Mid-life gap year Tanya and Craig

From 700AD to the mid 1400’s the Moors occupied the Iberian Peninsula. They came from northern Africa and bought their own culture, food and religion. Their impact can still be seen everywhere in Southern Spain. Seville is one of Southern Spain’s premier cities. It is renowned for its architecture, food, orange trees and flamenco dancing. It is the city from which the Spanish sailed to and from the new world; Seville is a stunningly beautiful, vibrant city.  The Andalusian or Seville orange was introduced by the Moors for their scent and aesthetics. They are tart and more suitable for making marmalade than eating. Across the region they are planted everywhere that an ornamental tree could be planted. The Alcazar is a former royal residence built in the post Islamic Christian era but the Moorish influences are undeniable. Every turn, every view, every archway, every tile, even the stone floor has a noteworthy beauty factor.  The Seville cathedral is...

Often in our travels we visit a place and are truly wowed! Batalha Portugal is one of those places. Bathalha literally meaning Battle was founded in 1385 after the Battle of Aljubarrota. On one side was an army of 30,000 Spaniards vying to take the Portuguese throne. The other side (Portuguese) lead by Dom (King) Joâo with his army of 6500; won the battle. In mid fight Dom Joâo prayed and summoned the power of God, promising to build a superb abbey in return for victory.  Most of Dom Joâo’s monumental abbey formally known as Manueline Mosteiro de Santa Maria da Vitoria (Batalha Abbey) was completed by 1434 with 15th and 16th century expansions and additions.  The stonework on the abbey is of a detail which would usually be associated with lace, not stone.  The ochre coloured limestone building reaches to the sky with its intensely decorative pinnacles and parapets above the extraordinarily high ceiling. The warm light filters through the patterned c...

1971 was the International Year of Conservation. Portugal's contribution was the establishment of its first National Park called Peneda-Geres. It lies on the northern border with Spain and is named after the two mountain ranges it encompasses.  The landscape is harsh and largely inhospitable. There is a reason that this is the last remaining stand of Iberian Wolf in Portugal.   Rising from tight gorges the exposed granite mountains climb to a height of 1500m and beyond. The area has the highest rainfall in Portugal. Combine this with granite rocks and you get thousands of clear running streams and beautiful waterfalls...Just the type that would tempt you to swim on a hot summer’s day, but now it is winter and fortunately the National Park has numerous hot springs. We took advantage of these at Torneiros. The water enters the pool at 50 degrees Celsius; needless to say, we sat at the colder end. It was perfect on a clear day that did not exceed 10 degrees. The Nat...

Before seeing the signs as we drove into town, we'd never heard of "Vila Nova de Foz Coa", a village in the upper Doura Valley (NE Portugal); nor did we know that the region has the largest known display of open-air (ie not cave) Palaeolithic rock art in the world.  It is World Heritage Listed. The rock art is only visible on guided tours taken from the Museum of the Parque Arqueologico do Vale do Coa on the outskirts of the village.  The rock engravings were discovered during a proposed hydro-electric dam environmental impact assessment in the early 1990s. Several thousand rock engravings are etched for 17km along the Coa and tributary valleys. The engravings include thousands of images of four tyes of animals: horses, aurochs (wild extinct ancestor of modern cattle), long horned ibex (wild goat), deer. The images have been dated from 40,000 to 10,000 years ago. The prehistoric engravings are made using three techniques, they are scratched, picked or gouged. So...

Another city that we'd not heard of prior to arriving in Spain. Caceres is a city in western Spain in the Extramadura region.  Being the end of autumn, there were very few tourists so we could explore the old town uninterrupted.  We wandered the old town in a state of elevated curiosity.  Every view was of interest: a juliet balcony; the steep stairways; the narrow and winding passageways; more than 30 towers many with stork nests; a Moorish window in a Renaissance facade; an ornate church; a hidden oasis garden with oleanders and olives; Aztec inspired sandstone murals; plaza mayor; grapevines olive trees, pomegranates, persimmons and almonds, all growing on the surrounding hills.  Caceres is also increasingly becoming a food capital of the world. Modern tapas and shared dining plates is the primary style.  Lunch commences anywhere between 12:30 and 2:30 and service generally finishes around 4pm. Most restaurants don't open again, even for tapas until...

You can fit a lot into eleven days. We met our friends, Jim and Laurel from Brisbane in the beautiful Spanish city of Salamanca. The old town is a city of ornately carved sandstone and dates back to celtic times. The city university was founded in the 11th century and became a centre for learning in the 15th century. The city library is stunning and was originally a cloister with a well in the middle of the courtyard. After Salamanca our next highlight (other than seeing otters on a lake near Castelo Branco where we camped) was the Portuguese village of Monsanto. The village is literally nestled in and around the granite boulders. On top of the hill was an 11th century castle ruin built by the Knights Templar. It was foggy with light rain when we visited. We have since seen images of the rock formations and views on a clear day; and it is even more spectacular.  Since hearing about the huge winter surf at Nazare Portugal we have wanted to visit and were not disappointed. Fr...

The city of Perniche is on a peninsular jutting out into the Atlantic, about an hour's drive south of Nazare and one hour north of Lisbon. It is a typical Portuguese coastal town with fish drying on racks in narrow streets. It has a small market that sells local produce to local people.  The town is renowned for its fort, city wall, surf, handmade lace production and fishing industry. Our friend Laurel was particularly interested in the lace production so we visited the museum / school and saw first-hand the craft that has been done for 400 years in Perniche. I couldn't have imagined that anyone could manage more than 75 bobbins at once: spinning and choreographing them quicker than my eye could follow. Such skill! We visited Fortaleza, a 16th century fort in Perniche which was later used as a jail between 1934 and 1974 for 2500 dissidents and opponents of the fascist dictator Salazar. It is now a National Museum of Resistance and Freedom.  The museum is inte...