Around Sanlucar de Barrameda

We both had a great sleep in the Cicnes Palace and felt restored after the buffeting we had getting there. We had a day to wander around Sanlucar and another night in the Palace. We seemed to be the only guests the first night though there are 20 rooms. We were on the ground floor in a corner room but there were beautiful marble stairs that led up to two other floors where I could see there were larger suites with private terraces, though there was also a very large terrace with a pool for all the rooms. There was some interesting original art of the walls. One of the real benefits of such off-season travel is having the opportunity to stay in accommodation we would not otherwise be able to afford.

Sanlucar is a lovely town of about 70,000 in a very interesting location of the left bank of the Guadalquivir River and bordered by the Doñana Natural Park, one of Europe’s most important wetland reserves comprising over 1300 sq Km, with three distinct kinds of ecosystems: the marismas or salt marshlands that provide habitat for an enormous variety of birds, including the world’s largest colonies of Spanish imperial eagles; the Mediterranean scrublands and the coastal dunes and beaches. The Doñana is a delta of the river but the river has only one outlet to the sea, the rest being blocked off by a huge sandbar that the winds have formed into huge dunes. Behind them are the marshlands.

The park was created in 1969 but adjoining wetland areas have been dramatically reduced: drained and converted to farmland, developed into towns, villages and resorts, threatening the existence of the wildlife including the endangered Iberian Lynx, that continue to live in the park. Runoff from new rice fields and other agricultural projects pollute with pesticides and there is legal and illegal borehole extraction for water for agriculture. A mine tailings pond disaster in 1998 released more than 4 million cubic meters of acidic mine tailings containing heavy metals into two rivers and into the Doñana and the EU funded cleanup took 3 years and €240 million. Sigh….

You can take a ferry from Sanlucar across the river to the Doñana. We would like to have done that and made a ride through the park part of our route but it was unclear where we would be able to get to and where we would stay. So we contented ourselves with walking along the long riverfront beach promenade where we could see the park on the other side of the river and visiting the small Doñana Park museum housed in the Fabrica de Hielo, an old ice-making plant, which provided a lot of really good information in English. We watched a big freighter carefully navigate its way down the river. The promenade was lined with restaurants and clubs but not a lot of action at this time of year.

Historically, Sanlucar played a key role in the sea explorations of the world. Seville, just up-river was the only port authorized for the departure and arrival of ships for over seas travel and it belonged to the Dukes of Medina Sidonia, who as General Captains of the Sea Ocean and coast of Andalucia, were responsible for the preparation and dispatch of the fleets. In September 1519, Magellan commanded a fleet of five ships that left from Sanlucar to carry out a circumnavigation of the world, demonstrating the spherical shape of the Earth. Magellan named the Pacific on this voyage. There were 5 ships in the fleet with 265 crew. The voyage lasted 3 years and the only surviving ship commanded by Juan Elcano, with only 18 crew, apparently all in terrible shape, returned to the Sanlucar harbour in September of 1522.

There is a monument, an Equatorial Watch commemorating this expedition and some beautiful commemorative tiles on a building with portraits of Magellan and Elcano and one of the ships, the Magellan and Elcano fleet with Sanlucar as it was at the time in the background, a map of the circumnavigation, Elcano writing a letter to the emperor Carlos I informing him of his arrival and the names of the 18 surviving sailors.

Compared to our last stop, Puerto de Los Santa Maria, Sanlucar seemed a pristine town, everything very clean, tidy and well maintained, with lovely old buildings. Apparently it was a place for the wealthy to build summer house. I had a good wander around one evening on my own up the hill behind the main square to the older part of time where there are a lot of historical buildings and old churches.

The Palace of the Guzmans - of the Lords of Sanlucar and Dukes of Medina Sidonia is built on the remains of the 11th C Hispanic-Muslim Alcazar and has a lovely garden and a cafe inside the old building.

The red and yellow-striped Municipal Hall is a gorgeous building with all kinds of Moorish features and decoration. It was built as a summer residence, the Orleans Palace between 1860 and 1870 with Arab and Egyptian influences. When I looked in, there was some kind of model competition for young girls going on in the main foyer.

Winemaking seems to be the main economic driver, besides tourism and there was a large facility opposite our hotel where you could take a wine tasting tour for €90. This area infamous for manzanilla or sherry. Unfortunately, still being on antibiotics, my tasting ability was kind of restricted.

So we have three more days of biking before arriving in Seville. Weather looks good. Vamos!