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Five things in the wide open spaces

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  It is another day of sweeping landscapes, much given to agriculture, a quick revisit to the canal and, well, five things about Spain. The Spanish built two dreadnought battleships of the Espana class - being the Alfonso XIII - later the Espana - and Jaime I. The ships were 16,500 tons loaded, had 8 inch and 20 4 inch guns and a crew of 854.  The Espana was in commission from 1913 to 1937 - when it was sunk by a Fascist mine off Santander.  The Jaime I  was launched in 1914.  In June 1937 she was sunk by an accidental internal explosion, was refloated and then, on mature consideration, broken up for scrap. Real Club Recreativo de Huelva are accounted the oldest football team in Spain. British employees of the Rio Tinto Company begun to have kick abouts and things developed into the formation of the club in December 1889.  The club have not, it is fair to say, a shooting star of the Spanish permanent. They made the Primera in 1978-9 and 2002-3. They had the...
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Noble Pineapples and the chemical art

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  It is a bit of a day of sweeping vastness. We will pass some electricity works, look at them, and then do five things. PFV Envatios is a solar power plant.  It has nine reviews. It gets 4.3 stars and few words.  Rafael gave it one star.   A different Rafael gave it four and the only two words ‘Great, good.’ Down the road is Acceso PFV Envatios Enel Green Power. Google says it is a warehouse. It has 2 reviews and 2 stars. Victor gave 3. Jose gave 1. Neither say why. The Medieval Pandemic of the Black Death killed 60-65% of the population. Alfonso XI of Castile died in the middle of his war against Andalusia. Navarre was badly hit, especially as it was recovering a severe famine.  Princess Joan of England was en route to marry Prince Peter of Castile when she caught the pestilence and died. Pineapple-gate.  In 2024 a craze hit Spain after the supermarket chain, Mercadona, claimed that people could find romance in their stores between 7pm and 8pm.  To q...
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My Carmona

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  We are off to Carmona and why not. It has History, rather a lot of it and is just another of those Spanish towns with a past that you have never heard of but rather feel you should have. History wise Carmona has the usual Paleolithics, Neolithics and all that crowd/  The Phoenicians arrived and replaced the circular huts with rectangular ones.  The name Carmona comes from the Semitic root words Kar [city] and Hammon [a sun-god].  So, welcome to the city of Hammon. The Romans came, hung around and from the end of the 3rd century started to go away - well, the urban centre went into decline.   Very briefly it was part of the Byzantine Empire and then became one of the first capitals of Muslim Spain.   Castilian expansion came to Carmona in 1247, when Rodrigo Gonzalez Giron, Steward to Ferdinand III, accepted the surrender of the town.  We are going to head into town. The Teatro Cerezo is just a step or two of our path so let us sidle up and look a...
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7% cheaper

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  A day of open, flat, farmed and bleached countryside.  It is a day for a diversion.  Now, I know enough History to pay fast and loose with it. I am happy to cheek obscure, and possibly non-existent saints https://www.facebook.com/groups/701103664931430   I am going to talk about flamenco today and I will confess I know nothing. Should I get anything wrong today I am open to an all expenses paid trip to Southern Spain to be taught the error of my ways. First off, we are going to Bar Venta casa ana.  It is on the edge of Los Jintes and, I suspect, on the old road. The new road is cheek to cheek with it and this makes the bar so low lying that I missed it on the first run through. The bar is open 6am - 4.30pm weekdays [closed Wednesdays] and 8am to 12.30am at weekends.  It gets 3.9 stars from 38 reviews.   Two months ago Jorge wrote ‘ This place was awesome in the eighties, back when it was Armando's Italian Bar. A family atmosphere throughout the whole...
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Remembering the providers of fresh waters

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  We begin the day pottering along the A-8005 but soon are off it and cross the Canal de Valle Inferior del Guadalquivir and the Canal del Bajo Guadalquivir, which will walk down a bit before a spot of water hopping. The  Canal de Valle Inferior del Guadalquivir has three wiki pages - in Spanish, Galician and Catalan.  It was built by, at its peak, 2000 Republican Prisoners of War between 1940 and 1962. The original plan was to irrigate 56,000 hectares but currently reaches 80,000.   In 2006 a section of it was renamed The Prisoners’ Canal. Three years later a memorial was established at the former entrance of the Los Merinales work camp. We will be skirting round the edge of the pueblo of Pradollano.  There is another Pradollano. It is 2078m above sea level and is a ski resort.  It has many, many sites about it. This one isn’t and doesn’t. We will end with a couple of visits. The first is a somewhat oddly named ‘SHOT Sevilla Horse Tour.’ Google says it is ...
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Kindness with a limited selection

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  We are going to do a lot on country roads which show the effect of Andalusian  sun and a lot of traffic. The A-8005 is just a bit trilly-alley at the edges.  Much of the fields look in the need of a bit of rain as well. We will pass a scattering of business concerns as well. Let us look in at Desguace San José S.L.  It is a car breaker  https://desguacesanjose.net/ The website as lots of bits of machinery I don’t recognise, at prices I can not say if they are good or not.   Almost 1000 people gave the place its 4.1 stars.  Some recent ones are harsh - some are happy. Three months ago Rocio started with ‘ I couldn't be happier!!! ‘.  Andres was glum. ‘I'd rather not use any adjectives.’ We are now approaching La Rinconada. It is one of those great rambling hotels which lined and line the roadways of Spain providing beds, small cellophane wrapped buns and cigarette machines to the needy. This example gets 4.3 stars and the picture on Google just ...
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