Onward through Spain.

The day after our gorge walk we were all up ready to get to Granada and our guided tour of the Alhambra. Although Granada was only about 90mins away the weather was rather variable with frost and fog patches but wecarrived in good time! Once our guide arrived we started to tour through gardens and 'palaces'. The insides of the buildings were quite remarkable.

I will never remember everything that the guide mentioned but the three hours soon passed and we were all glad that we'd had a guided tour!
Next stop was lunch and we were able to sit and relax in the sun.

The next day I had to say goodbye to my sister and b-in- l. It had been so great tosee them and a lot of reminiscing went on - hopefully we will be able to catch up again at end of 2017.
It took a while to get started as the car was totally covered in ice - out came the credit cards and the scraping began! I think the car registered minus 4 - a tad cool for those from southern hemisphere!

A drive of about 4 hours bought us to  Denia on the Costa Blanca. It's an old Spanish port town - settled over 2000 years ago. The apartment we are in overlooks the port and we keep an eye on the comings and goings of the daily ferry to the party island of Ibiza! We have walked around the town and port and have a visit to the castle on the plan for tomorrow.

To Sevilla and beyond

We finally managed to make it to Seville by train! Even got the correct seats! When we arrived we made our way to the centre of town and it was after wandering down many little lanes we came across Savilla cathedral. It was very impressive.

 Unfortunately the queues to go into were very long and so we checked the interior out on line -  very impressive! Just got into a restaurant for lunch as the rain fell. A dish of paella and glass of sangria hit the spot.

Next day we left for a long drive to Baza was we were catching up with my sister and b-in l. We made it to the local supermarket as it opened to stock up on all our needs. We were soon on our way but once again were worried that we were going in the wrong direction! After a couple of false starts we found the road that we needed and sped through beautiful countryside. It was a long drive with a couple of stops but the directions given to us for the cave house were spot on.

The lady who greeted us was eccentric, to say the least! The cave house was another eye opener - a labyrinth for sure - as it's also known as the fairy house you might get the idea!

Valda and I got sorted and then set about waiting for my sister to arrive when i received a strange text to say that they were having trouble with the car but were heading towards Granada and would get in touch. They finally arrived about 11pm and what a story they had to tell! They were due to pick up a car at Malaga airport but were told that the insurance for 4 days was going to 1200 euros and they would get nothing back, even if the car was perfect! They then walked away from the hire firm, caught a bus to Granada and then a taxi to here (130kms away). There was much joy at their safe arrival and it turned into a very late night!

We had a lazy day yesterday with a quick wander around the local town. We are quite high up and there is snow on the mountains. 

Today we went in search of a gorge walk that I had found on line. It was impressive scenery and we did have a pleasant amble in the sun.

Going to Seville

Our day was planned we were catching the train to Seville. Off to the station we trotted - well ambled! At the ticket office in my limited Spanish I asked for two return tickets to Seville. What time I was asked. The 9:14 please. No! I then realised that all the seats were booked unless I wanted to go at 2pm. Manana (tomorrow) I asked. Si,Si so tickets were bought.

Not wanting to return home at 9am I asked how long it took to go to Cadiz - 45 minutes and tbere was a train within 20 mins -  tickets for Cadiz please. I think the guy was pretty impressed with our quick decision making. So we were off to Cadiz rather unexpectedly! Went onto the platform for the train when :
1. a  sign came up saying exit immediately - my Spanish is getting better &
2. A guy came up asking us about a train - we had to shrug our shoulders and say sorry ' No hablo espanol!' He then spoke to someone else who indicated that his train was on another platform. Well that put us in a bit of a panic, showed the same guy our ticket and he indicated that we were on  the  wrong platform. We were off , like greyhounds out of the gate, to the next platform and on reaching the train collapsed in a heap! On regaining our breathe we saw a train arrive on the platform we had left!!

During our journey we did find that we should have caught the other train but all was well as this one was also going to Cadiz! It was an interesting trip mainly through flat lands although there were lots of  waterways - not sure of their purpose. We travelled beside the beach into the station and, although sunny, it looked rather cold.

We made our way into the centre and found it a very interesting place.

After a cuppa and the usual discussion about how disgusted we were by the amount of smoking everywhere including restaurants - no wonder we are coughing our lungs up an so appreciate the no smoking in certain areas policy.

We came across Cadiz cathedral and ventured inside. So much history and it looks like money is needed to restore the ceilings - there was netting up to stop any of it falling on your head!

 we wandered tnrough the streets until we reached the sea.

We had a great day with an awesome tapas lunch - with finally a sherry we liked! Well we are in the sherry region! Finally found our way back to the station and got on the correct train, which luckily terminated at Jerez so no problems there! Hopefully we make it to Seville!!

From Africa to Europe

Tne  blue city was rather attractive although the reason that it was blue was to keep away the mozzies didn't quite ring true with us! My day was spent relaxing with a massage and the lack of voice was keeping me low key! By the end of the day the hotel staff had the solution - to drink a third of a glass of pure lemon juice! I did this under sufferance and it didn't help that Valda wanted to record   facial expressions - for YouTube no doubt! Amazingly I did have some voice the next day!

 Taxis took us to the local bus station for our 3 hour trip to Tangier. All was going well until the kids behind Valda and I started kicking us. A few delicate words from our guide helped! It was a rather windy descent and luckily we weren't at the back of the bus because that seemed to be the spot for the locals vomiting! The joys of travel!

As soon as lunch was over we left the group for their overnight train and we booked into a very pleasant  hotel in Tangier Medina! Over a couple of G & T's our hosts explaned how they had come from Nice, bought two houses, knocked them down and produced a beautiful hotel.

It was so good to stay in somewhere rather special but an early ferry, to Tarifa, Spain, soon had us on the way again.

A half an hour delay had us bobbing up and down, rolling from side to side until we eventually reached Tarifa. Only an hour on the clock but then we had to put our watch forward an hour. A free, well part of the ferry ticket, bus ride (for about 45 mins) bought us to Algeciras. The view of the rock of Gibraltar was quite impressive. We then took a taxi to the car hire company. Well, we arrive 10 minutes after the lady should have gone off duty and the huffing and puffing and general negative demeanor told us in no uncertain terms what low life we were. Caught her out though when she told me that my licence was out of date - it still had a year to go! After theatrically wiping the sweat from my brow she finally became more human. The car was bought to the door, and with no instructions we were on our own!

I made my way out of Algeciras ok and Valda was my navigator. We were soon out on the freeway and all was well  - until we got within a stones throw of the apartment and then everything went to pieces!! We had followed instructions but then got caught up in one way streets. I made one serious error but realised in time when I was preparing to turn left - but it was an Aussie left! I'm sure the scooter rider thought ' bloody tourists '!

After, what seemed like hours  driving around the one way streets we made it to a large supermarket and called the apartment owner who arrived on his motor bike to find us. We followed closely until arriving at apartment parking. Unfortunately the car door handle and a wall had a disagreement - oh well!!

We insisted that a cab was booked to take us to the local supermarket - no way I was doing any more driving that day! We bought copious supplies and after a few drinks headed off to the land of nod.

The next day, with map in hand, we wandered into the centre of the town. We noticed every road that we had driven download and couldn't believe how close to our destination we had come!!

We found a local market and bought prawns to cook for dinner. Made one of the local stall holders laugh when asking for garlic as we had to buy 4 bulbs - no way you could buy them singularly!

Tried our hand at ordering sherry at tbe local bars but haven't been  too successful

On to Fes

The call to prayer was our wake-up call on Christmas day.  Down to breakfast for fresh juice (trees are full of  oranges and mandarins and they are so tasty!) Also a pancake type bread with the choice of olive oil, for dipping (also extremely good), olives (you see the trees everywhere), or butter and jam.

The donkey arrived at the door to take our bags down the narrow paths to waiting taxis. We were off to the Unesco world heritage site of Volubules. This site is a perfect example of a roman town which had been destroyed by an earthquake but the ruins were amazing. The site showed remains of huge houses and so much of the mosaics are still there. The morning was beautiful, blue skies and was warming up from 3C!

Anotner taxi ride took us to Meknes where we visited the old walled city. We visited vaulted gra ary stires and saw where 2000 horses were stabled. This too had been partly destroyed by an earthquake and Ididn't feel too comfortable standing under some of the arches!!

We were then taken through the medina. The sights and smells were amazing - spices piled high and the different olives, preserved lemons, dates and other fruits were out done by a  Bulls heads,tongue lolling from it's mouth, sitting on the butcher's bench! We neared some very smoky shops where we had Christmas lunch - a rather delicious camel burger!

The railway station was the next stop and we were praying that we would get a seat without too much difficulty. We wre lucky and end in a compartment with a group of young women who, like all young people, had their music blaring - we could hear a few English words amongst the Arabic.

An hour later we were at our destination and with a bottle shop across from the hotel the group got together for a Christmas drink before heading out to an interesting restaurant. We would never have  found this place without our guide as it was up many little, twisting alleyways. It was in someones home! The interior was beautiful and food delicious.

Day 2
Today started early with an 8am train trip to Rabat,  the capital of Morocco. Plenty of seats and space and an hour after departure we arrived in Rabat. We left our luggage in a local cafe, were handed a map and sent on our way! Others took off quickly and we were following at a distance – checking our map frequently. We came across the Medina  and were soon heading through interesting areas  checking out all of the things on sale. It’s interesting what you can find!
We obviously missed a place as we were wandering the Medina as we totally missed the kasbah but the surrounding  waterways were beautiful.  The sky was so blue and so was the water. The fishing boats were lying in the sun. We finally found our way to  Hassan tower which was Mohammed V Mausoleum.
Our trip back to the cafe was really a lot of guess work and a little use of school girl French but we eventually  made it for lunch before we got another train. This train spelt problem right from the start! I was first in the line for our group and fought my way up to the carriage – it was totally packed. Then spent the next hour standing and when anyone tried to pass i was knocking people in the face with my backpack which was rather embarrassing. It was also very hot and struggling to take off a jacket was a job for houdini!

We finally got a seat and 2 hours later arrived at our destination.  It was then into a taxi for another 45 minutes before reaching the sacred city of  Moulay Idris. It was a long hike up to our accommodation and our bags arrived by donkey. We were then taken on a tour through the place which was natrow streets going all over the place- would be easy to get lost.

The call to prayer rang out as we were watching the sunset - this is the first time weve heard the call since being in Morocco.

No Christmas celebrations here but hope everyone had a good one.

Made it to Morocco

After an uneventful flight caught up with valda in Doha and then it was on to the next flight to Casablanca.. This was a strange flight as we really stood out as western women on a flight mainly consisting of Moroccan men. We were hemmed in onall sides by them! They would hang around the aisles talking loudly with little respect for personal space. When we landed they all jumped up before the plane had stopped which cause shouting from the crew but they didn't care!

A 30 minute drive bought us to our hotel in the centre of Casablanca and after a shower we had a mooch around the local area. Pavement hard to walk on as people were setting out their wares across it.

Managed to sleep through the night with a couple of bouts of reading. Yearning for a cup of tea and some breakfast got us up and organised. We then arranged to have a driver take us to some of the attractions.

We started at the Hassan II mosque which sits jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean.

We then went onto to Rick's bar.

Rick's cafe is based on the film Casablanca and has afew original pieces from the movie. Yes they know it was filmed in California! They hsd somd old promotional materials and the film was playing, it was a pleasant ambiance.

Met up with rest of group - total of 15 women, 1 man plus the male guide.