Return to Seville

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

We had breakfast at Club Marbella left for Sevilla about 10am, following what was now our standard route. We followed the AP-7, branched to A-7, then AP-46 and A-45 (the Madrid highway) up to the point where we turned left on A92 toward Seville.

This is a view of some of the housing at the top of the mountain near the 200 entrance to the AP-7 highway. This is an extremely popular resort area on the Costa del Sol, so the housing has climbed all the way up the slope from the coast.

This is the housing looking toward the Mediterranean Sea as we start eastward on the AP-7. The sea would be visible, but is shrouded in mist at this time. With this population density, no wonder we had a little trouble navigating the first few days!

As we travel northward from Malaga on the AP-46 and then the A-45, we go over a mountain ridge where there is little population, so we enjoyed mountain scened like this.

This is a pleasant drive through the mountains on this very well-engineered highway.

Grassy slopes characterize the hills on the south side of the top of the ridge.

There is more bare rock on the mountains as we move to the north side of the ridge.

This kind of rock ridge was characteristic of this area, and these types of flowering bushes were used in the medians and all along the Autovias.

This moved into the area that I found so beautiful with its combination of olive groves and hay fields on the gentle mountains.

The area was carefully cultivated, with the olive groves having priority.

This strange mountain was now familiar to us from our previous trips to Seville and Granada. It signaled that we were close to the left turn on A-92.

This large collection of solar panels along A-92 was a reminder of the other evidences of Spain's efforts to use wind, solar and hydroelectric power.

I couldn't be sure of the identification of this attractive row crop - maybe low-growing grapes.

We reached the town of Estepa on the slopes to the south of A-92. With mostly white buildings, I guess it qualifies as a Pueblo Blanco. It has a reputation for sweetness, having 30 factories for the production of a Christmas candy called Mantecados de Estepa.

Estepa is a major olive oil producing area.

We passed Osuna and as we approached Seville, there were large fields of sunflower. We entered Seville on A-92 and used the gps again to help us find the home of Manuel and Alicia.