We headed to Sevilla from Huelva, a great ride! Getting out of the city was a bit tricky, but once we were a ways out, the road was beautiful, great towns to stop through for short tours, little traffic and fairly big shoulders. Our only trouble was that is was some sort of holiday, so as our luck would have it again, stores were closed. Surprise, surprise. We are realizing that the work hours in Portufal and Spain are quite short. Their siesta lasts anywhere from 2-7, and of course no hours on their windows. It´s pretty entertaining, but we always make due. We saw great castles and old churches, more small towns and beautiful scenery.
Getting to Sevilla is one thing, finding our way around the city for a place to stay is another. It takes at least an hour or two. Wanting to stay in the city, we opted for a room in a residencial, fantastic. A quick shower and we were out the door for tapas. Spain truly is the home of tapas! Every window that serves food has these whole Iberican pig legs, nails and all, hanging from the ceiling. We found this great little place with about 8 tables, one server and one cook. Quiet, quaint place. Just perfect for us. A few cervezas and glasses of wine, along with some tapas was just what our bodies needed. Ryan accidentaly ordered foie gras. Oh my! It was absolutely delicious to say the least. That with some blueberry jam and bread, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! And the ham, Anthony Bourdain was not lying! The ham here is amazing. I have found a new love! We strolled through Sevilla for about 8 hours a day as there is so much to see. Castles, churches, gypsies trying so swindle money, street performers. One guy even dressed himself up as a man on the top half and a woman on the bottom, but full people and made them dance. Hilarious! And sweety, poor guy. We ended up staying for 3 nights, worth every second.
From Sevilla, quite a trick getting out of the city of course, we headed toward Rhonda. A long day of riding, striking out at our first stop for a place to stay, we were forced to keep riding another 30 kilometers. Lucky us, we found ourselves in the fantastic town of Zahara. I would highly highly recommend anyone making a trip here. It is so beautiful, I can´t even begin to describe what we fortunately laid our eyes on. It sits right on a huge lake, roads for biking, rails to hike, a castle sits at the top of the town which also sits on a mountain side, simply breath taking. The first place we saw was for a hotel called, Al Lago. To our luck, the owner spoke English, had moved from NY and her husband grew up in Columbus, OH. What are the chances? And he was a NY chef! Yes! She cut us a deal for an updated, newly remodeled room for 2 nights. We slept in the biggest bed we have ever seen. Literally. The terrace overlooked the lake and the restaurant was absolutely delicious. Ryan ordered ribs that night and I had seabase with clams flown in that day. Stefan and Mona, great people! After riding for 10 hours, we couldn´t have been more happy. We even watched some tv in English. Ah, the little things yet again!
Filling ourselves with the breakfast included before taking off (the waitress kept coming out and asking if we wanted more food. Our answer was always yes. We can´t seem to fill our bellies enough), we opted for a shorter ride, half of it uphill to the town of Grazalema. A small little town yet again, tiny streets, and steep street at that! Makes for a tough end after passing through some mountains. Finding a campsite was great, saves us some money and allows us to stay within our daily budget. We set up camp and waited for reception to open. Right away the woman said, ¨You should have come here first. We have 40 middle school kids here tonight.¨ Hahahahaha. Just our luck. Man do middle schoolers talk. Talk and talk and talk and scretch, and talk some more! They were actually quite good kids, just wouldn´t shut up! Their teacher had them under control though, so once 11 hit, they were in their tents and on their way to sleep. We were unfortunately in the path the overlook for them, so we ended up getting one of our tent stakes broken. Good thing for spares!
Grazalema to the bull fighting town of Rhonda! Definitely one of the prettiest ride amongst cork trees. Riding through the mountains is so different from the flatter land, working the legs and of course it´s so gorgeous. I guess the trees are striped about every 20-30 years for their cork, maybe the bottom 8 feet. They truly feel like cork, fascinating. Rhonda sits on the edge of a cliff, dropping down maybe 100 feet. Although the town if filled with tourists, it´s a great spot. An ancient town where people were literally thrown off the bridge and cliff during the Spanish civil war, a bull fighting ring and old walled city. We stayed for only one night before heading towards Malaga, riding with the winds at our back and camping along the southern coast.
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