On the road to Cadiz

The trip from Madrid to Sevilla started, then stopped 30 meters later, when we couldn´t get our bus out of the Madrid airport parking lot. Somehow, we got in, but the exit gate was lower. Luckily the friendly folks at the car park opened a gate for us, and signed the bus as well. They said they wanted to come along...

Once you leave the mesa that Madrid is on, you hit the plains. Olives, vinyards, and lots of wind. This is "La Mancha" - famous for Don Quixote and his pugilistic attitude towards windmills. Well, all the old mills have been replaced with high tech ones - he would have a much harder time fighting them these days...

Along the way we tried to secure some tires, but the only ones we found were farm vehicle tires. We decided that unless we each wanted to buy a tire, and roll to Senegal inside them, we were out of luck for the meantime.

The rains in Spain do fall mainly on the plains, so we were in the drink after a few hours of driving, a rain that would not let up until we reached Cadiz the next day. After a rainy stop in Sevilla to pick up the final memeber of the team, Amanda, we were off again in a maelstrom of precipitation. We were finally ALL on the bus and spirits were high despite the rain...

In Cadiz, we spent the afternoon walking around and enjoying the sun and warm weather for the first time on our trip. Cadiz is considered the oldest city in Europe, founded in 1100 B.C. by Phoenician traders, now they have a Ben&Jerry´s - who would have thought?