Day trip to Morrocco fromTarifa

We were up in time for the 8 oclock ferry from Tarifa to Tangier... we had even bought a ticket for it at 7:15, but it was cancelled! The next one was at 10 so we took a stroll through Tarifa.
The ferry is marketed as being a 35 minute fast ferry ... and it pretty much is. But they NEVER leave on schedule!

Check out the yellow slippers.. they are all the rage in Marrocco with those long dress things the men wear, jellabas.
The "tour" took us to some camels.. remembering my parent´s tales from Egypt I gave that a miss. And when one of our party complained of flea bites after her ride I was pleased I did.
Off to the medina or markets...

Walking through the markets, these are piles of olives and dates. The next stall holders were not keen to have their wares photographed... separate stalls for chicken, beef, lamb, fish, etc, but all equally gory, smelly and fascinating.

¿What part of a cow is that?

Next stop was lunch... don´t think too hard about what you just saw while you are eating.

Lunch was ´free´ and served in style... bean soup, kebabs, chicken and couscous followed by a little almond cake and mint tea.

Lunch time entertainment.. a morrocan 3 piece band!

First stop after lunch was the carpet shop... surprise suprise!

(There is no such thing as a free lunch)

Next was the pharmacia (alchemist) where they had herbs and oils and magic potions for all manner of ills. You could buy lip balm and perfumes, tiger balm, saffron and cooking herbs, cures for insomnia and indigestion, snoring and headaches.

I dropped back as we walked through the medina, partly to avoid the hawkers that attached themselves to our group and partly to gain a bit of space to take photos.

Still having trouble sequencing stuff... this photo is from Tarifa... The Castle of Santa Catalina.

Riccardo talking with our guide, who spoke swedish, english, french, arabic and spanish. He has two daughters at university in Stockholm!

The tour finished in the sanctuary of this beautiful old hotel where we rejoined our mini bus to return to Tangiers port for our ferry to Tarifa.

Back in Tarifa we still had time to wander down to the beach for another swim, Meditteranean and Atlantic again of course! It was 6:30 at night and still sunny and warm.

Tarifa

The trip from Seville gave me another chance to get photos of the landscape.

While Riccardo went to have fish and chips and a beer in a real English Pub at Gibraltar, I went off exploring Tarifa. As usual it was pretty shut, being siesta time and the hottest part of the day. All the locals are sleeping off their big midday meal.

I like the sun and strolled out along the coast, stopping to dip my toes in the sea, watch a huge bumble bee and of course take photos... cacti, ancient stony roman roads, pretty beaches and crumbling ruins.

I was shocked at the amount of ( brightly coloured, beautiful, plastic) rubbish in the Mediterrannean.

Looking across the Straits of Gibraltar to Africa.

Fishing boats in the harbour, Tarifa.

A Statue of Jesus guards the entry to the harbour.

Tarifa is the southern most part of Europe and the place where the Mediterranean and the Atlantic meet at the Pillars of Hercules.
I finished off my day with a dip in the Mediterranean and and a dip in the Atlantic.

Seville

This morning we visited the Royal Palace or Alcazar, famous for its gardens...

After the Gardens we took the tour of the Royal appartments upstairs.. again no photos allowed, but is was from these rooms that Magellan received his commission to sail to the Americas in search of gold and treasures.
We had a late lunch at the bar two doors up from our hotel. The bar has been there since 1670... some of the hams hanging above the bar loooked like they could have been there that long tooo! So if the bar had been there that long, then this must be one of the original streets... so our hotel is also of the same era. Apparently it was a convent and at one time a tannery.
A siesta was the order of the day after the late night last night and the late one planned for tonight. Also the heat gets pretty fierce in the middle of the day and with every body else closing up shop until 5 or 6 pm there wasn´t much choice.
Tonight´s late night was a flamenco show... no photos until the last 5 minutes but none of mine were any good. The dancing was great but not enough of it ( two guys, one playing guitar and one wailing mournfully took up far too much time!) and I would have liked more costume changes... Ole!

Seville

From Cordoba we caught a local bus to the bus station, the intercity bus to Seville and then a short walk to our Hotel. Another lovely building with internal courtyard. This one was apparently a Convent.

Our first stop for the day was to be the Seville Cathedral, however I got us a little lost ( wrong end of town completely) and we found this pretty little church with its gorgeous madonna and child and several sweet smelling floral arrangements.
A nearby tourist office soon had us sorted with a proper map and onto the round town bus to the tourist end of town.
Here we decided to start with the Cathedral as its tower would give us a good overview of the city and hopefully we would be able to figure out where we were and how to get home.

Seville cathedral... a small sample of the ornate gold inside.

Tomb of Christopher Columbus, who ¨discovered¨ South America.

Tomb of Christopher Columbus.

The Cathedral treasury included this stunning crown, encrusted with precious stones and pearls and adorned with these beautifully crafted cherubs. When you see all the Cathedrals, and all the gold and silver treasures it is hard to forget that a large part of this wealth was brought back from South America.

View from the Giralda looking over the Cathedral including the orange courtyards, ingeniusly watered by a moorish system of canals and pools.
The Seville Cathedral Bell tower or Giralda, is unusual in that it was originally a muslim minaret. Instead of steps up it there are stone ramps... so that one could get up there by horse?!

View from the 78 m high Giralda of the Seville cathedral. What I want to know is how do I find those swimming pools?

Back to the hotel (with a few more wrong turns and much interaction with the locals as we asked yet again for directions) to shower and change before heading out for our orientation walk in the cool of the evening...40 degrees!
Inset plate from the doors to the Bull Ring.

A famous Matador out side the Bull Ring in Seville... a word of warning, before touching a metal statue like this one, check the temperature.. this one was REALLY hot! I had a burn on my finger that hurt for a couple of days!

Plaza de Espana, highlighted with a graceful semi circle of mosaic tile scenes representing every region of Spain. There are 50 of them. No I did not photograph them all!!! This is Barcelona, where we will end this trip.

We finished the walk with dinner by the river... a great place to watch the world go by.

And with views of the city lit up at night. This is the golden tower where riches brought in from South America were sorted, counted, stored, unloaded... what ever you do with Aztec gold!

Cordoba

We leave Madrid bright and early the next morning, first by metro then by bus.
It seems Intrepid Trips are a bit more basic than we expected, not even having our own mini bus. We are using local transport the whole way. Riccardo and I are ok, as this is how we will be travelling when we leave the group, but some of the others have large bags on wheels that are a struggle to lift when necessary.
The bus trip to Cordoba is fascinating. So many Spanish style houses... I try to take photos of fields of sunflowers, wheat fields sprinkled with red poppies, wind turbines, rolling farm land and hill top pueblos but it is tricky on a moving bus.

At leas this donket stood still for me.

Our Hotel in Cordoba is a delightful surprise after the functionality of Madrid.
Our room is the door on the right.

Our orientation walk around Cordoba seemed to be in the full heat of the day. The shops were shut but the streets were beautiful.

A private garden glimpsed through the gates.
The trees espaliered against the building are oranges.

Beautiful cascades of petunias. This is a florest´s so maybe they should be stunning.

Even the litter is beautiful. Confetti outside a church.

Of course the high light of Cordoba is the Mesquita or Mosque. In the centre of the mosque the catholic church have built a magnificent cathedral, incorporating the original Mosque structure. Like the other cathedrals this had little private chapels surronding the main church

If you look closely at this painting you will see that he has painted his body with wode, which is blue, because it is easier to hide from the enemy. Somehow I think this has something to do with ¨woe betide you¨

One of the chapels here showing the original red and white striped arches painted over with christian motifs and lots of ornate decorative touches.

Some of the original moorish arches... of course the Spanish have excavated under the mosque to the remains of the original christian church to prove that the moors had built over their church first.