Medina Azahara

 Bit of a trek this, well by car. Its the site of a ruined palace from Moorish Spain. It is a pretty incredible site too, vast and most amazingly over a thousand years old. Unfortunately it was pillaged in antiquity for pother building projects, including churches, so what is left is tantalising. A lot of money was spent on the museum and car park - nothing on training the staff for friendliness to customers. Very unwelcoming.

We were warned against walking up the road from the visitor centre to the site because it is a road without real pavements and there were "wild animals". Actually although it is a public road there was very little traffic, and the animals turned out to be a few barking dogs from a house on the way past.

As I say, the site is vast and you are pretty much free to wander through the ruins, although some of the paths were a little confusing. But well worth the detour to get here, not least for the lack of other visitors.

Unfortunately you are not allowed to go down to the gardens further down the hillside.

And Thibault waiting patiently for me in the shade at the end. He goes through these places a lot faster than I do!