Day 6 - Buddah Beach

Our last day was spent just hanging out at our pool and the beach. I had to get the laundry done and again found myself without any dryer but the sun. Colton took a long nap and Connor and I did some reading by the pool. Daddy took Jack to a nearby golf store and we did make a quick trip back to the market to stock up on the granola cereal we found that we really liked. Other than that it was fun in the sun day. The boys got completely buried in the sand so the day was a success for them. Daddy and mommy had our last cafe con leche beachside while watching the boys play in the sand. In the evening the boys had a cannonball competition and a feast of all the leftover food. We were looking forward to getting home to our own beds, but sad to leave the gorgeous sunshine in Spain. Sadly when our plane was landing the plane got real grey and it rained all the way home. Bummer. Guess we'll have to go back!

How's this for brotherly love?

Day 5 - Tangiers, Morocco

This was the most anticipated day of our trip for Jeff and myself. We've been looking forward to doing this for many years. It's really quite easy. You book the ferry and a tour for the day with the ferry ticket. We ended up being in the German/English tour. Colton took a nap just as we left the ferry.

I met a lovely gal Melanie from near Frankfurt and it was fun to practice my German again. Her English was much better than my German however. We also met a great Army family from Belgium. Their kidos were wonderful. Kaitlin was great with Jackson, and he always wanted to hold her hand. Ryan and Connor got on well so it was nice to have everyone paired up, especially in the marketplace. The ferry ride was bumpy, but it was a really nice boat. Crossing the Strait of Gibralter was pretty quick, less than an hour. They are two hours behind Europe time yet only about 10 miles across the water depending on where you cross. We knew we weren't in Kansas anymore as where else would you find a mosque on board a ferry.

So after departing the ferry we loaded up on a bus and went to the resort area where the kids got to go on a camel ride. Jackson absolutely loved it. The only part that "scared" him a little was when the camel very suddenly dropped to the ground to let them off. He wasn't prepared. The boys were smiling through the entire experience and really wanted to ride again, but there was a long line. It was too bad because mom was going to ride with Jackson on the second ride. There were some pretty cool ruins there so the kids explored for a while before getting back on the bus. We got a tour by bus for a short time. We drove by Mr. Forbes house and through the newer area of Tangiers. It's a pretty bustling metropolitan area and looks like any other modern city. I believe the tour guide said Tangiers has 1.3 million people living in it and is the third largest city in Morocco. Our bus dropped us finally in the older section where we would wind through narrow streets through the market place. And when I say narrow, I mean narrow. The streets wound around and you could practically reach across from window to window in some areas to hand things off to your neighbor! If we had not had a guide I don't think that we would have ever found our way out. The market place smelled of all kinds of spices. There were spice vendors throughout and restaraunts that had really yummy smells as well. It was amazing to look in so many of the little shops. We happend past little woodworking shops and small rooms with three women with sewing machines.

There were so many things to see, and I would have loved to take more pictures of just the daily routine of life in this area. The problem was we really had to keep moving as there were tons of people hounding us to buy trinkets. If you stopped to look at something then they just surrounded you and were telling you all kinds of prices. In particular they were selling these copper/silver bracelets. They would start with one for 10 euro. Then by the end of saying no three or four times you would be offered 10 for 5 euro or something ridiculous. Jeff said no to one man and told him he wouldn't buy 1000 for 1 euro. The guy walked away after calling him a cheap tourist. We had a good laugh about that. During our walk we came across a man with a snake and the boys wanted to hold it. There was also a man playing a "drum" and he was just the neatest looking older gentleman. I love the picture I took of him. Everywhere we looked we found interesting people and sights and sounds and smells. There were mosques around the strangest corners. I'm guessing they were neighborhood mosques. They were filled with the prettiest rugs.

Somehow we made our way through the maze of streets overlooking the Strait of Gibralter and we had an amazing view of Spain.

As we made our way to lunch we came across a little bakery. It was basically an open concrete structure. The bread was amazingly good. Then we found a little square just tucked in the center of the maze with a fountain and all the kids and women were coming to fill their pitchers.

We had a fabulous typical Moroccan lunch. It was part of our tour. I packed Nutella sandwiches for us in case the kids wouldn't eat but it turned out to be delicious. We started with a soup that was kind of spicy but not fiery spicy. It had cinnamon on the top. Next we had shish-ka-bobs. It was ground beef mixed with all kinds of spices. I could in particular taste the cumin. It was yummy. Our third course was chicken with a yummy yellow coating on cous cous. That was my personal favorite. The dessert was a kind of baklava. It wasn't layered but it was hard and sweet and sticky. It was good. There was a group of musicians who played for us througout the meal. All in all it was a great experience.

After lunch it was time for some serious shopping. We were taken to several shops. I found a really beautiful red square tribal rug in our first store. I thought 100 euro was a particularly good price as Jeff talked him down from his initial 250. It is from the south part of morocco. Of course, I loved the 8,000 euro rug we found in another shop. The pottery was beautiful as well. I actually surprisingly passed on the pottery. I thought it was kind of expensive and didn't know how I would get it home. I did find a magnificient silver neclace that I loved, but it too was really expensive even after Jeff had said no and they had immediately lowered the price.

We were really tired by the time we hit the last store. It had some really amazing pieces, but I was shopped out. The ferry ride home (back to Tarifa, Spain) seemed much faster. The boys hung out on deck to watch for dolphins. I stayed up for a while as I seemed to feel less seasick in the fresh air. Once we got back and complted the customs process, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset costal drive back to our villa. Great day!

Day 4 - Sevilla

Sevilla. What a magnificient city! We did it completely wrong, but it was still fabulous. The buildings are gorgeous and every main street is lined with orange trees. We found out on our tour that the sour oranges are sold to the UK and they are used to make marmalade. The plazas are all amazing as well. So we arrived at lunchtime for Colton and decided to take one of the hop on hop off tours of the city so we could sit and take breaks throughout the day. What we didn't realize is everything we really wanted to see was really close together. We would have been better off taking the horse drawn carriage through a few parts of the city. So now we know if we ever get back. We wanted to see the Cathedral as it is the third largest in all Christiandom. There is a tower attached which is supposed to have magnificient views of the city. Unfortunately for us, the entrances were closed. Fortunately the closure was due to the Santa Semana or Holy Week festivities which are unusual and spectacular in Seville. We were able to watch a "parade" which included adults and children. They wore these interesting hoods and capes which were belted. Many of the first wave of people marked the path holding long candles. We assumed these would be lit for the night festival. Not being Catholic we didn't understand what everything meant but found out later the different colors and types of hoods indicated different congregations. The ties on the belts, knots etc.. indicated level of religious training particularly on the children's belts. There were bands which would walk in between the groups of folks drumming interesting melodies. It was pretty moving and spectacular to see. As it turns out we were watching the procession at the entrance wall to the palace.

After watching the procession we wandered to the Starbucks and mom got to add to her mug collection. Then back to sightseeing. The bull ring was the most colorful one we saw from the outside. We also went by the place where Christopher Columbus was originally buried. We were told his body was later moved to the Dominican Republic. At the end of the day we ran into another problem. We returned to our car only to find a car parked directly in front of it. Apparently it is common practice to put the car in neutral and leave it parked where it can be moved. Not knowing this we decided to go have dinner and hope the car would be moved by the time we got back. We had a traditional Spanish menu del dia which was good. I wasn't real impressed by the selection of tapas we found as it all involved fish or seafood but the kids enjoyed the meal. Once we got back to the car we found a willing helper who wanted our parking space to move the car blocking us, and we were off. Morocco tomorrow!