Two Continents, Three Countries in Eight Hours!

The Kasbah in Tangiers

Herbs on sale in Tangiers

Two things that made it towards the top of our list for when we traveled to Spain to  visit our niece, Blayne, was to take a day trip to Gibraltar and Morocco.  We had the transportation and Blayne was up for the adventure.  We hopped in the car and headed to Tarifa, Spain.  This is where you can catch the high speed boat to go to Tangiers, Morocco.  If you are unfamiliar with the geography of this area, Tangiers is a city found on the West African coast at the western entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar.  This is where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean.  None of us had been to Africa before, so we thought this would be an excellent opportunity to step foot on an unexplored continent (to us) and, in a few short hours, glean as much history/culture as we could.

Blayne and Tammy

Blaynie getting a shot of the sunset while we get a shot of her and the Rock!

When we descended from the boat, we were greeted by about 30 "guides" and drivers offering their services.  One particularly hefty man started to badger David.  He then headed my way and started to berate me for not accepting his services.  To the rescue came Lerbe, the gentleman who would be our guide (and we are sure now a partner in crime with the first "guide" - think good cop, bad cop).   We hopped into a taxi and headed up to the Kasbah.  From there, we walked the narrow routes through the Kasbah area, checking out the number of stalls lining the pathways.  We had an excellent meal at a "friend's" restaurant.  Then we were ushered to a carpet store to try and sell us a rug.  Overall, it was very interesting with great food and company.  Unfortunately, it did not end on a good note.  When we reached the boat terminal, Lerbe insisted that he had done more than the agreed upon rate and made quite a scene.  David held his own while Blayne and I quickly scampered through customs and out of earshot.  Although parts of this quick trip were stressful, we wouldn't have missed the opportunity.

Twilight in Gibraltar - Catalan Bay

When we arrived back at Tarifa, we decided to head to Gibraltar, not far away.  We have seen Uluru in Australia and pictures of Prudential Insurance's logo.  But we have to admit that the sight of the the Rock of Gibraltar was awesome.  To get from the Spanish mainland to Gibraltar, which is a British territory, you have to go through this gate where they check your passports.  Then you cross over an isthmus which connects Spain and Gibraltar.  The interesting thing is that this isthmus is also a runway.  If a plane is coming in, they stop traffic to allow the plane to land and then resume after it has landed.  Very interesting.  Blayne and I were excited to see more of Gibraltar since we had both finished the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series and Lisbeth Salander speaks of Gibraltar being her favorite place.  We traveled around as much of the rock as possible before we got to Catalan Bay which is where I want to vacation next (and I assume was the setting for the books).  


After a very long day of new sights, smells and people, we headed back to Cadiz, Blayne's fall home, to get rest before our next adventure the next day.

I Never Thought These Places Really Existed!

A church in Sintra, Portugal

We landed in Lisboa, Portugal and picked up the little rental car that would end up taking us hundreds of miles throughout Andalucia over the next week.  We then headed to the hotel we booked off of Av Liberdad, in the center of the city.  The hotel was in a lovely part of town where one can find statues, cobbled roads, fountains and plazas.  And yet next door was Prada.  Our room was on the third floor overlooking the Av Liberdad, huge trees with leaves turning red, yellow and orange.  We drifted off to sleep as people strolled down the street, partying the night away.


The next morning as we were checking out, Jorge, the manager, told us all about the history of the region and highly recommended we visit Sintra on our way to Sevilla.  Sintra was a dream - the type of place you see in movies like Under the Tuscan sun (but not in Italy).  We happened upon a quaint little bakery where we partook of their delicious baked goods and their specialty (each bakery has a specialty) was a little custard baked good.  It was amazing!  As we left the bakery, an outdoor weekend market had set up.  We strolled through the tables of fruits, olives (of course), vegetables, breads, more olives, hams, goats milk cheeses and olives.  We couldn't pass up the opportunity to gather picnic items to eat along the way.

Farmers Market in Sintra

The rest of our day consisted of exploring a bit more of Sintra, stopping in Cascais, an updated fishermen's village, cruising down the coast to Lagos until we then headed east to Sevilla.  It was a beautiful drive.  


We arrived in Sevilla as the sun was setting.  This was a mistake.  Sevilla is quite large.  We had booked a room in the Barrios section.  The entire area was made up of a maze of VERY narrow cobble-stoned streets, most which were one way.  If we put our arms out the windows, we could have enjoyed people's entrees, we were that close.  I am serious about the "maze" part.  We drove through these streets, some which were so narrow that we had to pull in our mirrors so as not to knock them off the car, for at least an hour.  At one point, a man on the side of the street motioned to us that we were driving in a circle.  Duh!  Finally David parked the car and set off on foot to locate the hotel, which ended up being right around the corner.

David and Tammy at a beach in Lagos, Portugal