Olvera and Radishes

Graham and I, along with two other couples and their toddler sons, drove out to Olvera on Saturday. We had seen Olvera from the road before when making trips to Ronda, and it looked like a charming pueblo blanco. It is also known for it's extensive olive groves and olive oil production, so our plan was to get some oil from the source then enjoy a delicious lunch. Neither of those things happened. 

Lunch in Lovely Zahara

On the way back to El Puerto from Guejar Sierra, we took a little detour to Zahara de la Sierra to have lunch with friends. I happily snapped photos almost the entire way, while Graham battled with passing slow moving tractors. Ahh, country life, it's the same everywhere.

Despite the agricultural traffic jam, the drive was lovely. Descending from the Sierra Nevada mountains into the olive groves that go on as far as the eye can see, passing pueblos blancos and rambling cortijos...

Olive trees for miles...

Ferry to Cadiz

On Saturday, we took the ferry from Puerto to Cadiz. Cadiz is close (we can see it across the bay from our bedroom balcony!) and we've been many times by car (we went just a couple weekends ago to see the Tall Ships). But we had heard the ferry was fast, cheap, and easy (just how we like it...?) so we decided to give it a try.

It was a gorgeous (and very hot) day.

Cadiz is (according to the Spanish) the oldest, continuously inhabited European city. Whether or not that is true doesn't really matter, Cadiz is a beautiful and ancient city, full of character and winding streets. 

Roadtrip Random: Castro Verde

Our last couple of posts have been about our trip back to the States and what we ate there. This is our attempt to catch up with our blogging and also to get back to posting about life over on this side of the Atlantic. On our way to Lisbon (yeah, we went to Lisbon, last year, over Labor Day weekend, we know, we're terrible) we planned to stop for lunch about halfway through the 6 hour drive. Meghann thought that meant somewhere around Albufeira (you can see it on the map, the town right before we started heading north), but Graham did not and just kept driving. Which resulted in one of those arguments discussions about how we're both hungry and there's no place to eat and we're in the middle of nowhere and we're going to starve. We both turn completely cranky and unreasonable when we haven't eaten. So, Graham pulled in at a gas station and asked where the closest town with a restaurant was. And that is how we found ourselves in Castro Verde, Portugal - possibly one of the best, most random, roadtrip discoveries ever.

Despite being hungry, we were instantly intrigued by the little town and had to check it out. We parked the Mini on uno of the cobblestone streets and took a short walk.