Day 30: Huelva to Paterna del Campo

March 31, 2023

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Huelva no doubt has some old and attractive areas, but in our transit through the place the closest we could compare it to was parts of Vancouver. For us, that is not a very great compliment.

Outskirts of most cities have the same ring of car dealerships.

A little more out of town and we got onot our really nice road, the A-472, and began to see some pleasing things. One was a one off random hacienda, in the middle of a grain field. Another was a really one off random flamingo, and then a pair of black winged stilts.

But the really big deal for us today came as we began to pass through a series of little villages. We found these to have a unique architecture with respect to their typical buildings. These are row houses, featuring balconies, grill work, tiling, and interestingly, a variety of finials mounted on flat roofs.

To this is added churches that have been built after the earthquake (1755) and which are in a really attractive Baroque style.

The first town up for us was like this . We looked at the interesting streets and headed for the church. The church appeared to be locked tight, so I was ready to just carry on. But Dodie had some kind of twitch to her nose, and she just kept noodling around the church, drawing some exasperated "Can we just go?"'s from me. But soon Dodie was around the back, and she found what you see in the second photo below!

Dodie strikes a paso - Semana Santa parade

These are just kids in make do outfits, and they pause to have a look at me.

The back door of the church had been opened for the float, allowing me to leak in. As we have begun to see, they tend to park a lot of floats and stuff in the churches.

A somewhat dare I say Moorish Jesus, ready to go, with his three - what are those things in place by his head?

Nice general (non mobile) decoration of the church.

A Mary with crown and a "Baby Jesus". I like the way the little guy has that hand signal figured out.

We took to the road again, really appreciating the broad shoulder and low traffic volume. The traffic is on the big road, which we crossed over.

Our road took us to Niebla, which is a walled city. It was interesting to look at inside, with the design of the houses, and out, with the design of the walls. The walls are based on Roman foundations, and then have Moorish design, followed by Gothic additions.

We had more good fortune as we came to the Santa Maria de la Granada church, where we found people touching up a float. There were other parked floats as well!

A tree had decided to adorn Dodie with a natural hair decoration. I think it looked good!

We left town via the "Sevilla" gate, naturally, and soon used a Roman bridge to cross an arroyo. These things felt sufficientl historical!

So we passed an equestrian centre, where one horse looked very spirited and Spanish. Some nice while horses were also using some "gym equipment" in the form of an exercise ring where they followed a moving barrier. I wondered how long they could keep circling the thing, but realized it could be very long, given how we were then setting off for some more or less infinite pedaling.

Vilarrasa was up next for us, with again the row houses and the interesting churches, of not that ancient construction.

The other side seems to be looking at us.

The land hereabouts is rolling and pleasant.

La Palma del Condado was one of our final towns.

And the church not only of striking design but covered with tiles, and storks.

The church is 18th century Baroque style

Amazingly we did visit two more towns, with their unique streets and churches, but I am going to skim by them, because the idea of the day is well established. I will leave in one last tower and one last stork!

At last we did a swoop to our home for the night, in Paterna del Campo. It was swoop at first, but then a climb!

For the first time since England we were doing a small room above a pub. When we got there, the noise was so loud I expected to see dozens of people. Instead there were but a few people, but each was a noise making expert. While waiting for Dodie to make arrangements, I observed three women and two men at a table, making an awful racket. Their technique was to shout toward each other, all simultaneously. Inside, three men on a six foot bar were bellowing toward each other with amazing volume. The English, at least, needed quite a crowd to be similarly obnoxious.

These ordinary looking people are noise experts.

Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 1,200 km (745 miles)

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