!

Thanks for all the welcome comments, we really enjoy reading them and it makes home that little bit closer.

Congrats to Natasha & Steve on the birth of there new daughter Isabella – it was worth it wasn't it Tash xx    Also congrats to proud grandparents Sheila and Kevin - AGAIN!!

Lots of love

The Easy Riders xxx