More Spain!

We woke up in Granada the next day and headed towards La Alhambra! Now the Alhambra was built by the Moors(who were Muslim) and then taken over by the Catholics and then taken over again by some Moroccans. So it is a palace that has some Arabic/Muslim architecture as well as catholic influence. It is one of the main draws of Granada.

We arrived there at 1pm rearing to get in...
However when we purchased our ticket from the automatic ticket booth, it said that there were only tickets available for 2-6pm. Currently it was 12:45. We purchased the tickets anyways and tried to go in. The ticket scanner guy scanned our tickets and his device returned with a strange beep. "You are too early," he said. So this HUGE palace has specific times when you can go in. We saw a huge party of 8-10 people exiting the place so I pointed that out and asked him again if we could go in since its 2 of us and 10 of them leaving and he again said no. There was a free area of the palace grounds that we could go to until it was 2pm, so we headed there and had some lunch. But overall their ticketing is the dumbest thing I have ever seen.
We took a few pictures....
And then it was 2pm and we headed in. Overall though I was thoroughly disappointed. The Alhambra had some nice gardens....And some nice architecture....
But it really was not worth waiting for. So we left after 1 hour and headed to Baza, Spain.

Along the way, I noticed that the main crop that was grown in Spain is olives....
They were everywhere. Now the location we were going to was a farm of a guy that my buddy is friends with. Now it was not much of a farm, just some acreage with some horses, turkeys, ducks, geese, chickens, dogs, and cats.

We arrived in Baza....
After going to dinner that night, we returned to them farm. Before walking to the guest house we were warned to watch out for the geese and the turkeys because they bite. It was pitch black with no lights as we trekked towards the guest house. All I had for light was my digital camera which I would take pictures of the ground ahead with the flash lighting the way. All of a sudden we were startled by the gobbling of the turkeys! We heard them walking closer. Terrified I took a quick picture....We quickly started to run towards the house away from the turkeys. Once we got up to unlock the door we heard a hissing. I quickly took another picture.....It was the geese! They had been waiting for us to return and started to charge us. I grabbed a broom and was able to keep them away while we opened the door and got inside.

The next day we lazied around town and hung out on the farm. I took some pictures of the animals....The horse....The dangerous yet beautiful turkeys....The rooster....Oh and the geese that like to hiss, bite, and attack. You can see them chasing after me as I take the picture....We also went to the grocery store where you pull a basket on two wheels around by a long handle....
Here was the guesthouse where we stayed....
And some random guy was burning stuff on the side of the road. Supposedly this is normal....
And every night in the guest house there was this huge gecko that was on the wall....
Anyways after a few days on the farm it was time to leave to go back to Manchester. However there were some hot springs in Baza that we wanted to check out that morning....
After the hot springs, which were located on the side of this beautiful lake, we headed back to Malaga airport to fly back to Manchester.

On a side note, my Spanish, which I had not used in many years came out very well and it helped us to get around Spain. I was proud that I was still able to use and remember it.

Next post is about our activities in and around Manchester...

Spain!

My last post left off at us returning to Spain and driving to Puerto del Sol for the night. We stayed the night in the hotel room and the next day headed north.
Windfarms!

Our first stop was Ronda! This was not on the itinerary, however my friend said that Ronda is a must see. It had started to rain and we had been driving about 3 hours. When I asked what was so important to see in Ronda my friend told me "the bridge." Nothing more? What! We drove 3 hours for me to look at a bridge. I was so shocked I couldn't speak, but he had driven off and left me standing by this bridge. So I walked over to see what this was all about.....

Well after standing there for about 5 minutes awestruck, I realized that it was worth the 3 hour drive....
The people of Ronda however many years ago built some of their town on the edge of a cliff
that is incredibly deep..... Then they built a bridge connecting the two sides...
Ronda was a sleepy little town that would have been nicer if it had not been raining....
We then headed south again towards Granada. Once we arrived we went out and had an amazing meal...
Then it was off to bed...

Morocco!

After Gibraltar and the monkey adventure, it was time to head to Africa and see Morocco. After checking out of our hotel, we headed to the Algeciras port to board our ferry....Now this ferry is HUGE. It fits cars and semi-trucks in its hull to take things back and forth.

As we started moving we saw Gibraltar behind us....Here is the sitting area that you sit in....

The ferry took about an hour and before I could finish my soda, I saw this mountain come into view with some Arabic writing on it..... I knew I had an experience ahead.

After we arrived, there were customs and some strangely dressed policemen....
We then had to catch a taxi to head into Tangiers. This port was very new and it is located 45 minutes from Tangiers city. So the taxi ride was long but scenic.....
Then we arrived at our hotel. After checking in I went for a walk and saw some areas by the hotel.....
Then we ventured out into the city as it started to get dark for dinner....

I had some local cuisine....Well not really that cuisine, but I found it amazing that even in Morocco that here was a McDonalds.
Here is what I had at dinner...Started off with olives and bread. Then this was my Moroccan salad
Then the main course which is a Moroccan dish that is a cooked egg in the middle surrounded by mini meatballs in a red sauce. It was good....I washed it down with my favorite drink, maybe you will recognize it????
Then it was back to the hotel. The next day we ventured out again to the bazaar to make some purchases but first we had a Moroccan breakfast.... The one word I can use to describe Tangiers though is Boring. There are lots of people walking around and there is the bustle of a big city but there really isn't much to do here....Here was the pharmacy. If you see they are represented by a green cross and a green moon.
I saw a lot of people just sitting around doing nothing. Also it was a shock for me seeing all the women wrapped up as they walked around.... However Morocco is a very liberal muslim country. Parts of it reminded me of mexico in the very poor areas and other parts reminded me of Europe..... They speak Arabic and French here in Morocco, and if it was not for my friend who speaks a little French, we would have been in trouble.

Here was a mosque...
Here is a building with the Moroccan flag flying....Here was the train station....Some stores with cool arabic signs....Even in Tangiers you have choices to make....
After making some purchases and bargaining in French, we headed back to the port. However first we had to think about tonight's dinner. So I had to haggle with this guy....
Well not really, but this is a shock to see while walking around. Once we got back to the port, e hopped on a ferry again and headed back to Algeciras Spain.... We got back in our car and headed north back towards Malaga and ended up in Puerto del Sol where we checked into our hotel for the night.