So Cal

 Flew into Vegas to win some cash to pay for our trip.  Didn’t work out the way we wanted but still ended up ahead.  

Drove through Death Valley on our way to San Diego

Then off to our hotel.  The Welk in Escondido about a half hour outside of San Diego.   Nice spot with sleep space for 8.  Patrick came along for the ride.  Nora is coming on Thursday.   Declan bought a house so he stayed home and Kate has had enough of the Woburn travel scene for now. 

San Diego is beautiful

Went to the aquarium,  the zoo, Joshua Tree national park, went to the gas lamp district, drove over the Coronado bridge and went to mission beach so far.  Some beautiful sunsets   

Sevilla and Cadiz

 Today we trekked to Cádiz to see the university that U Mass lowell uses for study abroad.  Cute school right on the water but it didn’t compare to the sights in Sevilla.   Declan and I both thought it was one of the prettiest cities we had been to.  Patrick and Nora enjoyed souvenir shopping and we had a nice dinner at Iguana Rama - Mexican food restaurant in Spain.  

Morocco

 

 We had a driver named Omar from Jeff Transportation.   He gave us a great tour of Tangier Morocco.   We saw where the pacific meets the Mediterranean on the other side.  We saw a beautiful lighthouse and yes… we did it… Camel Ride on the beach on Hump Day.  

Easy ferry ride to and from Morocco.  Was such a wonderful day.  

Marbella/Estepona

 Declan and Liz arrived.  We had a nice day at the BioPac in Marbella before they got in.  Saw lots of animals. It was clean and well organized.   Just enough to kill a few hours.  

Went to a restaurant in Estepona for dinner. Being a Monday it was hard to find anything open. Nora picked out a restaurant called la pampa.   It was very good and had a beautiful setting. The owner was working his tail off and waiter at the same time.   He was German now living in Spain.  The back room had a ceiling that opened to the night sky.  

Gibraltar

 At the bottom of Spain. Lies the British Territory of Gibraltar.  We decided to use the private driver to see the rock and stopped along the way.   There were monkeys everywhere and we had a few run ins with them.  

Things we learned about Gibraltar: 

Gibraltar 

Hercules Pillar :He pulled the continents together using two pillars to protect from sea monsters 

Every 6 years the water turns over

If you went East passed the straight of Gibraltar it is where the world ended and you would sail off the flat world. 

Monkeys protect other monkeys and can bite.  

A Monkey jumped on Miah to steal her water bottle.  He proceeded to grab it. Took the cover off and dump it all over her.  Then. Two of his body guards snuck up from behind and bit her through her jacket on the underside of her arms.  

Another monkey stole johns eyeglasses and ran off.  

St Michael’s caves has a rock formation that looks like an angel and a cool light show inside. 

There are a cute bunch of turtles in the pond near the castle. 

Atlantic is colder so it goes under the Mediterranean which is why you do not see water changes where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean 

Air burst shells explode into the air and rain down.  They were invented there 

Grand siege lasted three years. 

The runway goes across the road and traffic is stopped when there is a take off or landing.

Barcelona

 

A beautiful drive through the Pyrenees mountains.  Passing lots of old castles and mountains and snow.  

Arriving in Barcelona was another challenge for me. In fairness I could totally blame the GPS that kept sending me down streets that left six inches on both sides of my car.  Eventually we just said F It and dropped the car off at the airport.  Took a taxi who could only get us five blocks from the hotel due to activities going on and road closures.  Hotel was fine. Bare minimum in comparison to the beauty that RoC Blanc was.  The location was worth it because it was right in the middle of the center in the gothic section

This section was quite entertaining.  A Manchester United vs Barcelona futbol game brought in the Britt’s.  Lots of singing and chanting in the streets.  Six story high shoe stores and a Barcelona store caught Patrick’s attention.  We had a marching band outside the window playing lullabies in drunken unity.  Of course a store called dick waffles got some attention.  I had no words seeing it on the Main Street.  

We took the hop on hop off bus and did both routes.  It was so nice to get the tour of the whole city.  I have to say other than the Seguiero Familia I wasn’t a fan of Gaudi. I prefer the pretty Mediterranean look of the apartments with iron balconies    It is a very pretty city with so much character.  Next time I hope to spend some time by the seaport.  But this trip was the perfect sampling.