Monday 5 October 2015

So where is that summary of summery Spain?

Puns and word play may be the highest forms of wit, but that's no excuse for not writing up some final thoughts on the hol. The truth is I've been busy since returning, flying back in one Thursday night & then heading off to work Friday morning. Our weekends have been a little more relaxed in some ways, but we've been trying to get out of the house often, and when we've not done that then have been hundreds of images to wade through.

It's now exactly 1 calendar month since we went - over 4 weeks - and the memories are starting to fade.

First impressions, if I can remember back that far. People who have followed my travelling will know that one of the first things I normally do when arriving somewhere is to take a big lngfull of air, have a good sniff to get a feel for the place. Spain didn't smell of very much at all most of the time, though the rain falling gently on Seville when we first arrived may have damped things down. There was a kind of herby smell in the car while travelling, but I suspect that was more related to the cleaning agents used than anything from the environment.

Once out of the airport and on the road everything looked really dry, never mind the little precipiation that had petered out as we began driving, and the fields were yellow-orange-brown with occasional areas of green from olive trees. The roads seemed to travel through industrial areas, with scruffy factories and lorry parks, farms that ranged from crumbly to smart, occasional retail areas (meubles seems to mean the same as in France). We passed signs to Utrera so often I had Chris confirm from the map that it was a town and not Spanish for 'exit'.

I may have mentioned already, our car was a Peugeot 208 with about 40,000 km on the clock, a small petrol engine (size unkown) and somewhat scuffed body. Inside it was nice as peugeots go, with comfy seats and a large satnav panel in the middle. No car manuals were in evidence, and the satnav system defied all our early attempts to actually input any kind of destination. I'd brought enough detailed maps, so *mostly* finding our way was OK (apart from some roadworks & re-routing that caused just minor deviations - the satnav wouldn't have understood either) and probably better than if we've used the navigation system because that would have tried to take us through central Seville, as it always did whenever possible later on.

We finally figured out the sat nav just before arriving at Osuna. On this occasion I was really grateful because the town is full of narrow cobbled streets and a one-way system. Being guided took all the stress out of this final stage, and we arrived at the hotel in better nick than otherwise.

The hotel was grand, though that was expected, and our room probably covered the same surface area as the downstairs in our cottage. It was also distinctly Spanish in that different rules seemed to apply to anywhere else we've been, and most of the time there was a distinct absence of staff, though when they did appear they seemed very cheerful and helpful regardless of language issues.

Looks like this is turning into an essay after all. That's probably enough for now.  ;-)

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