Day 4: Portugal

We drove from Tarifa up to Sevilla and spent the night there.  The hotel was pretty cool.  We didn't spend any time in Sevilla, because we chose to explore Lisbon instead.  We picked up an hour on the drive into Lisbon which helped us. 

 We had an extra hour before our tour started, so we went to see the new LDS temple being built.  It is scheduled to be completed in September. 

 We quickly learned why they recommend you not drive in Lisbon.  It was absolutely crazy!  Poor Joel had to go to the bathroom really badly and we couldn't find our parking garage and the streets are tangled and not labeled.  Our Apple maps was always about a minute behind and not showing all street options.  We took so many wrong turns that we were an hour late to our tour.  I have to tell you that once we actually got there Lisbon exceeded our expectations, and if we had extra time we would have loved to stay longer.  We did a half day tour through Premium Tours and I can't recommend Herlander enough.  He stayed and not only made up the hour we lost, but stayed beyond even that, so we could see everything we wanted to.  He gave us an amazing tour and we got a full history of Portugal in the bargain.  It was awesome!  We first went to Belém.  This district of the city is from where all the great ships embarked as they set around the world during the golden age of Portugal. 

Belém Tower

Monument to the Discoveries

 The jewel of this district is the Monastery of Jerónimos.  We had enough time to go inside the cathedral portion of it. 

It is the best example of "Manueline" architecture and it actually survived the tsunami after the Lisbon earthquake in 1755.

They may not look like much but Joel and I both agree that these pastéis de Belém were probably the single best thing we put in our mouth the entire trip.  You can put cinnamon and sugar on top and they are warm and amazing!

 We walked through the different neighborhoods of Lisbon: Chiado, Barrio Alto, Baixa, and the Alfama.  Lisbon reminds me a lot of San Francisco with its trolley cars and hilly, winding roads.  It just happens to have hundreds of years more of history.  

 Lisbon is called the city of 7 hills for a reason.  We definitely walked straight up hill several times. 

This is the main plaza: on the top right hand corner you can see the Alcazar - the old castle that overlooks the whole city.  The views were absolutely spectacular. We had a lovely dinner and then headed further north in Portugal. 

Day 3: Morocco

First thing in the morning we drove down to Tarifa to take a ferry over to Tangier.  We drove along the coast and there were some amazing coastal views and beautiful beach towns.  We decided to splurge and hire a private tour guide, because we didn't have confidence in our abilities to navigate around Morroco on our own.  Tangier is a very international city, and they drove us around the different districts in the city. 

We stopped at Spartel Cape which is the most North Western point of mainland Africa and where it's believed the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean meet.  The lighthouse was built in 1864 as part of a negotiation among 11 countries.  

 We explored the Hercules Cave outside of Tangier.

We took a ride on Nadia and Mustafa along the beach.  It's a lot bumpier than riding a horse but pretty cool.

We traveled up to the Kasbah and ate lunch overlooking the bay.  The views were stunning and the food was really good, too.

 The Kasbah museum was really interesting. 

We were there during Ramadan, so it was very interesting to talk to our guide about it and learn more about Islam.  I loved hearing the call to prayer.

 This is the square overlooking the entrance into the Medina.  It's their largest marketplace, and it was an experience like no other to walk through it.  I took so many amazing pictures of the stalls, so I'm sad I don't have any, but there were entire stands of just spices, olives, nuts, fruits, some of the craziest meats and animal parts I've even seen, and the fish market was wild!

 After the market we visited the museum in the American Legion.

We went to a carpet maker, a spice dealer, and a weaver.  It's all part of the Moroccan experience.  We were still stiff from the day before, so by the end of the day we were tired.  We had walked up and down the hilly streets of Tangier all afternoon.  It was such a neat experience, but we were ready for the ferry by the end of the day.  I'm so glad we opted for the full day tour guide, because we were able to see so much in just one day.

Day 2: Granada/Gibraltar

We weren't able to go out for tapas the first night in Granada, but we still got there in time to go through Alhambra which has been on my bucket list to see for 20 years.  It's stunning!

The Alhambra is the last Moorish palace before they were expelled from Spain in 1492.  Carlos V then added his own palace along side of it to add to its opulence.  I would love to have been there when all of it was painted and the stain glass was sill in tact.  It must have been breathtaking.

 I love that they decorated with quotes from the Quran in the actual walls.  "Allah" looks like a cursive W.  "Allah is victorious" is repeated 9,000 times throughout the palace!

 The ceiling is the 8-pointed Muslim star:

 The Courtyard of the Lions:

 The view of the Albayzín neighborhood:

 I loved all the orange trees all around the grounds.  The gardens smelt amazing!  I wish there was a way to preserve smells.

We spent the whole morning at the Alhambra and then worked our way back downhill to grab some lunch and head even further South to Gibraltar.  Gibraltar is a tiny country on the very tip of Spain that speaks mostly English, uses Pounds, and is a British commonwealth.  It's a bit crazy because you park on the Spanish side of the border and walk through customs.  You quite literally walk across their airport runway to get into town.  We found a taxi to take us to the tram to go all the way up the Rock of Gibraltar.   I have almost no pictures from our time in Gibraltar, so I found a couple pictures from online to remind me of the rock and the cable car.

The view on top is amazing.  We made the mistake of thinking it would be fun to walk the whole way down the rock.  The experience was rather painful.  The road weaves back and forth all the way down, but it has a bunch of unmarked forks in the road, so it was really hard to tell if we were making much progress or if we were going in circles.   I believe the most common phrase I heard from my husband was, "Get me off this damn rock!"  Since he never swears I knew he must be serious.  Hahaha. 

 We did get to see the monkeys on our way down, so there's a little something to pretend like it was worth the privilege to pay to walk down.  Yep- they charge you to walk down the rock.  Do yourself a favor and just take the cable car back down. 

We finished our time in Gibraltar in true British style with well deserved fish and chips and a toffee pudding before taking a taxi back to customs.  There was no way we were walking anymore.  At the end of the day we totaled 13 miles and 34 flights of stairs.  We were more than ready to put up our feet when we got to our hotel that evening. 

Ending on a Low Note

Joel and I had an absolutely fabulous trip to Spain.  It was amazing!  We saw so many incredible things, and I loved returning to the country I love so dearly.  Sadly, things were going a little too well, and they came crashing down on the way home.  I lost my camera in the Madrid airport.  Even writing about it makes me physically ill.  I took it out and put it in the bucket for security, but I'm pretty sure it didn't make it to the plane.  I think it got left on a seat at the gate.  When we landed in Washington, D.C. I realized I didn't have it, and I went straight to customer service.  They checked the plane for me, and then I called the lost and found at Terminal 1 for the Madrid airport, but no camera was found.  I basically cried the whole way home from D.C., because I was heartbroken to lose so many irreplaceable pictures.  I've officially sent in claims paperwork both through the airport and the airlines, but at this point I'm pretty sure it was stolen.  I'm trying to not let it cloud my experience, because we had a wonderful time.  Luckily, some friends asked me to post pictures online everyday, and I will be forever grateful they did, because the pictures on my phone are all I have left. I still want to do the best I can chronicling the vacation, because without the pictures it's even more important to me that I write down my memories. 

Here goes:  Day 1- it started out rough, because our very first flight was delayed 2 hours, so we missed our connecting flight to Toronto.  We ran the whole way to the next terminal to find the plane still at the gate but closed to boarding.  It was really frustrating and I think Joel and I both got shin splints from the experience.  Tee hee.  They finally rerouted us onto a flight to Munich and back over to Madrid.  We arrived 9 hours later than planned, but we were so happy to just finally be there.  Gratefully, neither of us experienced any jetlag on the way there.  We picked up our rental car, and then we decided to still make an abbreviated stop in Toledo even though we needed to get to Granada that evening.  

Toledo is an hour south of Madrid and is a very popular tourist destination.  The entire town has actually been declared a national monument.   It has picturesque cobbled streets and is home to the capital of the Spanish Catholic Church.  It also happened to be the home of El Greco, a famous Spanish artist.  I wanted Joel to see this Cathedral because it's seriously magnificent.  It took 267 years to build and was completed in 1493.  This picture is the high altar:

 Because of our short time we only had time to tour the cathedral, but we grabbed marzapan on our way back to the car.  Mazapán was originally made by the nuns in Toledo and is an almondy-fruity-sweet that I love.  We got the small assortment, so Joel could try the different types of mazapán.

 We drove another hour South to Consuegra.  This small town is home to Manchego cheese and the famous windmills of Don Quijote.  Joel got his first lesson in narrow, winding roads that are not even remotely marked well and usually have a blind spot when turning.  We almost got ran over a garbage truck at one point.  It's all part of the European-driving experience.

We continued South to Granada to stay the night.  The roads were lined with grove after grove of olive trees.  It was beautiful.  Even though we got in a lot later than we had originally planned we were surprisingly not overly tired.