A gorgeous free camping spot

Our friends Glen and Steve had told me about a waterfall near the village of Riofrio where there was a difficult to access, but beautiful overnight spot. 

It turned out that we couldn't access it all, but we found an even better spot nearby!

Drive through the mountains

Sunday was a day of rest, but we did do a 50 km (30 mile) drive through a mountain pass just for a change of scenery. I had read of a couple of vans that had done the drive, but no motorhomes. The only problem would be the width of having to pass someone coming the other way.

And it was only 50 kms (30 miles) but it took an hour.

We hiked 19 kms (12 miles) to see a tree!

And of course we saw thousands of trees along the way, but this one tree is special.

It always makes a hike better when there is a destination of some kind... a waterfall, a cave, or maybe a viewpoint. But I'm not sure we've ever done a hike to see a tree!

We finally made it into the mountains!

Mostly cloudy yesterday as we made or way into the mountains west of Madrid. We ended up at the town of La Adrada where they have a motorhome service area to empty and fill our tanks, and somewhere to park for the night.

The parking isn't ideal, it's in a kind of a residential area. But the area surrounding the town has so many hiking trails and walks that we can do that without having to drive anywhere that we'll probably stay put for another night.

Sidetracked by a castle

Our original intention was to get into the mountains for some nature and peace and quiet after having spent too much time in cities. But we stopped for lunch in the town of Escalona, and decided to spend the night.

But along the way, we stopped in the town of Torrijos to do some shopping. They had a Lidl and a Mercadona right beside each other with easy parking for a motorhome.

Photo matching in Toledo, Spain

For those of you new here, my father had done two extended trips to Europe in the 1950's, one in 1954, and one in 1957. He took a lot of photos in slide format, and Ruth has digitized them and we have them on our laptops. So when we are in the same place as he was, we try to match up some of those photos by standing in the exact same spot that he might have stood almost 70 years ago.

We were pretty successful in this exercise here in Toledo, Spain yesterday!

We're actually a little ahead of schedule

Yesterday. we did the drive to the small city of Toledo, located just south of the big city of Madrid. We don't have to be at the ferry port in Bilbao until May 6 which is still three and a half weeks away.

So we're actually a little ahead of schedule. If we drove directly there, we're only 500 kms (300 miles) or so from Bilbao, but we've got quite a lot of things to see along the way, plus we're going to do some zig zagging to get up there. 

Castle and windmills in Consuegra, Spain.

There's been an odd haze in the air the last couple of days. It's the Sahara dust again that finds it's way drifting across the south of Spain a few times per year. It was pretty bad yesterday morning, but seemed to clear up a bit by the end of the day, and this morning it seems we have our nice blue sky back again.

We went for a short walk before we left the hill behind Piedrabuena, then headed for the town of Consuegra.

A visit from the park rangers...

We had a totally peaceful night, and woke up to see that all of the crowds of people had disappeared. Surprisingly, very little trash left behind despite the fact that there are no trash bins. 

I went for a walk around to see which spot by the river looked easiest to get Max moved to. Such a nice spot, and a few walks we could do in the area so we planned to stay a least one more night, possibly two.

We arrived and it was busy with crowds of people picnicking!

We tried to get an early start. We went to the laundry in Pozoblanco first thing. In fact, we were there by 8:30am, and we found a parking spot right out front. It was kind of odd because it was on a residential street. I should have taken a photo. Only two washing machines, and one dryer. Everything really clean. Half an hour to wash, and the machine automatically supplies the soap. Then twenty minutes to dry. 

From there, we went to the Mercadona grocery store.

We haven't got very far!

Not that we're in a rush. But since we arrived back in Spain it kinda feels like we haven't got very far. I've included a map for you below. We don't need to be at the northern coast for our ferry until May 7th, so we've got another month or so yet.

And it was just a short drive yesterday as we made our way to the town of Pozoblanco. 

Back in the countryside

We enjoyed our four days in Cordoba, and our three days in Seville before that, but after all of that city time we were overdue for some countryside!

Thursday, Friday, and Sunday are all national public holidays here in Spain. The main road leading north from Cordoba was pretty busy, so we were happy to get onto a quiet side road.

Andalusian Horse Equestrian Show in Cordoba

We had bought tickets online to the Wednesday evening Andalusian Horse Equestrian Show at the Royal Stables in Cordoba. There were two choices of tickets... regular and premium.

My mother gives us some birthday and Christmas money each year, and we still had some left over from last year. We usually use that money to so something we wouldn't normally do on our travels. So we decided to go to the horse show, and splurged on the premium seating.

Easter in Spain

Semana Santa is the name of the Holy Week celebrations that take place in Spanish speaking countries. It's a big deal in many communities, and in fact it's a big tourist draw for some of them as well.

Cordoba, Spain is one of those places where there is a lot going on. We didn't plan to be here during this time, it just happened to be a place we wanted to visit, and coincidentally we arrived here this week. We're really lucky to have a free parking space for Max that's really close to everything that's going on.

As expected, we're getting the runaround...

One of the main attractions here in Cordoba is the Mosque/Cathedral. 

Originally built as The Great Mosque between the years 785 and 958, it was converted to a Catholic Church in 1236. The current Cathedral, built in the center of the Mosque structure was completed during the 1500's.

From Seville to Cordoba... and Max gets a bath!

It was after 10:30am when we said goodbye to our new friends Lucy and Ben. Sometimes you just know that you'll bump into each other again, you just don't know when or where! 

Anyhow, we weren't in a big rush because Cordoba is less than a two hour drive, and the location we were going is better arrived at later in the day due to car parking from the nearby zoo. I had read that by the end of the day, most of the cars have left and there is more room for the motorhomes.

Another day wandering beautiful Seville, Spain

We set off walking with our new friends Lucy and Ben at just before 11:00am. Another gorgeous day here in Seville... sunny skies with a high around 27C (81F).

Heading to the central area, we had to pass right by the beautiful Plaza de Espana on the way, so we couldn't help but go see it again.

March Expenses

March was another expensive month!

We spent a total of $4,987 CAD ($3,689 USD) for the month.

But while we really did spend that much money, it didn't feel that bad because much of the expenses had been paid in previous months. For example, we spent $2,567 CAD ($1,898 USD) on the airfare to fly daughter Lindsey and the grandkids to Morocco and back from their home in Nova Scotia, Canada.

A visit to the police in Seville

I had read that the motorhome parking area in Seville can get really busy. So we got an early start, hoping to arrive there before noon to give us the best chance to secure a spot. The one we stayed at when we were here in 2017 is now closed, so this is a different spot. 

A little further from the central area, but still walking distance.

Wandering around Arcos de la Frontera, Spain

Another beautiful day, and warm... with a high of about 27C (81F).

We took off around 11:00am for a walk into town. Arcos de la Frontera is an old Moorish town with a history dating back to the 10th century. The geography is really interesting because the older part of town is surrounded on three sides by a river, and steep narrow streets make up the road network. Not motorhome friendly!

The cave was a little difficult to find!

Searching on google maps for things to do in the area, I found a listing for a hike to a cave. If we're going for a hike, it's always nice to have a destination... usually either a cave, or a waterfall, or a viewpoint.

This cave looked like it might be really interesting, but some of the reviews mentioned that it wasn't easy to find. And that turned out to be true!

We figured we might as well have some fun!

The weather is great, highs of about 23C (73F) but it was quite windy. We can see wind power generators in the distance, so perhaps it's windy in general in this area.

Later in the morning we went for a walk around the town of Benalup-Casas Viejas, and to a nearby lookout.

We love the motorhome aire system in Spain!

Time zones can be very strange. Here in Spain it is light until almost 9:00pm now, which is really nice... but the sun doesn't rise until 8:17am! So we're getting up in the dark. And it makes you not feel like getting up, so when we do, half the morning seems to disappear.

We did mange to get our grocery (and beer and wine!) stocking up done though, and hit the road to a hiking trailhead not far from Algeciras.

Hello Spain!

Yesterday was a day of waiting.

We really didn't do anything other than take an hour and twenty minute boat ride. Yet the whole procedure took all day!

One last campground in Morocco

Saturday, we drove from the capital city of Rabat to the coast just south of Tangier. We were looking for one last campground to empty Max's tanks, but there wasn't much choice. We would have wanted to see the small coastal city of Asilah, but the two campgrounds located there both got horrible reviews.

So we chose a place about 14 kms north of Asilah and that turned out to be a good decision.

Spent some time planning our route through Spain

Friday was just a nice quiet day. We went for a stroll around the area in the morning, and just did some puttering around in the afternoon and played some backgammon.

Here are some photos from our stroll...

The case of the missing SIM card

Lindsey and the kids came over at 6:00am Thursday morning so that we could drive them the short distance to the airport and then say goodbye.

Lindsey had borrowed an electrical adapter from us so she could keep her phone charged. She had also borrowed one of my two Moroccan SIM cards so that she could be online during their time here. When they arrived, we switched the SIM cards and I put her Canadian one in my wallet, where I have always kept various SIM cards when we travel to different countries.

On our own again

Lindsey and the kids took a taxi from their guesthouse in central Morocco to meet us at Max where we were parked near the shopping mall. There was one more thing they needed to do before leaving Marrakech... ride a camel!

Our desert camel excursion had been cancelled because they were all ill. But in touristy Marrakech, there are guys with camels set up on a few different street corners.