Day 29: Islantilla to Huelva

March 30, 2023

Noboby expects the Spanish 10 Jammer

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It would be hard t assign a Jammer rating to this morning's breakfast. The Jammer rating started with looking at the variety of home made jams offered at a breakfast, but quickly expanded to checking on provision of cheese and charcuterie, fruits, bacon, eggs, and similar standard items. Today's breakfast ticked all those boxes, but also went on into categories not usually seen. Like four kinds of pancakes/ churros/potato puffs. and not only stewed tomatoes, but cooked vegetables like cauliflower and broccoli. And not just milk but many types of milk. (Sure, Kathleen has already shown many types of milk, but how about "oat milk"?)

The whole thing was again set off by the immense nature of the dining room, and the widely dispersed food stations.

Three of the four central cold food stations.

Then at the side were hot food stations.

Decor is also important. Here is the view from our table.

Of course is saying this breakfast was somehow above and beyond a Jammer rating, we are of course not saying the foods were sourced and created other than on Planet Earth. We're not saying that, but on the other hand, in the charcuterie category, what the hell was this?:

Many times on these bike trips I have speculated on could life be any better? This question often comes up in the food area. If we were billionaires, could our breakfast experience have been improved? One basic fact is that even billionaires have human limitations. Could we have eaten more, to feel happier yet? No way. (Could Donald Trump have eaten more? Ok, maybe!). And even at that, sometimes ultimate joy comes from reheating yesterday's bagel and going back to bed. The summary is, this morning, at least breakfast wise, we couldn't have been happier (unless maybe they had a Montreal bagel lying around.)

No doubt lulled by the good breakfast, Islantilla itself was looking nice to us as well. Our hotel, while large with 144 rooms, was not the largest or most luxurious looking by any means. But it was not size or number of hotels but the palm trees, space, and bike ways that made it attractive.

As we cycled away, it was as usual the pine forest, plants, and good road that made it great.

It was not really necessary, but signage like this was also good to see.

In addition to the orange groves, there were extensive areas of shade structures. We thought there could be strawberries in some, baby orange trees in others. We found them rather elegant, rather than intrusive.

The Classens had been impressed by the town of Cartaya, so we made a special effort to go and see it. They were really right, it was lovely. We liked the fact that it had a central square, anchored by a church and a city hall. The church (Iglesia San Pedro) was really special, since it housed a literal parking lot of Semana Santa floats, which could be looked at closely. They seemed extremely heavy, and set up to be carried by many people. In each case it was a sort of altar with a Jesus or Mary figure atop. The style of the altars and the figures was dramatic. It was very dark inside, so exactly what the camera is looking at may not be totally clear.

A virgin and child image in a chapel of the church. They look different (darker) than French standard.

Elsewhere in the church was beautiful tile work. It created a gorgeous impression.

Back in the square, we went down the walking street, noticing what looked like local Seville sour oranges, a poster for the Semana Santa, a Mexico -like example of outdoor wiring, and so forth.

Soon we were back in the countryside, on the N-431, enjoying what seemed like a bit of a switch in emphasis from orange to olive trees, and a flock of sheep with shepherd and dogs.

We entered Gibraleon and went looking for a shady lunch spot. We found a square surrounded by interesting buildings, and slightly shady benches. Each building had some slight architectural quirk that it was fun to notice more and more of as we sat there longer.

Interesting integration of statues and live tree

Now after having detoured far north because of the bridge blockade tht Classens had reported on, we headed straight south for Huelva. From the highway we think we spotted the bumpy concrete bikeway they had also mentioned. The wetland by Huelva also yielded a photo of a Spoonbill!

Eurasian Spoonbill! The one with the lighter beak is probably a juvenile.

Although our hotel supplied a map that pinpointed some interesting things to look at in Huelva, our entry to the city had involved some tough roads, and we seemed to be seeing only boring multi storey buildings, so we declined to go out to look for other stuff. Maybe tomorrow, as we hightail it out of town!

Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,141 km (709 miles)

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Kelly IniguezI hope we can find breakfasts as good as the one you had this day. I'm afraid I'm going to starve in Spain, with the late dinners, and being such a bread/wheat centric country.

I am whiling away this snowy and windy day in Colorado by researching Roman bridges in Spain for this summer. Which led me to an article about interesting bridges, where the Puente del Dragon, outside of Seville is mentioned. Is that on your radar at all? It certainly isn't a Roman bridge, but it is unique!
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