The challenge from Leya for this week’s Lens-Artists is all about curves. I found some curvy buildings in my archives from a visit to Seville a few years ago.
The featured image is Puente de Triane.
Buildings with Curves
Tag: Spain
San Sebastian – Past Squares
I have decided to go with one of Becky’s suggestions for PastSquares – posts that didn’t receive much recognition. We visited San Sebastian a few years ago when I had just created a blog, so maybe understandable that this post didn’t receive much attention. Below are some of the photos from that trip.
This was a fantastic road trip from Biarritz to Porto. A combination of driving a hire care and hoping on and off Flix buses. Hopefully we can do another road trip around Europe one day.
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Five photos for CWBC Five
Five photos for Cee’s CBWC
This challenge kept me very busy for a few hours! Lots of fun editing and colouring in.
Cee says photos can be black and white, desaturated, sepia (brown tones) or selective colour.
All Dried Up
Lucky last for Becky’s SquareUp. I thought the pot had gone dry, but then had an epiphany!
Goji berries, ginseng and other tasty morsels
Jamon store in Seville 
Drying fish in Iceland
Many thanks Becky for an enjoyable and challenging challenge! I think now I’m truly done and hope by April I will have new stock.
My A to Z Travel Challenge – S is for Santiago de Compestela, Spain – 🇪🇸
Santiago de Compestela
After leaving Ribadesella we drove onto Santiago de Compestela, a city that many people end up in after walking the Camino de Santiago route. One of the images that is stuck in my head was the amount of people sitting on the steps of the cathedral with knee bandages! We were only staying for one night here as my hubby wanted to see the burial site of St. James.
St. James’ remains are reputedly buried within the grounds of the cathedral, which was consecrated in 1211.
The small town is easily seen in one day and very interesting. There are wonderful alleys to wander up and little shops to browse in. We always buy something from every place we visit, a t-shirt, tea towel or some useful kitchen utensil. We both bought t-shirts this time from a small boutique.
Above the door of a liquor shop 
View through the arches
A holy door depicting biblical images 
Ornate wall covering
Church of María Salomé, Santiago de Compostela,
Built in honour of the Apostle St. James´ mother
That concludes our mini trip to Santiago de Compostela. It was great to spend some time here exploring and glad we made this part of our Spanish road trip.
My A to Z Travel Challenge – R is for Ribadesella, Spain 🇪🇸
Ribadesella is located on the North Coast of Spain and looks out over the Cantabrian Sea and the River Sella runs through there. I chose Ribadesella to break our journey from San Sebastian to Santiago de Compestella.
We stayed for two nights in the Hotel Gran Sella with a beautiful room overlooking the Playa de Santa Marina. This hotel was a former 19th century palace belonging to the Marquis of Argüelles.
The Esplanade in front of the hotel goes on for ages and we had a wonderful walk along the seafront. It is home to many old houses at one time owned by prosperous returning merchants from overseas, places like Chile and Mexico where they had made their fortunes. Apparently they date back to 16th and 17th century but surely must have been renovated many times since!
One of the houses formerly owned by a returning merchant
After a cocktail on the verandah in the hotel we drove over the bridge into the small harbour where there are many seafood restaurants. We just chose one at random and were not disappointed. We ordered a seafood platter for two, but was large enough for four.
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Day Two in Ribadesella
Anthony had read about the Tito Bustillo Cave (Cueva de Tito Bustillo), known for prehistoric wall paintings of animals and figures, probably dating from the Magdalenian age, 29,000 years ago, and wanted to visit. We walked from our hotel but when we arrived found that we had to book to enter, that day all the times had been sold out. There was only the museum to wander around. It’s a good excuse to visit again.
In the afternoon we drove up into the mountain village of Mierres and found somewhere for lunch.
I took this photo because I was intrigued by the photo behind it!
We hope to go back one day to Northern Spain and explore more of the seaside and mountain villages. The food is wonderful and the scenery outstanding.
Some other places we have also travelled
My A to Z Travel Challenge – G is for Geysir and Gulfoss, Iceland
Both Geysir and Gulfoss are located within the Golden Circle in Iceland. These were places we visited a few years ago on an Icelandic Air tour. We first had one night in Reykjavik and the next morning boarded our coach to the next hotel which was Hotel Grimsborgir. Geysir This was our first destination outside…
My A to Z Travel Challenge – E is for Ephesus, Turkey
Ephesus, Turkey We visited Ephesus on our Mediterranean cruise many years ago. We took my parents who were then in their early eighties. This was one of our ports of call along the way. Docking in Kusadasi, we took a bus tour organised by the travel desk on the cruise ship to Ephesus. Even though…
My A to Z Travel Challenge – J is for Jerez, Spain 🇪🇸
An Afternoon in Jerez
Jerez
We visited Jerez on a three night trip to Seville with my parents a few years ago. It was an unplanned trip, but when I realised how close and easy it was to get to we decided to spend an afternoon there. Trains from Seville were pretty frequent so we just took a taxi to the station and bought tickets at the counter. The journey takes around an hour.
For some reason I thought there would be tour buses at Jerez Station! When we walked out the only transport were taxis. By this time it was lunchtime so we hopped in a taxi and Anthony asked the driver who spoke no English to take us to a “nice restaurant”, he’s very good at miming. We struck lucky with our driver who drove us to a fantastic restaurant and also said he would wait for us and give us a tour after.
The restaurant we had lunch at was called La Carbona, I think it was probably a Michelin Star restaurant judging by the price!
Anyway the food, service and atmosphere were excellent, but we knew we had to go and explore soon before it became too dark.
True to his word our driver was waiting to drive us around the small town centre. He tried so hard to make us understand what he was talking about, and spoke very animatedly for over an hour in Spanish, all to no avail!
Jerez Cathedral; Town Square
I would love to go back to Jerez one day and spend more time there, but it was a wonderful afternoon during our visit to Seville.
Until next time
Day tripping around Fuerteventura, Canary Islands
I think the best way to see anywhere new is to go on an organised excursion. I did just that when I visited Fuerteventura with the excellent Pie de Caracol tours, with driver and guide Luca. It was a long day from 9.00 am until 8pm so we really packed a whole lot in. Normally it’s not so long but because one of the major roads was closed because of a bike race, Luca had to devise some other way to drive around the island.
We started at Corralejo and drove down to La Oliva, bypassing the capital Puerto del Rosario due to road closure, to Betancuria, Ajuy, Costa Calma and back to Corralejo with so many stops along the way. Luca was so informative and had a wealth of knowledge about the island.
Amazingly we saw a rainbow, a miracle when you think there is hardly any rain on this island.
Our first stop was the Colonel’s House in La Oliva. There is not much historical information that exists about the house but it is believed to have been built in 1740, for Colonel Melchor de Cabrera Bethencour.
A few minutes walk away was the old church of Our Lady of Candelaria, where you could wander inside and have a look at the beautiful ceiling. It dates back to the 16th Century and its dark tower is made of volcanic stone.
On the journey towards our next stop of Betancuria we stopped at the famous lookout, where the Morro Velosa warriors are located. Even though this island is quite barren when the sun shines the colours on the volcanoes are amazing.
Onwards then to Betancuria, an old colonial and picturesque village once the capital of this island. Founded in 1404 this was once a fertile valley due to the fresh water streams nearby, sadly these have long since dried up and the only plants that grow are aloe vera and agave.
BETANCURIA
After a quick bite in Betancuria we headed over to Ajuy, an old fishing village on the West coast. This is where we had lunch and then a cliff top walk along to the caves below.
AJUY
COSTA CALMA
The furthest south we drove was to Costa Calma, a resort area with a natural lagoon. The lagoon fills up in the afternoon creating a shallow area for paddling in contrast to the wild sea beyond.
Driving back we stopped at a windmill, salt flats and sand dunes. There is so much to see and do on Fuerteventura but I’m pretty sure we came close to seeing nearly everything with the wonderful tour from Piedecaracol.com.
Lastly some more from my gallery
Lazy cats in Betancuria
Salt Flats and Sand Dunes
Finally back to our starting point at 8pm. A fabulous and interesting day. Many thanks Luca.
Day tripping around Fuerteventura, Canary Islands – 5.4.2019 – 9.4.2019