On to Spain!

Ola!  (I am given to understand that is the standard greeting in Spain – where we are now; the city of Cadiz, actually!). We were really surprised to find that Portugal and Spain are actually on different time zones – so we went from 2 pm in Portugal and 3 pm in Spain as we crossed the border!  As R describes it:  Portugal is on UK time, and Spain is on Europe time…whatever!)

 

So, we are here!  Yeah!  Jet-lag really hit me last night – I went to bed at 11:30 pm and got up at 6:30 am – it was actually LIGHT outside!  So rare and interesting!  Finally pulled myself out of bed about 7:30 am and into the wonderful bathtub in our room. Lovely soak in hot water!  I did something to my back/rear yesterday, and was a bit squeaky trying to pick things up, especially off the floor; the hot water helped a lot!  Down to breakfast at the unwholesome hour of 9 am!!!  Lovely breakfast again – good ham and cheese and salami, along with plates of wonderful scrambled eggs and bacon.  Truly, that got us through the entire day yesterday until dinnertime – with, of course, my stop for gelato…

 

Beautiful countryside

Bridge on to Cadiz peninsula

I do love poppies!

Front room with balcony

More front room, kitchen on left, bed/bath on right

Kitchen

Bedroom

Lovely bathroom

And there's the ocean!

Carrying our groceries home was fun!

Repacked everything – this time into his and her suitcases – (just because, I always pack half of our clothing in each suitcase when we get on airplanes.). Down and checked out about 10-ish.  Getting out of the hotel’s driveway was quite a challenge, though, as there was a very large van loading up with suitcases and packages galore – I think for two people who must really like to shop!  I mean, really?   Come on, folks!  Couldn’t get around them until they had piled everything in and headed out of town.  The drive from Evora, Portugal to Cadiz, Spain was estimated to take 4 h 9 m, but who’s counting?!

 

Beautiful day, even on the highways, and in not very many minutes, we had crossed into Spain. I’m a little bit more familiar with the language – no more Obrigadas, but lots of gracias!  We had hoped to drive down the coast and avoid Sevilla, which is a very major city – but turns out there is some sort of national park in the way, and there ARE noroads south of Seville from Portugal!  Who knew?!  

Our landlords, Alberto and Maria had asked that we text them when we got within an hour, which Robert did.  Found Cadiz and the apartment building with no problem – even found a place to park; however it turns out where we were parking (along with everyone else!) was illegal.  However, we stayed long enough to meet Alberto, get into the apartment, do the walk-through and bring the luggage upstairs.  

 

It is a beautiful apartment!  One bedroom, one bath, with a lovely balcony (I LOVE balconies…) with a view of the Atlantic Ocean!  Wow!  How great is that?!  R took some photos which I will include, but if anyone wants to look at the entire place, I can give you the Airbnb information.  We’re here until Thursday morning, when we move to Madrid!  Not only is the apartment beautifully furnished and equipped (I’m already on load #2 of laundry!!!) it is right next to a taxi stand, literally 10 feet away from the bus stop heading into town, and directly across the street from a nice, large Dia supermarket! Unreal!  

 

R set up the computer (he always has his priorities right…) and I unpacked everything and started the laundry.  (You all know I am a laundry fanatic, I trust?  Definitely!). We then moved the car to the parking garage a block away – and thank you, Alberto for recommending we get the weekly rate of €55 rather than pay €20 per day. 

After that, we went to Dia for supplies.  Maria keeps sending us recommendations for all sorts of things, but I’m hoping that tonight, we could possibly stay in – we’ve got wine, cheese, salami, bread and cookies – who could ask for anything more?  What I would really like more than anything is to have a very light supper out of our picnic supplies, and then go to bed REALLY early!!  We’ll have to see how that works out!  (R is actually asleep on the couch as I type!). 

 

So, until tomorrow, Adios amigas y amigos (do I have that correct?)!

Lots of love,

m

xxx