Adventures With Harvey

It's been a whirlwind! The last week has probably been the most intensive exploring of the holiday but it's been just awesome! Steve (my brother) and his lovely wife Kelly were with us and their time was limited so we needed to get stuck in and explore!!  Southern Spain has such a colourful history & today the culture remains vibrant and convivial. For around 4-500 years from the 9th century the Moors (North African Muslims) were in charge before The Reconquista where Catholics banished members of most other faiths, and remain the predominant religion in Spain to the present day.  Fortunately there remain a number of structures (or parts thereof) which were built during the period of Muslim dominance & are unique in Europe. However let us start with Sevilla which we visited at the start and again later in the week. The cathedral is on the site of the former mosque which had only just been completed when the Moors were defeated. Rather than demolishing such a spectacula...

It's much warmer in Spain!  Happy New Year one and all - Adventures With Harvey is back for 2023 with more exciting tales of travels and exploration. We've covered quite a few km since our last update, thankfully we now find ourselves in the south of Spain and have left the snow and cold far behind us!  The last edition finished up in Basel & from that point there was only one direction for Harvey's nose; South! First stop was Lyon where we stayed at a vineyard with some retired winemakers - it can be quite hilarious when neither of you speaks the other's language however Google Translate means you can get by much easier than would have been the case only a few years ago. The highlight of Lyon for your author was watching the Football World Cup final in a pub surrounded by fanatical locals. We were very fortunate to find a spot indoors just off the main square because it seemed like the whole town was in town looking for somewhere to watch the game. The atmosphere w...