The Spanish borderWe entered Spain on the bus from Faro in Portugal crossing the border at a river separating the two countries, and headed on directly to Sevilla.
There are five blogs in the Andalucia section of the trip and a map of the journey below:
Sevilla, Carmona and Constantina
Old Cordoba and Zuhiros
Priego de Cordoba
For the Love of Ronda
Regreso a Sevilla
Map of the journey
Images on the road to Seville
When we arrived in Seville, the bus station was scorching - full of hot revving buses and the ambient temperature was 42 degrees a baking dry heat taken higher by the fumes and engine heat. Seville proved to have atrocious connections to the airport, so after trying to catch a city bus to link to the airport shuttle we gave up and caught a taxi for 24 euros to make our connection to our Gold Car rental car through Amigo Autos two hours late after managing to phone them to tell them we were on our way.
The Arab pillar Torre del OroWe then tried in the sunset to find a camp site at Seville but after finding it non-existent, began a long tortuous evening journey first to the historic town of Carmona, striking with white narrow streets a walled inner city and scored a cheesy pizza in the evening in the park where everyone was celebrating the evening in bars and cafes after the hot afternoon siesta.
Streets of Carmona
The central plaza just outside the city walls
The entrance
Narrow streets in the old town
Panoramas of the surrounding country from the heights of the old town
People celebrating in evening in the central park restaurant areaWe then drove on in the night up into the mountains through anther historic town Constantina and then San Nicholas del Puerto to a dusty winding 7 km dirt track through the olive-groved mountain park almost by accident finally arriving at the remote little camp site by the river, which we had been seeking all evening, at around 11.20 Spanish time, after getting hopelessly stuck in the evening traversing the towns, sometimes stuck in streets no wider than the car having to make right-angled turns into another street sometimes even narrower, or with parked cars giving you only inches to squeeze through.
Next morning we set off for Cordoba, again getting lost in Constantina.
Constantina
The shining copper spire
Two views of the old castle
The sheltered central park
We then headed back through the Sierras down to the Andalucian plains.
Road through Sierra Norte heading back down to the river valley.
We then turned north again at Lora del Rio and headed along the river valley to Cordoba.
A grand castle by the road approaching Cordoba
