Costa del Sol

While I was in Maryland, the rest of the family flew down to Marbella, Spain on the Mediterranean. Before I got there they managed to drive around and get lost several times, so that by the time I arrived they had the directions all figured out. They also managed to explore old town Marbella and visit the cliffside town of Ronda. I can’t go into too many details about those excursions since I wasn’t there, but I do have some pictures. Marbella . . . oranges and limesHere are some of the sites from Old Town in the Plaza de Los Naranjes (Plaza of the Oranges), a Catholic, Church, cute streets, etc. And here is a shot of the gorges around Ronda. It’s a bit scary, especially when driving on skinny roads in a manual car. Here is Jenny in front of the oldest bull-fighting ring in Spain with her attempt at getting two scoops of ice cream. She did get two scoops! But also an extra cone to go with it. Some Spanish boys passing by laughed at her.

On the first day that I was there we went out for a great dinner in Old Town Marbella at a restaurant with a Moroccan-style outdoor courtyard. Jenny had the most memorable dinner – “hung” chicken. Literally. After dinner we went on our usual gelato hunt. By the next morning my jet lag was beginning to wear off. We had nothing in particular planned, so spent our morning exploring the Old Town. We also spent some time down by the pool before mom, Jenny, and I went to a Paella cooking class. They made enough paella for 50 people in this one skillet! I went for a run at sunset on the beach. I actually managed to run at sunset almost every night we were there, which was great. It was so gorgeous!!

On Thursday we took a day trip to Granada, the home of the famous Alhambra, an expansive Moorish city and palace. The drive through the Andalusian region was beautiful – rocky mountains and olive trees at sunrise, with the original Sierra Nevadas in the distance. We got to the Alhambra and went on a tour, which was quite long – roughly three hours. It was very interesting to see though. The Islamic architecture throughout the palaces was very different from the classical European architecture we have been seeing all over the place. Islamic style architecture stresses adorning the inside of the structure, so while the outside may look a little plain, the inside of the palace was meticulously detailed and intricate. There is also a stress on the incorporation of water. Several courtyards within the palaces contained ponds and waterways and were extremely cozy and relaxing. The views down to the main part of Granada were great! And on one of the adjacent hills there were gypsy homes/caves!! After the tour we attempted to see part of downtown Granada, but driving in that town is kind of difficult, so after several failed attempts to find the Old Town of Granada we decided to head back to Marbella.

The next day was our big trip down the coast to Gibraltar. Before this trip I had heard of “The Rock of Gibraltar.” I figured it was an overly large boulder sitting at the mouth of the Mediterranean. In some ways it is, but it is also a lot more. First off, it’s not just a big boulder, but a massive protruding cliff containing a town at its base, castles on it, and caves and tunnels within it. Gibraltar is actually a British colony – the only colony in modern-day Europe. So once you cross into it (with your passport) everything is in English, and fish and chips and Marks and Spencer abound. And it is also home to a group of wild monkeys, likely pets brought over hundreds of years ago. The first thing you have to cross when you enter Gibraltar is a one-lane airstrip. We decided to take a tour around Gibraltar by van with a guide. It was actually a great way to go. Mom may disagree since she hates skinny, high-up roads, and these were pretty much the worst I have ever seen. And we did it in a manual car. Our tour guide was extremely interesting and had just missed being voted into the local Parliament by one vote. Too bad. We started up the Rock and looked towards Africa, which is 15km away. You can see the Atlas Mountains in Morocco easily on a clear day! We then entered St. Michael’s Cave, one of many naturally-formed caves within the Rock. St. Michael’s holds a concert hall, where the Mounds View Orchestra has actually played a concert before on one of their European tours!

After the caves we headed up to the heights of the Rock, where the monkeys hang out. They are extremely used to human contact, but you still have to be careful with them. We kept our van windows closed, as monkeys have been know to jump in and steal your bags. Check out this monkey riding on the top of the van in front of us! Our driver even had a plastic snake in the van to keep them away. It freaked me out a little, too. Jenny wanted to have a monkey sit on her shoulders, which you can do. But some of the monkeys got in a fight in front of us and made a show of their enormous teeth. They would bite, so I was not disappointed that Jenny decided against having one of them on her shoulders after that. I was really psyched about this part of the rock because clouds were forming right in front of our eyes!! Wind was coming up and over the eastern side of the rock and materializing into white smoke. It was sooooo cool! I think I got a lot more excited about that than anyone else. If I haven’t said it already, the views from anywhere on the Rock are absolutely amazing, as I’m sure you can tell from the pics.

Then we moved onto the military tunnels inside the Rock of Gibraltar. As a precaution during WWII, the British built tunnels in the rock and armed them with cannons in case the Germans ever decided to attack. Luckily, the tunnels never had to be used, but they were cool to see. We also walked through the old Moorish castle halfway up the rock and took in our last elevated views before heading back into the town of Gibraltar. We walked back out of Gibraltar (which is faster than driving because of the traffic), but had to wait for planes to land and take off first. I don’t think I’ve ever been that close to an active runway before. Here is all the traffic lined up , waiting to cross. Once the planes were gone, we were supposed to walk across “as quickly as possible” – that’s a little scary. I think we all enjoyed our day trip to Gibraltar. It was one of the most interesting and eclectic places I have ever been to, and I hadn’t really known it existed before.

We grabbed a nice seafood dinner by the beach in Marbella for our last night. The next morning we took one last trip to the Old Town before catching our plane back to Düsseldorf.