Our biggest hurdle this trip, aside from everyone figuring out how to get along, has been driving in or out of cities- very dicey. As we drove out of Sevilla, we realized that although we knew the freeway to get on, we did not know how to get to the freeway from where we were. We asked a taxi as we were stuck in traffic, none too soon as we needed to turn right at the next turn (from the left lane no less). We miraculously made it through a terribly circuitous route to the correct freeway. We drove to Santiponce, not far from Sevilla, which had the oldest Roman settlement in Spain, Itálica (206 B.C.). We walked through with an older German woman who was on the Camino de Santiago (a very old Christian pilgramage to a church with relics of St. James) all by herself. She had also walked from her house in Munich to Geneva-quite an inspiring person! We have been trying to see as many Roman sights as possible, since Lydia has been studying that period in school.
Next we drove to some hill towns near the Sierra de Grazalema, called the Route of the White Towns. We saw Arcos de la Frontera (picture with Isabelle/Liam), Zahara (picture with Lydia/, Grazalema, and stayed in Ronda. They were once on the frontier between the Christian advance on the Moors "reconquista". All were not very touristy and incredibly picturesque. We wished we would have had more time here. Chris and Lydia climbed up to a Moorish castle for an amazing view in the town of Zahara. As we drove along we saw some oak-looking trees with their bark all stripped off- turned out to be cork of course. We also saw wild rabbits, and goats, plus lots of non-wild sheep. This region seems much more arable than the Castilla area we drove through from Madrid to Sevilla (that was barren, with red dirt and many olive trees). Next entry on Ronda.
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