These Are The Days Of Our Lives: Trip to Spain Day 2

The fun thing about staying in the Ryadh was how much attention they gave us. Breakfast was great! They brought out 2 large bowls of cereal (cocoa puffs and some graham cracker cereal), croissants, and yogurt. Oh, I almost forgot the freshly squeezed orange juice. Yum. I’m sure they do that for everyone, but people stayed near us to help with pouring the cereal and milk or to hand out croissants. Lots of fun. After breakfast we packed up all our stuff and headed back down to the van. Once again, because we have the yellow diplomatic plates and because Jake is a softy, we were shaken down for money. The parking was supposed to be free, but when it was time to leave they charged us. Crazy.

All of us were super excited for today. We were actually going to leave Morocco and enter Spain. We chose to take the ferry from a Spanish city which sits in Morocco, Ceuta, to Algeciras. The border crossing was insane. Nothing was marked and, by chance, found out that we had to have our exit visas prior to hitting the border. Jake was directed to a diplomatic line so he was able to do everyone’s passport pretty quickly. Once you crossed out of Morocco and hit the passport control for Spain things were much smoother. I would be lying if I didn’t say that we were all a little glad to be out of Morocco and its craziness. We were not able to see much of Ceuta before heading out, but we did manage to find a McDonalds with a play area for the kids. That was a good lunch. After McDonalds we bought our tickets and headed for the ferry.

Driving your car up onto a boat is a pretty neat thing. It is fun to watch as you pass over the ramp and see water beneath you. From what I could tell the ferry could hold roughly 500 people, although it was no where close to being full. After parking the van we headed upstairs and were pleasantly surprised to find a snack bar and 2 little stores. There was some café type seating near the snack bar and along the windows were rows of seats similar to a train or plane. Everything was enclosed except for a small area off the back. This is where we watched the boat take off and dock. The trip only lasted 35 min., and surprisingly, none of us got seasick.

All of us on the ferry

Good-bye Morocco

Rachel and David on the ferry

Hello Spain!

Once we were off the ferry we headed toward the hotel. We found it pretty easily and Jake went inside to get checked in. What he found was a traveler’s nightmare. Each “room” could hold only 3 single beds and Jake said the rooms were so small that there was no walking room around the beds. They had no crib for the baby, and the free breakfast would cost us 12 Euros/person. Everything Jake had been told on the phone was a lie. We all got back into the van and started driving, unsure now where we would stay. We got back on the autovia (freeway) and headed north. Rachel gave us a prayer asking Heavenly Father to guide us to a hotel. We just kept driving. Jake found he needed to get some gas and the next service area also showed lodging available. We pulled into the gas station and next to it was a restaurant and hotel. Jake went inside and they gave him an incredible deal, so we found our hotel for the evening. They gave us 2 rooms with 4 twin beds in one and 3 twin beds in the other and then also brought in a travel crib for the baby. I think that was the first time in our married life we have gone to a hotel and slept in twin beds. But the hotel itself was very nice. Small, not a lot of amenities, but we did get a free “breakfast” the next morning.

Front of our awesome find

Kids' room view 1

Kids' room view 2 - 4 twin beds total

Mom and Dad's room + babies view 1

Mom and Dad's room view 2 - yes, that is 3 twin beds. s

Our little balcony

The view from our room - chickens! Gotta love it!

For dinner we went into the little “Pueblo” near the hotel. It was just a small village, but it had a park in the center where the kids were able to play. Jake went around to the different restaurants to find one that we could afford and what he found was that none of them opened until 8:30. One restaurant, however, was able to throw together some appetizer plates for us. We dined on meatballs (1/person), salad with tuna, bread, slices of turkey, croquet, and fries. And to wash it all down a large bottle of water. It was one of those dinners where things are so funny you always remember it. And the best part of the day was that after Rachel’s prayer I felt the spirit very strong for the rest of the day, and I think everyone else did, too. Everyone just got along so well.