After landing in Madrid to begin our Spring 2023 buying trip and close out our next 40' container shipment (FYI for Spain travel newbies: the Madrid airport must have been designed by a nephew or brother-in-law of Chevy Chase's favorite fascist dictator, Francisco Franco, because it is the least user friendly major airport in the country), we headed to the Atocha train station to catch the AVE bullet train to Seville. Spain has more bullet trains, to more cities, than any other European nation, and "training it" is a fabulous way to travel around the country.

Inhabited by different civilizations and ethnic groups for 5,000 years, Carmona is a picturesque whitewashed Andalusian town of approximately 30,000 residents located 21 miles NE of Seville. Over the years it has become the staging area for our buying trips through western Andalusia.

The 9th century "alcazaba" (the stone fortress perched on the highest point in the town surrounding the current "parador"), and the "Alcázar" with the remains of the city wall and defensive gate, are fabulous monuments to Carmona's Moorish past.