Picos Mountains

Our son-in-law Michael has now earned the reputation as the "one who loves driving forever on vacations". But, to his credit, even though we were doubtful as to the worth of driving such a long way to see mountains, he was right. We left Seville on Sunday morning and arrived in Cosgaya late in the afternoon. The weather wasn't all that great; in fact, it worsened - rain and some snow the next day. But we all wore as many layers of clothes as we could and persevered. These pictures in no way do justice to the beauty of this area of Spain.

This was the Hotel del Osos. Wonderful stay and very, very nice hosts.

 

 

One of two of the great big dogs belonging to the hotel.

 The view in front of the hotel.

This is the actual town of Cosgaya. It felt like a step back in time to walk the windy roads through town.  Apparently, they don't have many American tourists.

But we wandered through town several times.

We shopped, ate, took lots of pictures, saw the farmer's market.

Philip even managed to get a haircut. It turned out pretty good considering neither of these men understood the language of the other.

These were legs of ham hanging in a grocery story. Smoked? Every store, gas station, butchery, etc had these hanging there, ready to go.  BTW, the ham served everywhere at every restaurant was delicious.

 

This was the first meal at which the glass of wine I ordered turned out to be a bottle. You order a meal, you get a bottle of wine. Needless to say, I had to enlist help.

Flan, the best ever!

 
Then we arrived at the REAL snow.
Beautiful drive further up into the mountains. Notice the big fences hanging off the mountain side to catch any boulders!!

 
Rode cable cars to the top .

The "boys" happy to play in the snow.

 

Four layers on my upper body and two below the waist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hola Seville

We left Jerez by train on Friday, Feb, 28th and travelled to Seville. At this point Jenny and family met up with us. They had travelled by car. Michael had rented us two apartments in a building smack in the middle of everything going on. We were across the narrow alleyway from a building housing two embassies, over the top of a restaurant/bar and within walking distance from everything.
Between us, Philip and I have tons of pictures. I will try to limit myself as to how many I post!

Here are the Three Amigos in a rare moment of quiet.

 Because we had little boys who needed lots of energy output opportunities, we went to places that allowed for that. This is just part of one of many artistic structures seen in Spain. This one was huge and you could travel to the top and look over the city. There was also a small restaurant at the top.

                  One of many statues in Seville. This one is dedicated to Ferdinand and Isabella.

That statue was actually located near this park - again, another energy outlet opportunity.

These two pictures were taken at the structure that was once the Iberian World Festival held back in the early 1900's. The tile work was tremendous.

While most of the time, we did eat Spanish Tapas and other great local fares (and did I mention wine with every meal?), but with kids you have to look for food they are familiar with. Here, we "forced" ourselves to eat at a local Mexican restaurant. 

And... after good behavior at one of the many sites we drug these boys to... they visited Duncan Doughnuts.

                            The big cathedral here. No one picture did it justice. It was huge.

                                                                      Very ornate.

Supposedly, at least some part of Christopher Columbus is buried here. Poor guy, apparently parts of him are in several different locations throughout Spain.

These were just a few of the bells in the tower. A complex system exists to make them ring. Each bell is named. We climbed all the way to the top..... lots of steps!

This was a face above an entrance in one of the courtyards. We never figured out what it was representing.  Looks like something from Madi Gras to me. Seemed a little out of place compared with all the gold on the inside of the cathedral.

 This was a view of Seville from the bell tower. The patio from Jenny and Michael's apartment could be seen. It is located just to the left of the large orange-ish church . 

Seville was a very busy place. The main streets were often blocked from car traffic and just the buses were allowed. It made walking easily. Little did we know that this was just the beginning of our days filled with walking everywhere. We just touched on a few things to see in Seville. We were there two days and two nights. It would be worth a longer visit. 

So... on Sunday, we headed out for the next part of the adventure by car. Here's the boys and Pops waiting for the rest of the family. 

Then we headed off  for the Picos Mts. in our snazy little rental car. Michael, Jenny and the boys were in the lead in their car. 

Onward

On Thursday, the 27th we took a bus and made our way to Jerez. We stayed in a small hotel call Casa Grande. It is right in the middle of town, so we were able to walk everywhere.

The view from our hotel onto the main square.

This was the market that opened early in the morning and closed by time for siesta.

 

                                It had everything you could possibly want to eat.

 

People were here to buy for their private consumption as well as for the hotels and restaurants that they run.

 

There were items on this seafood display that were unrecognizable!

 

 

It was cold but we ate at sidewalk cafes anyway.

 

Jerez is know for their Andalucían horses and their wine.

 

 

We happen to be in Jerez at the time of the annual Flamenco Festival, so we attended one of the performances.

 

Jerez is a very nice place. We walked everywhere. Saw churches, gargoyles, beautiful doorways. It was a great start to the rest of the towns we were to visit.

 

Next, onward to Seville!!

 

 

 

Gibraltar

Our next stop was a day trip to Gibraltar. We boarded a bus, drove to the border between Spain and Gibraltar. Long history lesson here about who has "owned" Gibraltar. But, it was interesting to step across a line and be in an English speaking country. And in following the road, you must walk directly across the major runway of the airport!

 

 

We took a van tour of the island. Our driver was a native "born in Gibraltar". Reminded me of the conversations with BOI folks from Galveston. Lots of pride. He was a wealth of information, but drove like a speedster around lots of curves, narrow roads, etc. We took the tour up the Rock...

 

Saw the REAL natives...

 

Saw this Pillars of Hercules monument (which caused us to research a quick history of Hercules).

 

We were able to go into the tunnels.

 

 

We finally began our long, but pretty walk down.  Lots of steps to navigate (boy did our knees hurt by the time we were through.)

 

 Homes/apts along the way had beautiful doors, windows, pots and planters with flowers.

Then we found this very cute pub, right along the alleyway. We were starving and ready for a drink. We had a delightful waitress and good food - fish and chips for me and cottage pie for Philip.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day. Wished now that we would have spent the night there. Things are expensive. Apparently lots of folks worldwide have "discovered" that this is a cool place and are buying up property and building extravagant homes and businesses. So, not sure how long us regular folks will be able to visit in the future.

So, we headed back to our hotel in Algeciras and another late night meal in Spain..