Attn Teresa & Annie

Teresa, maybe you can get something like this for Annie!

Terry - the perfect vehicle for you!

Terry, to bad your company didn't see this sooner. You could have had it all - a motor cycle and a truck!

Leaving Algeciras, arriving in Madrid and back to Lisboa

I call this my ‘cranky’ day!  We travelled to Madrid via car, bus, high speed train and taxi.  But it took all day, and it was very hot.  I am very tired of being hot and sweaty – I am envious when I see the lows in Winnipeg.  I can’t remember ever being this hot for this long.  Even on the high speed train, the a/c went off for awhile and the HEAT kicked in!!!  We are such wimps!  We did see some unusual and interesting sights along the way.  At one point, on the bus we saw about 1000 wind turbines.  On the horizon, when you could only see the tops spinning, it looked like big white creatures turning cartwheels.  Then further on, during the day, there were100’s of solar panels, with an energy plant collecting the heat.  At its top speed the train was going 250 km per hour!  It didn’t FEEL that fast.

We arrived in Madrid at 9 pm.  Here’s the rub!  As you know we’ve been using trip advisor’ to book our hotels as we travel.  We were very happy with the Holiday Inn Express in Algeciras, so decided to use it again in Madrid.  It was close to both the train and airport.  We looked at the description of distances again, just before disembarking and said, ‘hey, we’ve been sitting all day, let’s just walk the 1.5 km.’  We tried to find someone who could give us directions – but that fell through, so we jumped into a taxi.  Well, these two seniors had not noticed that it was 15 km, not 1.5 km!!!!  So, there we are WAY out in the boonies!  But, close to the airport – 3 km; we got that part right!  What to do?  Our eye sight may be going, but we were able to walk 2 km to the bus stop, take the bus to the metro, and go straight down town.  We headed down the first escalator on the metro and asked a woman for directions.  She was on her way to work and gave us one of her tickets and rode with us and made sure we were going in the right direction.  We did some sightseeing, shopping, and had lunch.  Then, most amazing of all, we found our way back ‘home’, again with help from a woman on the bus, who made sure we got off at our stop!!!

There were a lot of buskers in the main plaza in downtown Madrid – spider man, Elvis, the headless woman, the sand castle person – all ‘enjoying’ the heat!. As we were eating lunch, Bruce looked over and saw an old man, with a beer belly, saggy boobs, a white T-shirt, cigarette, beer and a white painted face.  We wondered what was wrong with him.  Did he have a disease or something? His ‘busking gig’ was to sit in a contraption that looked like a baby carriage, with a baby bonnet,  and plastic hands that he could control.  He made baby sounds, blew kisses at the crowd and generally made a food of himself for some good coin!  What a laugh!  (I had pictures, but somehow I did something wrong and lost all my pics from today, him included; but he will live in our memories!)   Mark, if things don’t pan out iin January, let’s put this together at The Forks.  Do you want to be the baby? I’ll take the money to the bank.

The flight out of Madrid was unexceptional except for two things.  OK, it’s 3 km from the airport when you’re arriving, but 9 when you’re leaving, so there is STILL a big taxi bill!  We met a nice young couple from London, ON.  He asked, “Are you from Canada?”  How did he know?  My Lulu lemon pants!  Now there’s a man! 

This is my last blog.  Only two more sleeps (God willing) and we’ll be sleeping in our own beds.  A few final observations:  All the hotels here have a tube in the shower that says ‘shampoo and shower gel.’  Are we missing something?  Why are we buying two products?  I’ve been using it as shampoo and it works great.  The numbering of floors is interesting.  There is -1, -2, 0, G, 1, 2, etc.  I’ve walked extra flights of stairs a few times, trying to get to the right place.  The bathrooms in Spain are challenging – remember to remove everything you don’t want dampened, because the water DOES NOT stay in the shower area!  Also, after 21 days we’re almost getting used to the smell of cigarette smoke again, in public places.

We were trying to remember all the countries we’ve been blessed and privileged to visit in the last 20+ years – 30!!!  And we dreamt a little about future trips – China? Ukraine? Vietnam? Brazil? 

See you soon! Hasta pronto!

Sunday and Morocco

Sunday, we decided to head to the beach for an hour, make sure we had our bus tickets out of here on Tuesday and take a drive.  Success all around!   At 9 am the sun on the beach felt like a blast furnace.  Bruce decided to do the ‘polar bear plunge’ – the water was that cold!  I walked and even after ¼ mile with only my feet in the water, it still felt cold.  So much for ‘it’s nice when you get used to it!’

 But the ‘drive’ became a bit of a challenge.  Their A7 is their super highway, and with a speed limit of 120, and most cars going 130-140, Bruce was a little frustrated with my desire to go slower than the speed limit.  It felt like we were hurtling through Spain!  Plus, there really is very little to see from that highway.  So, we only went ½ as far as we’d planned, had lunch at a lovely restaurant and headed back.  Did I mention that in both Portugal and Spain, Sunday’s are pretty much an enforced rest day – 98% of all shops and restaurants are closed, so we were lucky to find a nice restaurant. 

Monday was our day to head out to Morocco.  We found a parking space for 13 hours (free – in front of the Hertz office), and headed in for 8:30, to wait until 10:30 to leave.  The ferry is a huge catamaran; a/c of course and very comfortable.  It takes about 45 min.  We met a lovely couple who moved to Gib from England.  The wife, Joyce is a Christ follower.  Her sons, Jo & JJ (16 & 13) were quite interested in the ages of our 3 youngest granddaughters, especially when I told them how gorgeous, talented and brilliant they are!  They might come to Canada for a visit! 

We met our guide Mr. Ahmed (who else?) and started on our tour!  We were so thankful that we’d taken a tour.  The poverty and heat and ancient taxis would have made a trip on our own, at this stage quite unpleasant.  We loved the a/c’d bus and it gave us a chance to rest between sightseeing events.  We visited 2 cities, Tetouan(sp) and Tangiers.  There is quite a difference between the cities.  Tangiers is more modern, but the hawkers are much more aggressive.  This is where Wendy would have gone quite crazy, because we couldn’t actually shop in the market; so we passed stalls and stalls of gold, silver, fabric, clothes, food, shoes, etc. etc. and weren’t allowed to stop and shop.  Mr. Ahmed (who we think gets a cut), herded us down narrow alleys, with hawkers right in the middle of us and all around us!  Yuck!   He also ‘took’ us to several artisan markets (you were right, Jackie about the carpets; wait till you hear the whopper Bruce told to get them to stop trying to sell us rugs), and once again we were ‘trapped’.  The Moroccan lunch provided was delicious and we had a lovely chat with two Chinese young men, who work in Brugge in English!  One of the amazing things in Morocco is that the Muslins and Jews and Arabs are ‘brothers and sisters’ and get along with no problems. 

The bus ride through the countryside allowed us to see some amazing sights.  We arrived back at our hotel at 10:00 pm, very thankful and quite tuckered out!

Rock of Gibraltor

A day like this, you should have!!  We’re in a new Holiday Inn Express Hotel, which is lovely – it’s new and very comfortable, with only one glitch – we’re out in the boonies.  A car would be a bonus in this situation – so we headed into Algerciras (pron. Ahl-ha-thayrass) by bus.  At 9:30 it was already 29 degrees!  We had a lovely chat with two Spanish residents at the bus stop.  With our limited language skills and their kindness we were able to exchange some basic information.  Our original plan had been to take a ferry to Gibraltor (or Gib as it’s known locally), but decided to see if we could find a car to rent.  The first place was an abrupt – “I have no cars, but you could try the Euro Hertz outside the port!”.  Off we set again and found the place.  Yeah! (and thank you to God), Hertz had a car which we’ve rented until Tuesday am.  Bruce took off like a pro and we decided to drive to Gib.  By the way I should tell you that when we mentioned in Sevilla, at our last hotel that we were going to Gib, the comment was, “You won’t want to spend much time there, and it’s only two streets!”)  So off we went, with nary a hitch and even though it had been recommended that we park in Spain and ‘walk in’, Bruce decided to drive in.  That was a good decision.  It’s a long way to go if you want to do anything – we drove for another 30 min. to find the Europa High Point and cable car to the top.  Then these grandparents decided that since they’d cycled in Holland, why couldn’t they walk another 3 km downhill to see the WWII caves?   There are 52 km of tunnels in the Rock of Gib.  They had 4 complete hospitals, fed 5000 men a day and had areas where they could drive troop trucks around – truly amazing!  The Canadians were a huge help with their water pressure drill.  This was all accomplished in less than 3 years. [‘Tighten that core when going downhill’ echoed in my mind from the lips of Carolyn!!!}

 The cable ride was awesome (if I didn’t think about how high I was and all the things that could happen)!  There are apes everywhere.  Apparently Churchill had some imported from Africa and said Britain would leave Gib, when the apes left.  They’re feeding them very well.  They jump onto cars and on people.  One swung onto Bruce’s arm, but he shook it off like it was a flea!  We felt like we were in some weird game – Avoid the Apes!  In fact it made “The Planet of the Apes” look like a picnic.  Some people have been scratched or hurt by them.  You have to hide all food and drink.  Plus there is a 500 Pound fine if you’re caught feeding them.  It was exhilarating and tiring!  We were very hot and tired, but made it back to our car in about 2.5 hours! 

How did we get here?  Well we came via a bus from Sevilla (2.5 hours).  The heat is quite horrendous!  We look longingly at the temperatures from Winnipeg!  We will actually be so glad for cooler weather.  It is nice to get into a car and crank that A/C to high.  What wimps we are.

So, last night we decided that since it was Friday pm and we had nowhere to go, we’d go to another movie.  We chose Captain America and low and behold it was actually in Spanish!!!!  Fortunately, there was so much action that not understanding the language was not a big problem.  That’s a first for us – even in Costa Rica, movies were in English with Spanish subtitles. 

Staying Cool

On our first night here, we left the hotel to look for a place for supper(most common food here is paella, tapas, gazpacho, and very thin meat cut from whole legs of pig right in front of you). As we walked down our street up ahead we saw smoke coming from a building! Yikes - what is that? A wood-fire pizza place gone bezerk? Spraying for bugs? We're sniffing the air, trying to determine what it is, and while walking under it we realize that it's cold misted air, for people eating in outdoor restaurants! What a delicious feeling when the air is 40 degrees in the shade!!!! Also, there are quite a lot of buildings with a huge overhang, so we're always looking for the 'shady side of the street'. And, in 'streets' like ours if you look up, there are actually white awnings draped between the two streets, allowing one to walk pretty much in shade, for a short while at least. It's interesting, too to buy a chocolate bar, because you notice that anything chocolate is refrigerated here. Another way to deal with the heat, is they shut down all stores between 2-5. Everyone goes home for a rest and then they're open until 9 or 10 in the evening.

Seville

The taxi couldn't drive down this street, so we had to walk the last little way to our hotel. The streets are so narrow that the 40+ temperature was just bearable. It is HOT here!!! We took the early (10:30) tour of the city, so that we wouldn't burn too much. We 'chose' a hotel right near the Cathedral y Giralda. The doors were open this am so we went in. We figure the highest point is about 1000 feet up, with incredible architecture. The organ is massive, going right to the top and appeared to be in about three of the 'aisles'. Then this night when we went out for supper we heard music in the cathedral and stopped in to listen. Unbelievable! What accoustics! There are wonderful street muscians, too.  Last night I listened to a classical guitarist, while sitting on the church steps.  He was great!
The scenery from Faro to Seville was similiar to the scenery from Lisbon to Faro, at least while we were in Portugal.  The soil is sandy and the trees look like they're stunted.  Everything looks very dry.  When we compare Holland to Portugal, Holland is lush, green, and the cattle are healthy looking. Portugal looks shabby and in need of lots of rain and care. {Having said that, the people everywhere have been amazing.  They all go out of their way to help.}  Then we passed into Spain and I said to Bruce:  "How can it look so much greener?"  His instant response was:  "The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain!".  The orange orchards, olive groves and cattle look healthy.  The country looks cleaner and more prosperous.   We went out later this evening and had a stroll about, watching all the people; the place is hopping.  The air is like a warm blanket. 
We also spent a few hours today planning this last week.  We wanted this last week to be exciting so tomorrow we head out to Algeciras (near Giblraltor).  Hopefully, we'll be there for a few days.  On the 9th we'll travel to Madrid, via Cadiz and a high speed train.  Then on the 11th, early am we'll head back to Lisbon to get ready to come home.  Next week at this time, we'll be saying, "tomorrow we'll be going home." 

our street