Another (belated) entry for the annals of our family history!
We were hanging out with some friends of ours (almost a year ago by now) and they were telling us about an upcoming trip to Spain they had planned. It sounded so enticing that we hijacked their itinerary, told them we're coming too, and booked tickets within twenty minutes. We knew it could be risky mixing travel chaos and friends, but we made plans for boundaries and promised we would still like each other when we returned.
On Thanksgiving Day 2018, we flew to Jerez, Spain and drove to Alameda for our first night. My friend is a trip-planning genius and did all the work to make it great for us. She booked two really cute apartments for us in the same building.
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| Turning on the TV is literally the only way to get five hyper, travel-weary boys to chill out long enough for the parents to dig out pajamas and get everything ready for bed. It does not matter the language as long as its cartoons. |
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| The view from the roof of our apartment building. The town square was so adorable in the morning! A little chilly and buzzing with deliveries and shops opening up. |
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| Ugh, I'm so tired of this. |
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| Parents on their phones trying to figure out which way to start walking. |
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| This little town of Alameda was so sweet!! All the buildings are white and the streets were very tight and winding. Built way before cars were the way to get around. |
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| Remains of a Moorish archway. I loved it so much. |
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| And beautiful views out to the plains. |
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| I don't remember the dates, but this stairway is rully old.. |
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| Our Christmas photo that I never sent. |
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| The Plaza |
Its be been a while, but I'm pretty sure what we did next is drove south to Gibraltar! I've definitely heard of Gibraltar as in "Rock of Gibraltar" and "Straight of Gibraltar" but didn't know anything else about it. I don't even think I knew it was in Spain or that it was in any way connected with England. All I knew was it sounded like a place that ye olde tyme pirates would probably like to sail to. We only devoted half of one day to this because its pretty small.
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| There's The Rock! |
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| We made the classic rookie mistake of accidentally driving onto the peninsula instead of parking outside and taking the bus in. Miraculously, we found a spot in a parking lot! |
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| Our friends decided to do the Rock thing which includes hiking around historically significant caves, seeing the view from up high, and seeing lots of monkeys, or rather, Barbary macaques. This was probably our once in a lifetime opportunity and the boys may have liked it up there, but Marc and I really wanted to see the interior of Gibraltar. But mainly I didn't want to be pick pocketed and/or have my eyeballs scratched out by five thousand rabid macaques. |
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| Population of over 34,000 |
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| I don't remember what this is about |
Driving around on this little peninsula felt like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland. There were so many tight, sharp turns this way and that, it felt like we were going in circles. Its yet another one of these places that's hard to imagine people actually living there. Not because it was so quaint or perfect (because it didn't seem that way) but because one minute you're in normal Spain and the next minute you're surrounded by English signs and uniformed school children with British accents. Its like we were in Spain and accidentally walked onto the set of movie staring British actors.
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| Lots of action on the streets. Lots of British English, Spanish, and Orthodox Jewish folks. I just wonder, how did these people get here? Were they tired of old, gray London and went to the nearest Territory with a Mediterranean climate? I guess I could research it, buuuut I probably won't. |
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| It was really nice to get a break from every sign being in a foreign language. (Queen's English): I, TOO, wish to be spoilt! |
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| Looking up to the monkey hill. |
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| Gib is kind of a big deal for the British Navy. |
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| A wee tiny Bookshoppe! |
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They even have their own money!
I'm not sure how Brexiting will affect the Gibraltarians. |
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| The Harbour |
I wasn't overly impressed by Gibraltar - it was cute, but honestly, I think I'm ruined now after seeing too many impossibly cute places - BUT if you don't mind lots of people, it does seem like the perfect answer for an English speaker who wants to live in mainland Europe. I wish there were more Gibraltars scattered around so I could live in a little English bubble.
Our final stop is a place that will go down as having the most fantastic, pure Spanish views. Rondaaaaaa...
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| Blowing bubbles off the edge. |
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| Nice statue of a bull, but I'm really taking this picture of a tiny girl in a little pink coat with furry trim, chubby legs filling out her burgundy tights, and bouncing curly hair. She was so cute!! A perfect little well-dressed Spanish baby lady. |
Ronda is home to a famous bullring, Plaza de Toros, so we took a tour of that.
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| I'm definitely not a fan of killing bulls for "sport" but it was pretty cool to be in this arena. |
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| The stairs up to the fancy people area. |
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| A clever door which people can fit through, but not bulls. |
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| Danerous Dog |
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| This view was probably the most spectacular, which of course doesn't come through on my iPhone. Its pure Spain! |
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| Some really old Moorish bath ruins right next to a house like nbd. |
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| Really cool rock formations with ice blue water. |
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| When most of us are ready for dinner, the locals are just having their afternoon snack of coffee and a pastry. My friend and I treated ourselves to this rather fancy cafe. |
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| You guys... |
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| You may think you've had good flan, but I am here to tell you that you have not. |
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| A fun lunch of crappy tapas with the whole gang. (I don't remember much but I do remember this was the crappy time and the other tapas time was really good.) |
On our drive back to the airport for a late flight, we drove through the mountains to this sweet village, whose name escapes me. More of the all white houses and tiles roofs. It looks so majestic set into a misty mountain. We were threatened with rain the whole trip but it only actually rained on this last day.
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| Our boys don't just "walk", they climb and parkour their way through the streets. |
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| Mountain spring water in the middle of town! The basin was so worn and molded by probably centuries of washing. |
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| We really wanted to explore this cute town but it was raining too hard! At least we found a little cafe for hot chocolate and cake. |
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| That's a wrap! And we still like each other!! |
