At the hotel we were staying at
this last night, breakfast was not included.
So, being on the budget we were on, back to the grocery store we
went. 1 box of Frosted Flakes, 1 Liter
or milk, some bananas, bread and ham later and we were all set to go. I’ll tell you, eating in your hotel room makes leaving for the day much easier.
On our last full day in Spain we
had 2 cities to visit. The first was a
coastal town called Malaga where an old walled palace-fortress left over from
the Moors stands in the middle of town.
The other was the port we would take the ferry from the next
morning.
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The walls of Alcazaba
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Miniature of Alcazaba
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Finding the location of things
can be tricky when the only maps you have to go on are on your cell phone. I had Jake’s Blackberry and was toggling
between google maps and the GPS, which only showed us where we were, but without
a destination. It was a little tricky,
but luckily for us, once on the right road, Alcazaba is pretty hard to
miss. The place is a massive
complex. The walls are still standing
and I think they have been doing some restoration on the buildings inside,
because they were in pretty good condition for being 800 years old (or
more). There were beautiful gardens
being watered by the same irrigation system that originally watered them. You can climb on, what I’m sure once was, the
watch towers. There are 3 different
sections of the complex with the lower end having many existing
structures. In the middle the wall
narrows significantly and there are no buildings. The wall shapes itself with the contour of
the hillside it rests on. Pretty
neat. At the top are more of the ruins
of the place. We weren’t able to go
there because of time, and also because, quite frankly, we didn’t want to hike
up a steep hill with the 2 little ones.
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| The stairs leading to the entrance of Alcazaba |
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| On one of the lookout towers |
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| A second lookout |
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| View from a tower of Malaga |
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| The line running down the sidewalk is an irrigation stream |
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| Entrance to the garden. Notice the vines creating a ceiling over the walk-way |
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| Looking down a well in the garden |
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| Me, Rachel, and David |
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| The doorways into the buildings inside Alcazaba |
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| A neat door |
Before you enter Alcazaba there
is a Roman theatre. I learned a lot
about theatres when I was in Israel (of all places), so it was fun for me to be
able to say that an American tour guide got it wrong. When we got there there was a group with a
tour guide so we were able to listen in a little. She wasn’t very good and kind of
condescending, but we weren’t paying for her, so se la vi. Anyway, she called it an amphitheatre, but
she is wrong. Amphitheatres are a full
oval and were used for gladiator events and the like. A theatre is usually a semi-circle. One of the best ways to tell is that an
amphitheatre’s first row of seats is up off the ground by quite a bit. A theatre has seats all the way to the
floor. This theatre was a half-circle
with seats all the way to the floor. Ha,
ha. I’m right and she’s wrong. And now you have your little piece of
historical knowledge. The one thing we
did learn from her, though, was what was covered by a glass pyramid. Under the pyramid were Roman ruins where they
would ferment all the gross parts of fish along with some wine for 2 weeks and
then use it as a delicacy to flavor their dishes. Why anyone would want to flavor their food
with fermented fish guts is beyond me.
Our visit wasn’t long in Malaga
because we still had a long drive to the port city of Tarifa. We had no reservation for a hotel that night
because online we couldn’t find anything within our budget. But having just spent several days in Spain,
we realized, at least in the winter, finding a place would probably not be
hard. We drove past Tarifa before we
started to look for hotels. We tried
one, but it was closed for the season.
The next one we tried was perfect.
In fact, the evening was story-book perfect, except for dinner. The hotel had the quaint B&B feel to
it. There was a large “backyard” with a
swing set and teeter-totter for the kids to play on as well as A LOT of room
for the kids to play tag. It was a great
place for them to burn off all their energy.
We were not far from the beach,
so the owners directed us to a path across the street that would lead us to the
beach. It was a quick 5 minute walk
before we hit a beautiful, sandy beach.
As a mother, I sat on the beach watching the boys throw stones into the
sea and the girls collect sea shells as the sun set. I couldn’t believe we were sitting on the
beach in Spain, there where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic, with Morocco
in the distance (yes, we would see it), watching the sun set. Jake laughed because it was just too perfect.
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| You can see Morocco in the distance |
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| Sam searching for shells |
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| Rachel |
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| Everyone got in on the action |
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| Me and baby |
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| Out of all the "kids," the one who falls in the water is Dad (notice the jeans) |
We headed down town to try to
find a place to eat and found a bar open that served Pizza. This night was Friday night, and Friday’s at
our house are pizza night, so the kids wanted pizza. We ordered our pizzas and I ordered
ravioli. The food was terrible, but it
was food. I wish I had been able to
sample real cuisine from the many restaurants there, but 8:30 is just a little
too late for me. Oh well. Jake was out of Euros, so while he went to
find an ATM to pay for dinner there was an alleyway across the street where I
took the 5 older kids and we had running races while we waited. The kids had a good time.
After dinner we headed back to
the hotel where we put the 2 little ones to bed and then went down to the
restaurant for dessert. They had a fire
burning and made us dessert sample plates with cheesecake, white chocolate
mousse, and flan. It was delicious.
The next morning we had to be up
and ready to go pretty early. The ferry
left at 10 am and we had to be on it. We
got up and quick got dressed and headed down to breakfast. They knew we would be eating early, so they
had everything ready for us. It was a
rather large breakfast with meats, boiled eggs, bread and cheese. A good way to start the day. It was then off to the ferry to get back to
Morocco. The winds were very calm, so
the ride was much smoother than the ferry to Spain. I don’t think any of us felt even the
slightest hint of seasickness.
It is funny when you get to
Morocco. We had spent a week with people
obeying traffic laws, people crossing in cross walks, and everything being
clean and well taken care of. As soon as
you drive out of the port in Tangier everything is suddenly Moroccan
again. People crossing wherever they
choose, almost getting run off the road, and nothing seems to make sense. It is kind of depressing. But here is home for the next 6 months, so we
will enjoy what we can.
