Carmona

Today, being a warm but hazy day, we took a drive to the ancient walled town of Carmona, reputedly the oldest town in Andalucia. Carmona lies aproximately 95 kms north of Olvera, about 90 minutes driving.

Anne woke up this morning on the wrong side of the bed so the drive was thankfully a quiet one.......more on that later.

As usual, we parked the car at the bottom and started our trek towards the top of town where the old castle stood.

Quite a few pics today, the first one being the view of the approach to Carmona.

The picture below shows the main entrance into the old town taken from inside the wall.












The view of the old entrance to the town from outside the wall.















The picture right is of a pretty courtyard we passed.
Below is of a market that we came across, convenient stop for a coffee.













The time was now about 12.30, so I had now had approximately two hours of peace and quiet but it was not to last.......the smile came out and normal service resumed.

After wandering for about 30 minutes we eventually arrived at the impressive entrance to the castle, only to find that it had been turned into a Parador Hotel. It was quite disappointing as from the outside the ruins looked quite impressive and I was looking forward to a bit of exploration.

Whilst wandering around we came upon these two guys renovating an old property. They were insistent upon posing for a picture and I was happy to oblige. They are such happy people here!!.

After stopping for a tapa's and drinks, we headed off home. It was about 2pm when we were stopped at roadworks just outside of the town. One of the workmen advised that the wait would be between thirty and forty minutes.

No, this was nothing to do with the work being done; we had hit upon siesta time.......lunch time, so all work had stopped. The guys controlling the traffic were having a nap at the side of the road, as shown in the pic below.

No pasanada (no problem)....no point in getting uptight, just chill and have a break.

We liked Carmona and according to Anne it was another place she would like to live. More info on Carmona can be found in this link www.andalucia.com/province/sevilla/carmona/home.htm