There was some overnight drizzle, which had just about cleared by morning. Since Irene was still feeling unwell, we decided to pack up and say bye-bye to Albufeira, and drive back into Spain to Seville. Since we are still heading east, the map still fits nicely on the page. About halfway to Seville, we left the coast and started heading inland.

There were not many affordable campgrounds near Seville, so we opted for one called AreasAutoCaravanas, that looked to be in an industrial area near the river, but relatively close to the central city. It took us a while to find it, and it didn't look very attractive as we arrived, with tracks carrying cars lined up to enter the area. But we persevered, and Rita buzzed the security button and got entry to the "reception office". The campingcar park turned out to be a large yard where new and old vehicles were transferred between trucks, and down the back of the yard was space for campervans to park overnight. It wasn't very attractive, but when you're asleep in your van overnight, you don't worry much about the scenery! And the large number of vans meant that it should be relatively secure So we found an empty spot between other vans, and found that our power cable just reached the power supply box mounted on a pole. At first, the power did not come on, but we found by changing sockets that only some of them worked. So we found one that worked, and gaffer-taped our cable into the socket (to minimise the chance of someone pulling it out to find a working socket). The attendant in the "reception area" was very friendly, and let us know about some other "features" of the parking area. We were also soon befriended by several cats who obviously lived in the vicinity. They were very friendly for quite a while until they realised that we weren't going to feed them. Then they went and found some other "besties".

There was not much to do at the "campground", so we jumped on our eBikes and headed off to the city centre. It took perhaps 10 minutes to ride out of the industrial area, by which time we had arrived at a bridge (Puente de las Delicias) over the dead-end arm of a river that runs alongside the city centre. We crossed the bridge and then rode along the end of the river, becuase we had seen several boats moored there. One in particular, a Swedish sailing boat with high rigging, had caught our attention, but we couldn't get close enough (because of some security gates) for a close look - but you get the general idea.

We then left the riverside, and crossed the adjacent road to the Botanical Gardens, As we looked behind us we saw the Conservatory of Music, with the guy on the horse looking like he was conducting the orchestra.

The Botanical Gardens were an oasis in the busyness of the city, but they didn't allow bike riding on the paths, so we walked our bikes a lot and only jumped on them when bo-one was around.

The Gardens themselves were relatively quiet, but as we got further to the north in the Gardens, we started encountering more people. We soon remembered that today was Saturday, and lots of locals were out for a stroll in the park, This became more evident as we came in sight of the Plaza del Espana, with lots of people undertaking lots of activities, including buzzing around in little rowboats in the moat surrounding the Palace.

We stayed at the Plaza for quite a while enjoying the ambience. Unlike the towns in Portugal, most people here appeared to be locals, rather than overseas tourists. After an hour or so, we continued north, had a coffee in the "cafe district" and then rode/walked on to the Cathedral, and explored that area, which was a favourite gathering place for horses and carriages. Along the way, Rita stopped at a roadside kiosk and bought two tickets for a Flamenco dance show tomorrow night!

Towards the end of the daay, after we had explored various parks and laneways, and watched/listened to many street performers, we headed back to the "cafe district" and had a great fish dinner at the cafe where we'd earlier had a coffee. We took our time with dessert and coffee and, as a result, we rode home in the dark. But we managed to get through the security gate at the van park, and were soon back at the van. The day in Seville had been great, but the gloss was taken off it, when we listened to the news and heard that the Referendum in Australia for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament had been voted down with a 60/40 NO Vote. We were disappointed in our fellow Australians, who had fallen for a well-funded scare campaign by the Opposition Liberal Party and other far-right entities. Typical of their campaign was their slogan "If you Don't Know - Vote NO!". It's somewhat scary to see how an uninformed public can by manipulated by well-funded troglodytes )-:

Despite the commercial/industrial setting of the van park, it was surprisingly quiet overnight and we got a good night's sleep. In the morning, we remembered that today was the end of Daylight Saving in Europe, and adjusted our body-clocks accordingly. We rode back into the city again today as yesterday promised so much more to see. We intended picking up from where we left off yesterday at the Cathedral, but on the way we passed a park that was hosting an International Expo. We had seen this yesterday but didn't have time to explore, so today we went into the park, paid our entrance fee and entered the Expo area. We quickly realised that it would not live up to our expectations, as it was full of stalls selling cheap trinkets (supposedly from different countries) and food stalls that "gave us a flavour of distant lands"! We knew it was total bullshit when we arrived at the Australian exhibit and read the menu - but it did give us a good laugh! You would think they could have at least spelled "Sydney" correctly! Needless to say, we didn't stay there for very long.

Instead we headed on to the Cathedral, where the forecourt was again filled with people and horses. Because it was Sunday, the Cathedral was open to all and sundry, in case they wanted to go to Mass. So we took advantage of that and explored inside. I am still amazed at the architecture and engineering from centuries ago.

After the Cathedral, we continued walking north, and soon found ourselves approaching an amazing building, which the locals call "The Mushrooms". Before the locals re-badged the building, it was called Metropol Parasol, a large, predominantly wooden structure, accommodating a traditional market, restaurants, a performance square, archaeological museum, and a rooftop terrace with a panoramic view of Seville's old city.

Built in 2011, the "parasols" (from which its original name was derived), are constructed of 3,500 cubic meters of micro-laminated Finnish Pine and are marketed as the world's largest wood structure. Given my interest in timber, and lately laminated veneer timber, I was very interested to have a good look around, and took lots of photos, only two of which I include here, from which you can get an appreciation of the architecture. Truly a beautiful building.

After exploring the Mushrooms from many angles, we adjourned to a cafe on the edge of the square, with a good view of the Mushrooms, and ordered some tapas and a cool drink, while listening to a couple of buskers performing nearby. I think Sevilla is growing on me! Since it was now late afternoon, we went for a wander around other parts of the old city, before heading to the theatre where we had booked tickets for tonight's Flamenco performance. When we got there, we faced a problem of where to put out eBikes. The narrow lane outside the theatre did not look all that safe, and we couldn't find any lamp-posts to which we could chain them. So Rita approached one of the theatre staff in the foyer, and asked him for his advice. Perhaps since Rita had dressed in a Spanish theme for tonight, he took pity on us and led us to a props room on the side of the foyer, and told us we could leave them there during the performance. A very hospitable act!

We grabbed a couple of drinks in the bar that functioned as a waiting room, and when the theatre doors opened for the performance, we all piled into the auditorium. The place was packed, which suggested we had made a good choice to buy these tickets. And we had indeed. The show was fabulous. The lead female dancer was graceful, while the lead male dancer was strong and full of impact. Together the group of seven dancers put on a fantastic performance, backed by great lighting and instrumental music and singing performed by the dancers.

Ninety minutes later, we left the theatre very satisfied, collected our eBikes and started to head home. As we wandered along the streets near the theatre, Rita spotted a dress shop, and wondered whether she should come back tomorrow to try one on.

On the way home, we stopped for drinks near the University at our now-familiar cafe in the restaurant district. We couldn't help talking about the Flamenco performance, which has reinforced our desire to revisit Sevilla some time in the future.

When we got back to the van, I checked the scores in the cricket ODI World Cup and the Rugby World Cup. England continued their slide into oblivion in the cricket when they lost to Afghanistan, but salvaged some pride for their country when they beat Fiji in the RWC, and continued further in the knockout finals.

When we got back to the van, we settled down for the night after a long and enjoyable day. But around 2330h, we were disturbed by voices and engine noises outside the van. I got up and threw on some clothes and went outside to investigate. I found two girls in their twenties, trying to give instructions to another girl behind the wheel of their rented campervan, who was trying to reverse into a "space" between us and our neighbouring campervan. We both tried to explain to them that their van was too big for the space, and that even if (by some miracle) they got it into the space (which they couldn't), they wouldn't be able to open any doors to be able to get into or out of the van. But they continued trying. It was only when they reversed into the front fender on our van (luckily slowly) that we put our foot down and told them to go elsewhere. It turns out that this was the first day of their rental, they had never driven a campervan before (and hence had no idea about turning circles), and had expected to arrive at 2330h and find a space with electricity and all the services. After we (and our neighbours) politely explained the reality of campervanning to them, they moved to a space further away from the electricity outlets, and a couple of the campervanners lent them extension cables for the night so that they could have electricity overnight. Shortly after midnight, everyone went back to bed!

While we had totally enjoyed our couple of days in Sevilla, we realised that we would have to move on if we were to get back to France in a reasonable time period. So this morning we packed up the van, but before leaving we decided to use the vidage facilities (empty toilet cassette and grey water tank, and fill up with fresh water) before we left. Unfortunately there was only one vidage point, in a very tight location, and when we got there it was being used by another van, So we got in line, and were soon joined by another two vans behind us. We finally moved into place and did our business, and by the time we were ready to leave, there were six vans in the queue. So I guess we were lucky to get into the queue when we did. By this time, however, there were several trucks coming and going, loading and unloading cars, so it was all very chaotic. But eventually we got away and hit the road, on our way north-east and further inland to Córdoba, and then on to our booked campground in Villafranca de Córdoba.

On our drive to Córdoba, near Fuentes de Andalucia, we kept seeing a bright light hovering above the northern horizon on the left of the highway. We speculated about what it could be, and finally concluded that it might be a solar tower collecting energy from an array of solar panels in the field. We got to a turnoff  which looked like it might lead to the source of the light, but it was blocked to traffic, so the mystery continued. But some Googling afterwards showed that our guess was not far off the mark. It was in fact the world’s first commercial-scale solar power plant with a central tower receiver. It was also the first solar plant in the world to use molten salt heat storage technology. Built in 2011 at a cost of 170 million euro, the 40-storey concrete tower collects sunlight reflected by a field of 624 huge mirrors (not solar panels). It produces approximately 300MW of energy for approximately 180,000 homes, equivalent to the needs of the city of Sevilla, and will offset emissions of over 600,000t of CO₂ per year over its 25-year life. Given our interests in renewable energy, we were quite amazed that we would unexpectedly see such an iconic installation while doodling around in our campervan in Spain!

In late morning, we arrived on the ourskirts of Córdoba and finally found a parking place where we could leave the van while we explored the city on foot. It was a very interesting town, with lots of narrow twisty lanes (in which we got lost a few times). As we wandered, we saw an old tower projecting above the surrounding trees and gardens, We thought it looked interesting, so we headed in that direction.

But we were not really prepared for what we found - a very old building (the Mezquita-Catedral) that had served originally as a Mosque (dating from 785AD) and then later as a Cathedral (from 1236), at a time when Spain was in transition between the Moorish culture and Christianity.

As this Wikipedia photo below shows, the rectangular site is surrounded by high walls, with the new Cathedral rising high above the surrounding old Mosque, with all of it nestled into the surrounding town of Córdoba (which was the second-largest city in Europe in the 11th century, with an estimated population of 500,000).

While the outside of the building was interesting, the inside was stunning.  Walking though the Mosque with its low flat ceilings made you feel like you were underground. The stonework was stunning, and the artifacts on display could only hint at the prosperity of the era. I wished that I had read more in advance, so that I could understand more of what I was seeing.

But when you walked from the Mosque area into the Cathedral area, the architecture changed dramatically. The low ceilings changed to soaring ceilings (trying to get closer to their God?) and the density of bling increased significantly. One could feel the change in culture.

We explored the Mosque-Cathedral for a couple of hours, but in all honesty it became a bit tiring and overwhelming. Looking at how much time and effort and money had gone into creating and maintaining these edifices, while at the same time waging war to retain control over them, made me wonder about the real value of it all. I yearned for a simpler life. So we got back in the van and headed a bit further north-east to the town of Villafranca de Córdoba, were we had booked into a campground for the night. Along the way, we admired the use of oleander bushes that had been planted in the median strip of the highways. They are a very effective headlight blocker at night and the varying colours of the flowers brightened up the day. The campground was very pleasant and well equipped, but at this time of year it was virtually empty, so we had our choice of sites when we arrived. It also had a pool, but unfortunately (for Rita) it had already closed for the season.

While Rita went for a ride into the surrounding town, I followed the ODI World Cup game between Australia and Sri Lanka, where Australia finally got their tournament under way by posting a win.

During the evening, Rita heard some music emenating from a neighbouring campervan, so she couldn't stop herself from going to explore the source. I heard some chatting, and a little while later she returned with "Belgium Bob" and his guitar. While Rita set about bringing out her steelpan, Bob explained to me that he was travelling around Europe by himself, while his partner continued working in Belgium. Before long the two of them started playing songs they both knew, while I sang along where possible. Between songs, stories were swapped about music, travel, and life in general. This continued till well after midnight, when Bob returned to his own van (luckily there were very few other vans around, so the music disturbed no one).

Today was a bit of a nothing day. When we woke, after last night's late music session, we found that Bob had already departed to continue his travel north back to Belgium. The wind started to pick up, so we stayed in the van, Rita working on her music therapy report, and me attending to some work matters back home. In particular, I was writing to our accountants about some issues relating to the valuation of our farm forestry property. It seems that real estate agents are incapable of trying to value a rural property that is largely or partly covered with trees, as they see the trees as not being assets but as things which diminish the value of a property. While they are supposed to be estimating the market value of a property, they always undervalue a property with trees growing. I just wish I could buy some of those properties that they have valued so lowly.

While the wind continued, it was still warm outside (31C), so we spent a bit of time in the sun but out of the wind, But eventually the wind won and we retreated inside again. Iin the meantime, more vans arrived with dog-owners, and the dogs enjoyed being able to run around and bark a lot.  So we were happy to stay inside, especially when the wind picked up even more in the late afternoon.

There was some overnight rain at Villafranca, but otherwise it was very quiet (even the dogs stopped barking). So we took our time with breakfast, then packed the van and hit the road at 1015h. We were headed for the town on Villarejo de Fuentes, about 4 hours away, because we had seen a review in the CamperContact app that said that there was a free municipal campervan park in the town with all facilities. This seemed too good to be true, so we decided to check it out for oursleves. On the way, we unexpectedly stopped in El Balcón de la Mancha, but that's another story.

As we headed north, the countryside and the weather was constantly changing. South of the mountains, there were olive trees everywhere.

Then as we went through the mountains, the rain became very heavy, to such an extent that visibility was reduced to about 50 metres. We slowed down to suit the circumstances, and just hoped that following vehicles did the same. After we got through the mountains, the rain cleared and the sun appeared, and now the countryside was filled with vineyards.

We knew that after about 3 hours, we would have to leave the main road (which goes on to Madrid) and head east to get to our destination. But as we did so, we thought we saw a windmill atop one of the hills above the town of El Balcón de la Mancha. Then we saw another,....and another! So we turned off the road we were taking and headed up the hill to where we thought we'd seen the windmills. And when we got there, we saw that we had not imagined them. There were old windmills everywhere, looking back over the town.

We had a good look around at the windmills, statues and plaques, and realised that this was the area (La Mancha) from which the Don Quixote stories emerged. Unfortunately, the information centre was closed (out of season), and so we couldn't learn much about the area (but Google has since filled in many of those knowledge gaps). The statues and windmills brightened up the area, and it was just as well, because the wind atop the hill was cold and blustery.

After about an hour, we jumped back in the van (to warm up, as much as anything else), drove down the hill and rejoined the main road east. It had been a delightful and unexpected highight of today's drive.

After about another hour, we arrived at the small town of Villa De Fuentes, and soon found the vanpark. It was just as described in CamperContact; all the facilities and free. The scenery wasn't the greatest, but one can't have everything. When we arrived in the late afternoon, there was only one other van there, but all four spaces were filled by nightfall. Before then, Rita rode into the town to try to find a shop where she could spend some money, in order to give back to the small community which had generously provided the vanpark. Unfortunately, no shops were open, but she did manage to meet some locals on the streets and talk with them about her favourite topic; the music styles of the region.

We had overnight rain, and light, misty drizzle continued for the rest of the morning, so we got on the road at 1000h and just hoped that it would only rain while we were driving. Our trip today was to the east coast of Spain, skirting around the edge of Valencia and on to the town of Peniscola.

As we drove, we couldn't help but notice that about every 5km, there was a Service Centre with fuel/restaurant/bar/hotel/ truck park/nightclub, everything a truck driver might need on their trip across Spain. With the steady rain, the soil was turning a dark red colour, much like parts of the Australian outback. As we drove across Spain, we had seen many train lines, mostly with very modern infrastructure, but we hadn't seen a single train. So today we celebrated when we actually saw a train. Not a very big train, just a little three carriage job in a small town, but at least we now know that the infrastructure is being used. The other infrastructure we saw a lot of was wind-turbines (unlike the old windmills we saw yesterday), sometimes filling the view to the horizon in all directions. But with these turbines we also saw lots of high-tension power cables strung across the countryside - and they weren't quite as visually appealing. As we approached Valencia, the olive and grape plantations of yesterday were replaced by lots and lots of oranges (as you might expect in Valencia).

We arrived in Peniscola in the mid-afternoon and checked into our campground, which was near the coast and about 1km from the centre of town further down on the coast. After settling in, we jumped on the eBikes and rode down the shoreline to have a look at the town. When we got there I took a photo of the town sign with the castle in the background. However, when I took the picture my finger must have touched the zoom button, so I had to take a second photo.

The town looked like it held plenty of interesting sites for exploring tomorrow. As we rode back to the campground, the coastal wind was picking up, and soon became quite strong. That evening, heavy rain started to fall, so we had a quiet night in the security of our van.

The rain cleared overnight, and we were greeted by a sunny morning. We spent the morning in the van, Rita working on her report and me watching Australia play Pakistan in the ODI World Cup. Much-maligned David Warner made a worderful return to form and scored 163 off 124 balls, enabling Australia to take out the game and maintain their chances of progressing further. This is what the van looks like on occasions like this morning.

In the late morning, we got on our eBikes again and rode down the beach path to the old town area. Sadly, the beach road looks a bit like the Gold Coast in Queensland in the 1960's when the high rise developments started. Let's hope Peniscola doesn't go as far as the Gold Coast

As we approached the old town, the view of the castle towering over the properties below was impressive.

So we walked through the streets below the castle, and then headed for the castle to do a tour. As we walked through the front door, I turned and saw the lighhouse below that had protected this coastline for hundreds of years. The view from the castle to the north was equally as impressive with the sea and mountain in the background.

We strolled around the castle for a couple of hours, checking out the views, the rooms and the audio-visual displays. We were surprised to learn that Peniscola had been the Papal See residence of Pope (or Antipope, depending on your viewpoint) Benedict XIII in the 14th century. Gave a different perspective on the castle.

After the castle, we again wandered through the labyrinth of streets nestling under the castle. We were staggered by this building which was clad entirely in seashells - very original and beautiful.

As we left the castle area, we entered the port district, which also had many seafood restaurants, including one that was recommended by the campground manager. Unfortunately, we were a bit early for dinner (we had realised earlier on this trip that the Spanish like to eat late at night) but we were captivated by a mother cat and her kittens who were cavorting playfully outside the restaurant. We decided to go for a drink elsewhere and then come back here later in the evening.

So we continued on to another part of the old town and found an open bar, where we settled down for a drink, and watched and listened to the locals in the bar discussing their highlights for the week. As sunset approached, we walked back to the kitten restaurant, and found that they were just opening up for dinner. We were the first diners to arrive, so we were sat at a table with a drink and a menu while the kitchen staff got ready. Luckily the kittens were still at play, on the other side of the window near which we sat, and they played hide-and-seek with themselves and their mother to keep us entertained for quite a while. Eventually, we were fed some delicious fish, which we devoured in a fitting conclusion to a pleasant day. As we rode home in the dark, the castle presented another view of itself to cap off the day.

We were awakened at 0500h by the sound of hunting dogs in the distance, and realised that we were in a semi-rural area, and hunting season had begun. But we got ourselves back to sleep and re-woke at 0800h for breakfast, which we had to get finished because Rita had a Zoom meeting with her Music Therapy teachers and fellow students in France from 0900 till 1200h. In late morning I got the van ready for travel, and soon after the end of the Zoom meeting we were on the road again at 1220h. We are getting used to this rhythm of one day of driving, followed by one day of non-driving. That allows us to see many places, but to spend a little bit of time (at least a day) in each of them. Today we are heading for the little town of Maçanet de la Selva, north of Barcelona and just south of Girona.

After skipping inland of Barcelona and seeing the mountains of Montserrat, which we visited in 2018, we arrived at Maçanet de la Selva around 1600h. But after following the directions from CamperContact and finding the campground, we found everything shut and very quiet. So, after trying to phone and then trying to get someone's attention, we sat in the van in the parking area, with a cup of tea, wondering what we should do next. After a while we heard some motorbikes go past, but never saw where they went. A little while later, a Norwegian couple arrived in a van and asked us how we might get into the campground. We explained that we were asking ourselves the same question! They disappeared, but reappeared a little while later saying  that they had managed to contact the manager, on a different phone number to the one we had, and that he was opening the gates for us. So we quickly followed them in Vanumbra, and entered the campground. It looked like a very small area with perhaps only 6-8 sites, and was out behind their house and sheds. Interestingly, the bikers we had seen go past a while ago were all inside and setting up. We later learned that the campground owner was a biker himself, and these were all friends who had come to camp for the weekend.

We chatted with the owner and learned the life story of how he came to set up the campground, and he told us that there was a nice walk to a hilltop tower from just outside the campground, and that we were also free to explore his garden area. We decided to do the hilltop walk first and set off on foot up the hill. The tower (Torcafelló Castle) dates back to the 11th century and has been built, re-built, modified and restored several times since then. It is now not very large, but the surrounding view explains why is was used as part of a network of towers for optical telegraphy, using flags to quickly send messages across the countryside during times of attack.

After we came back down from the tower, we took up the owners offer to explore his garden, and were stunned. The Infinity Pool overlooking the valley was amazing. I could just imagine Rita in the pool on a warm day, while I relaxed with a book on the adjacent sun lounges. But it was now late in the day, and the temperature was falling!

Even the lawns were cut in a stylistic fashion, with a large golf ball on one side suggesting a pleasant afternoon stroll.

We were glad that we hadn't given up on finding access to this campground. The late afternoon had proved to be very relaxing, and we enjoyed the soft sunset as we had dinner under our awning on the side of the van.