Sunday 17 February 2019

From Gelves marina to Presa de Beznar embalse

Gelves Marina 
I'm linking up with The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer.

I struggling to get my head around it not yet even being a week since we left Sevilla after our weekend there! It hasn't felt like a particularly busy week, but we seemed to have crammed a lot into the time. On Monday we returned to Gelves Marina where we had left our motorhome. We were parked up between the marina basin and the river with boats either side of us. It's a fab location for visiting Sevilla - the bus takes about half an hour and costs just €1.60 each way and the marina parking is €12 per night without electric hookup.

Tuesday saw us driving to Olvera and their municipal Pueblo Blanco campsite. Situated up on a high plateau, it had long views across the countryside but, probably due to the time of year, was ridiculously windy. We managed to get one reasonable walk in but, despite having gone there for the Via Verda cycle path, our bikes stayed put on the bicycle rack! We stayed three nights in the hope of the weather easing before we gave up. A shame as it was a nice campsite, albeit a bit pricey at €18 per night.

We had Olvera campsite pretty much to ourselves! 

Our destination for Friday was the Presa de Beznar embalse - a free motorhome parking spot on the edge of a dammed up lake. There are absolutely no facilities here because it isn't a campsite as such, just a place where motorhome parking overnight is allowed. It's beautiful! We thought we'd only stay one night, but actually stayed there for two - the sun being higher in the sky than at Messines in December means our solar panel charges up much better. We had a great walk aross the top of the dam - scary for height-phobic me! - and then down into the river valley from where we could look up and appreciate just what a feat of engineering it is. We saw and smelt lots of wild rosemary which got me thinking how I should pick a little for delicious fresh rosemary tea. We gleaned a handful of leftover almonds too. The trees are in blossom now so last year's nuts definitely won't be part of any harvest. We need to add nutcrackers to our travelling kitchen utensils though. The two almond shells I did manage to open yielded perfect nuts with an unbelievably strong flavour!

Dave by Beznar lake 


In bookish news, I've just finished (about 20 minutes ago!) reading Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli. Wow! Just wow! I don't think this is one that will appeal to a wide readership, but I loved its dense prose and stream of consciousness style. I had thought that The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo was probably going to be my Book of the Month, just ahead of The Swooping Magpie by Liza Perrat, but now I have this other contender as well. 2019 is shaping up to be a great year for bookishness :-)


Giveaways closing soon
None closing this week
(All current giveaways here)

On my blogs this week were:

Stephanie Jane
Books From The Backlog - Above The Bridge by Deborah Garner

Literary Flits
The Sign of the Serpent by Majanka Verstraete spotlight + #Giveaway + Author Interview
Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - vintage review
The Unwinding Of The Miracle by Julie Yip-Williams review - cancer non-survivor memoir
The Ghostly Father by Sue Barnard review + #Giveaway - Romeo and Juliet retelling
One Last Prayer For The Rays by Wes Markin spotlight + Excerpt
The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo review - Malaysian weretigers!
The Migraine Relief Plan by Stephanie Weaver spotlight + #Giveaway + #VeganRecipe

Airing Out
None this week - must post soon before I start to forget where I've been!

Squint and you might just make out motorhomes above the dam wall 
Beznar dam from t'other side 

Monday 11 February 2019

Our Weekend in Sevilla

View from the Setas sculpture 
I'm linking up with The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer.

We're both pretty exhausted today after a long weekend exploring the gorgeous Spanish city of Sevilla. Dave's family flew out from the UK so we rented a lovely Airbnb apartment for everyone. It's five years since Dave and I last visited Seville so there were a few places, like the amazingly tiled Plaza de Espana and the beautiful historic Real Alcazar, that we were keen to share. This time around we also toured the Setas sculpture - huge wooden mushrooms with a skyline walkway around them! - and got to see a stunning dance show at the Museo de Flamenco.


A significant proportion of our time seemed to be spent sampling delicious tapas and simply wandering around soaking up the Spanish sun and atmosphere. Perfect! A few foodie recommendations for your own Seville visit, should you be planning one, are:
Bar Patanatas - for good traditional tapas.
Arte y Sabor - a fusion restaurant with a great choice of vegan or vegetarian dishes as well as a meaty menu.
Cafe Piola - for the best hot chocolate, plus cocktails and excellent cake for Dave.
El Paladar - a tiny restaurant so get there as they open if you can. Amazing stacked vegan burger and excellent vegan lasagna, plus good meat menu too.
Of all the places we stopped to eat, I think El Paladar was my favourite. It's got a brilliant atmosphere and the waiter's explanation of the menu (mostly in English, occasionally in mime) was great fun!


In bookish news, Reem at Kotobee got in touch this week to let me know about the book fairs section on their blog. Apparently every international book fair is listed here and it looks like we could spend the whole year doing nothing else but touring them!


Giveaways closing soon
11th Feb: Win an ebook of The Night Knight by C H Clepitt
14th Feb: Win an audiobook of Ink by Jobie Baldwin
14th Feb: Win a $10 Amazon gift card to celebrate the publication of A New World - Contact by M D Neu
16th Feb: (post 14th Feb) Win a signed copy of The Ghostly Father by Sue Barnard

(All current giveaways here)

On my blogs this week were:

Stephanie Jane
January Challenges WrapUp and Bookish Bingo
#WorldReads - Five Books From Northern Ireland
#Veganuary Food Diary - Week Five and Wrapup
Cover Characteristics - Swimming

Literary Flits
How To Create A Vegan World by Tobias Leenaert nonfiction review
Salt of the Earth by Jozef Wittlin historical fiction review
A New World - Contact by M D Neu Spotlight + #Giveaway + Excerpt
How to Lose a Country by Ece Temelkuran nonfiction review
White Walls And Straitjackets by David Owain Hughes horror review
The Swooping Magpie by Liza Perrat historical fiction review
Love In No Man's Land by Duo Ji Zhuo Ga romantic epic review

Airing Out
None this week

Alcazar palace ceiling 
Tile motifs in the Alcazar 


street art in Sevilla 


Sunday 3 February 2019

In the Donana National Park

I'm linking up with The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer.

We arrived in the DoƱana National Park on Friday afternoon, a huge protected area of pine forests and sand dunes. Our current campsite is about 5km from the little town of Hinojos (which translates as Fennel). We cycled to and around Hinojos this afternoon along the dedicated off-road cycle path and spent three hours yesterday hiking in the National Park. We plan to stay here until Wednesday although, on arrival, we weren't even sure we'd last 24 hours. Our magic internet gadget Doesn't Work. Quelle horreur! Fortunately the Donarrayan Campsite has good wifi, but it's pricey so we're sharing an access code. My being quiet(er) online over the next few days will be due to this.


Music news: one of my favourite singer-songwriters has a new Kickstarter currently running. I've only seen Peter Mulvey play once - at the Lewes Con Club supporting Birds Of Chicago - and it's high time he got himself back over to Europe for a tour!


In bookish news, congratulations to author Erato who won the Literary Flits Spotlight Post giveaway this month for her historical fiction novel The Virgin And The Bull! I'll be posting that Spotlight on the 22nd Feb, I think. Any authors reading this, add your own book links to the giveaway page to enter next month's draw.

And thank you to Terry Tyler for tagging me in #7books over on Twitter. 1 book I've loved per day, just posting the covers. If you don't already follow me on Twitter you can Do So Right Here!


Giveaways closing soon
3rd Feb: Win a copy of Oh What A Pavlova by Isabella May to celebrate her The Cocktail Bar blog tour).
7th Feb: Win a 4-seat dinner at HiR Fine Dining in Costa Rica (value $580) or win a paperback or ebook copy of Accessible Fine Dining by Noam Kostucki.
Win one of three copies of Piggybacker by Mikki Noble.
Win copies of Melding Spirits by Michael E Burge and $20 Amazon gift cards.

(All current giveaways here)

On my blogs this week were:

Stephanie Jane
#Veganuary Food Diary - Week Four
State Of The ARC - January 2019
Books From The Backlog - White Walls And Straitjackets by David Owain Hughes
A Month In Books - January 2019

Literary Flits
The Night Knight by C H Clepitt review + #Giveaway
Piggybacker by Mikki Noble spotlight + #Giveaway
Melding Spirits by Michael E. Burge spotlight + #Giveaway
The Judgement Of Richard Richter by Igor Stiks review
The Cocktail Bar by Isabella May spotlight + #Giveaway + Q and A
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell review
Ink by Jobie Baldwin spotlight + #Giveaway + Excerpt

Airing Out
None this week