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July 10, 2003

Spain was outstanding!

We took a military flight over (used to be called "mac" flight but is now "amc") which was FREE (woohoo). You fly standby which means your vacation timeline can be tenuous at best. We were very fortunate to get on the flight we wanted both ways and neither one was delayed.

When we left Sicily, it was 105 F, when we arrived in Spain, 2.5 hours later, it was 75 F. Walking the tarmac to the terminal had me freaking out because I had not brought anything that resembled warm clothes to cover the very large goosebumps on our arms. It took us a few days but we adjusted. The temperature was actually the only complaint I had. The baby and I did not do much swimming because it was too cold. Seth's lips would turn blue about 10 minutes into our daily attempt. For some reason, the baby pool was colder than the big pool. Eli and Jake did not care and spent max time submerged. We slathered on sunscreen but unfortunately, all except Seth got burned the first day on our shoulders.

The hotel was one of those all inclusive resorts right on the beach. Our deal had a complimentary (full out five star) breakfast buffet included but not the other meals. I figured that we would walk down the street to get local food. This turned out to be a lot harder than we thought. Spaniards eat dinner at 10 pm. I am not kidding. No restaurants even open until 8pm. I am guessing the reason for this is that it is bright sunny at 10 pm. It is very disorienting to look down at your watch and realize that it is going on 11 pm and the sun is just setting! So anyway, we ended up eating at the hotel buffet for dinners and the pool bar for lunches. We did make one stab at eating out in town on the second night. We had walked about 3 miles the night before and had picked out this cafe with a huge playground attached. We arrived around 6pm (yes, this was before we understood the customary meal times) and attempted to order. They spoke no English and I habla horrible Espanol. Through hand gestures, I ordered chicken and hoped for the best. We received a fried, breaded chicken patty and some fries. Oh well, hotel buffet for us.

We found that the hotel was a pickup point for a tour company that had daily trips. Perfecto. Much to my chagrin, we missed the day trip to Morocco - I had no idea this would even be an option! The other tours were all interesting but with three bored kids, I decided to only do two of them. I chose Seville (for me) and Gibraltar (for the guys). Seville was wonderful. We took a city tour and learned about the buildings of the 1929-1930 World's Fair and the 1992 Exposition. We stopped to walk around in the Plaza de Americas where we found a huge flock of pidgeons that the boys hand fed. There were so many fantastic buildings that is should take days to see Seville (sans kids of course). The Plaza de Espana was the background of the Naboo palace in Star Wars II. We toured the moorish palace - Real Alcazar and a fantastic gothic cathedral, which is rumored to be the resting place of Christopher Columbus (they have a tomb but are not sure if his bones are actually in it!). We took a boat ride up and down the river and of course, bought tourist junk.

Gibraltar was by far our favorite place. After 5 days of language barrier, an English speaking place was a welcome respite. Gibraltar is a British colony on the Southern Coast of Spain. You have to go through customs despite the European Union agreement. Spain has not bought into the EU concept happily. There is a sign on the way out of Gibraltar stating Britain's unhappiness with Spain's strict boarder policy. It urges visitors to complain to the EU board. Very Snarky. We started our tour by taking a bus ride throughout the colony and up to the top of "the rock". We went into St. Michael's Cave, which was preparing a runway inside the main chamber for the Ms. Gibraltar beauty pagent!!! After the cave, we went to see the famous Barbary apes. We had been warned that they like to jump on tourists (which the guys were looking forward to) but they were fairly sedate when we saw them. As our bus went down into the main area that the apes frequent (not the jungle part), a young ape jumped onto the bus very unexpectedly and sat in the driver's window, riding down until we parked. When we got out, we found we could walk right up to them and probably could have touched them (although mom did not allow!). We saw a couple of neat ape families. Our guide pointed out that we could see North Africa (Morocco more specifically - the hazy mountain in the distance). After the tour, we went downtown for a walk in the shopping district. We had fish and chips in a pub and watched a changing of the guard parade down the street. And of course bought tourist junk.

The rest of our trip to Rota was spent on the beach and at the pool. We met quite the smorgasboard of international friends and discovered that language is not necessary for fun in the sun. I am always amazed at the power of children to make friends. We spent the evenings walking out in town and even rented a car for about 10 hours to go to a supermarket and a few shops to - you guessed it - buy tourist junk. To be fair, we needed beach toys and towels. A sample of things we bought: castanets (the real ones), souvenir booklets of the sights we saw, t-shirts, towels, beach toys, fruit, water, snow globes x 2, postcards, fridge magnets (for Seth's collection).

Speaking of tourist junk, I have decided to start a collection of snow globes from each place I go. I am doing well so far but will have to backtrack to find globes from at least some of the places I have been.

I decided that we will definitely be returning to Spain because I really want to get to Morocco (only for a day due to danger), Lisbon, Ronda, Jerez, Madrid and Barcelona. My digital camera was acting up (Eli dropped it), so most of our pictures are 35mm and are being developed as we speak. I will put together a photo gallery when I get them (it takes ten days here!!!). I am about 10 photo galleries behind now because I cannot find my FrontPage CD to reload it since my computer crashed. If I actually cleaned my computer room, I would probably find it.

Posted by DebC at July 10, 2003 12:27 PM

Comments

Posted by: MOM at July 10, 2003 4:41 PM

Posted by: DebC at July 10, 2003 5:35 PM

Posted by: Dad at July 11, 2003 7:20 AM

Posted by: Kim at July 12, 2003 11:14 PM

Posted by: belva at July 15, 2003 12:47 PM

Posted by: belva at July 15, 2003 12:47 PM