Golf in Spain

Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Huelva, Andalusia, Spain and Canary Islands
In November we were persuaded, without much difficulty, to go to Spain for a week with our friends Howard and Kay, who are very keen golfers.  We actually flew into Faro, Portugal, and then hired a car to drive to El Rompido, the golf resort just across the border in Spain.
The resort was actually nice.  The weather was good, though mighty cold in the morning with frost on the ground one day.  The problem was that with hour difference we were teeing off around 8.30, when the sun wasn't really up. It had two golf courses, one which was good and one which was impressive but impossible to play.  Apart from being ridiculously narrow it had hazards and dog legs everywhere and for an average golfer almost impossible not to get into trouble.  Annie, with her high handicap, just stayed out of trouble and ended up with a good score.  We found it impossible and refused to play it again; much to Annie's disgust! My golf was poor that week and I was very frustrated.  Annie on the other hand played beautifully and thrashed all of us!
We had hired a car so on our day off we went to Seville, an hours drive.  Seville is really nice with lots to see.  We went first to the famous Alcazar, and mini-Alhambra and it was very similar with moorish architecture and lovely gardens.  
The Plaza De Espana was built in the 1920's for a Expo.  An odd set of buildings it was used in the Star Wars films as an 'alien planet'!
The cathedral was good and we had not appreciated the strong link that the area had to Christopher Columbus. His tomb is in the Cathedral but even better in a small village just south of Seville is a the port where he set sail.  Now there is a museum with replicas of the three boats he used for the crossing. They were small Caravels, these are ships where they are steered by a rudder, like a dinghy, with the steersman actually below decks.  Very odd design.
We had a nice week in the sun although I found 5 games of golf in a week a bit much for me.  Not that I can't physically do it but that I don't really like that much golf! Still we had a good break away from the English winter. 

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2025-02-08

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