Granada

inside the Moorish Palace

Granda

random castle

As we drove from Ronda to Granada we hit some construction and had to make a detour. Lucky for us! The detour led us past a dilapidated castle so we decided to stop. We drove through a little rural town and climbed up to the castle to poke around. We were surprised to find that the remaining tour housed a museum with a guide! She didn't speak any English but Mike made due with his Spanish. Turns out the castle's heyday was during the crusades - there was a movie the guide made us watch. In Spanish. Be we got the gist. And apparently some Scottish Lord was killed in a battle close to the castle so there was a whole bunch of stuff about Scotland and his family. He never set foot in the castle but I guess that was close enough. Anyway it was a neat little detour.

We got to Granada late but still had enough time to find our hotel - once in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the narrowest hotel in the world - and check out the Cathedral. It was beautiful and huge - at this point the Spanish cathedrals were starting to run together :-) We headed to bed early so we could get up before the sun to get into the Alhambra. I had tried to book tickets ahead of time but apparently two weeks ahead wasn't early enough. The guidebooks said to be there at least 2 hours before it opened if we wanted a chance of getting in. That happened to be 6am! So we got up and climbed up for 20 minutes before waiting in line with the hundreds of other people. The Alhambra is situated on a steep hill - I might even call it a mountain - in the middle of Granada. There we waited for about 3 hours - it took us an extra hour to buy tickets once the line started to move. We occupied ourselves by making sure no one got in front of us in line. People are serious about getting in to the Alhambra.

We finally made it in and spent the rest of the day exploring. Really - we were probably there for 6 hours. There was so much to see. It was amazing! Well worth the wait. There were acres of beautiful shady gardens with little pools. The castle complex was incredible with all of its Moorish architecture. Fantastic! In case you didn't know - Henry VIII first wife, Katherine of Aragon, was a Spanish princess who grew up in the Alhambra. This is how I heard of it and what made me want to visit. It did not disappoint!

Next we head to Barcelona, our last stop in Spain.

Click the title for more Granada pictures :-)

Gibraltar and Ronda

The Rock of Gibraltar

Ronda

This is what Mike had to say about our next two stops in Spain:

Gibraltar - hot crowded, sweaty, beautiful view, monkeys, long line and wait

Ronda - gorge, bullfighting ring - 1st and biggest ring circumference in Spain, just pretty, quintessential Spain

That pretty much sums it up :-)

It only took an hour or two to drive to Gibraltar from Rota but then we waited in line to get into Gibraltar for another hour. Apparently we had to go through customs since Gibraltar belongs to the UK but the guards just waved us in. Then it took another 30 mins to find parking - Gibraltar is really tiny!! The the wait in line to get up the rock... But it was a beautiful view. We didn't get to see Africa because it was too cloudy but we did see some of Spain. The monkeys were everywhere and not the least bit afraid of humans. I was of them though! I heard lots of stories about bag grabbing - and those things had sharp teeth and claws. It was around 2pm when we finished with the rock but we didn't want to get lunch in Gibraltar - very expensive! As most of you know I am not a very happy camper when I'm hungry but Mike promised me McDonalds if I waited so somehow I survived.

The drive to Ronda was beautiful. We drove up the coast a little and found some awesome views of the ocean - the Meditteranean I think it was at this point. We then turned inland and found some awesome views of the mountainous countryside. Ronda was incredibley beautiful. Its perched on top of a hill - surrounded by gorges. It was really cool to see a bullfighting ring too - I wasnt interested in an actual bullfight but it was neat to see where it happened. We also got to tour the cages where the bulls are kept which was interesting.

Two more stops on our Spain adventure. Next - Granada (my favorite!!)

more pictures if you click the title :-)

Rota

the beach at Rota

Mike being silly with the camera

Sorry for the delay but school just started and I've been ridiculously busy!

From Seville we headed south to Rota. We had originally planned to stay one night in Jerez but then realized there was aUS naval station nearby in Rota. So we stayed on the naval base at a much cheaper price. When we arrived we discovered that the base was a 10 minute walk to the beach. The proximity of the beach, the cheapness or lodging, and the comforts of a commissary and bx made us to decide to stay in Rota 3 nights instead of just one.
We spent two wonderful days on the beach. It was extremely hot and the water felt wonderful. There were platforms out in the ocean with a slide and diving board that you could swim to. We swam out there and just laid out like on a giant raft. There was a nice boardwalk and we were even able to rent an umbrella the second day after we had gotten burnt :-)
Those were our days in Rota. The first night we headed to Jerez, which is known for its sherry. We first stopped at an arab bath that I had read about in a guide book. We checked in and they sent us back to the dressing rooms where we changed into swimsuits. Inside the bathing area there were three pools - warm, hot, and cold. So we spent the next hour alternating pools eventually just going from hot to cold. It was incredibly relaxing! Afterwards we walked around town trying to find dinner but apparently it was some sort of religious holiday. We did get to see a pretty cool cathedral though. We ended up eating back in Rota where Mike made friends with the locals and they ordered tapas for us. Yummy.
The next night we headed to Cadiz for dinner. We found another delicious tapas bar that started hopping around 10pm. There was also another beautiful cathedral here.
After one of our nights out we headed back to the base and Mike was randomly picked for a DUI check. The guard asked him to blow into the breathalyzer so Mike, never having taken a breathalyzer before, tried to put it in his mouth. The two guards kinda laughed at him and said "no you just have to blow into it - like blowing out birthday candles." Mike eventually figured it out and we were allowed to go but we did wonder if they thought Mike was drunk since he couldn't figure out the breathalyzer.
Next we headed to Gibraltar!

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