On 16 July
Chipiona celebrated a festival of the sea.
The fishing boats got all dressed up, families and friends hopped aboard
and there was a lot of noise as they left the harbour to parade along the long
town front.
We then went
to Sevilla which is the capital of Andalucia I think – certainly it is
culturally and architecturally wonderful.
We only scratched the surface of the city during our overnight stay. I think we only walked over a square
mile of it and took in the Real Alcazar palace of Moorish origin and later
Castillian additions and its lovely gardens We took in the cathedral
and the little alleyways and churches roundabout. We stayed in a Pension (see picture of
Bill looking out of window)which was quite nice but noisy because Sevillians
stay up very late on account of having a siesta. We thought we had stayed up late enough
in order to go to a flamenco bar which didn’t start till 12 pm ! Hope the photos give a taste of what we
saw and we will try and put up some of the video strips we have taken on another
web site at a later date so you can get the flavour of the passionate and
impromptu flamenco singing and clapping and see the dolphins we encountered some
days before.
If you are a
smoker you may be glad to know that everyone smokes anywhere - in Portugal
too. Signs saying no smoking are ignored - apparently.
I think at
this point (we are still in Chipiona Day 4 waiting for the Levant wind to run
its course and allow us to go through Strait of Gibraltar) I can tell you a bit
about the boat. It is very much admired by promenading residents. We
have had a few repair jobs which have been made less painful by the help of
Discovery Yachts who have sent parts and ino one instance liased with BHG who
supplied the outboard motor which we pranged. BHG liased with contacts in
Gibraltar and will ship out (free of VAT as Gib is not EU) the part for repair
when we get there. Our thanks to all
concerned.
