Farewell to The Algarve

We are driving to Faro today and staying overnight near the airport as our flight is at 8:45 AM tomorrow.  The weather forecast is for thunder storms today although it is not too bad right now.  It did rain during the night. As I started posting this, it started to thunder!

Since returning from our 3 day trip we haven’t done a lot – revisited favorite restaurants, gone for walks etc.  Yesterday was the nicest day we have had on the Algarve – the sun shone all day!  We did drive back to Alte (where we got caught in the funeral procession in the rain).  We had heard of a good restaurant for lunch there but we went to the wrong one so we decided to try again.  When we got there, yesterday, it was closed on Monday so it wasn’t meant to be!  It was a nice drive.

We have enjoyed the trip but are ready to go home.  We keep hearing that this has been the worst weather in years - definitely not shorts and sandals weather.  There has been a lot to see so we have been able to do that anyway.

I’ll use this entry to sign off this blog and I hope whoever has read it has got a feel for what we have enjoyed.

Gibraltar

It was interesting to see Gibraltar, a place I remember hearing about since elementary school.

Gibraltar

 We took a tour of Gibraltar for about 2 hours.  It took us up the rock and we saw St. Michael`s Cave, the Barberry Apes (not really apes but tailless monkeys) and many spectacular views of Gibraltar from above. 

Barberry Ape Family

Barberry Ape On Our Bus

Much of the modern Gibraltar is built on land reclaimed from the ocean.  This makes some housing very expensive - $5 million plus.  We weren`t sure what people with this kind of money did there or where they came from. 

Modern Gibraltar - Built on Reclaimed Land

After the tour we went to the mine street which put us in mind of the duty free shopping area in St. Martin.  We walked up about half of it an bought some snacks at Mark`s and Spencer`s for the bus trip home.  We then met and had a good fish and chips lunch before we headed back to the Algarve as we knew there wouldn`t be much opportunity on the way back.

Tangiers

We had to be up early to leave at 7:45 A.M. for Tangiers.  There was a huge line-up for breakfast as there were almost 100 people in 2 buses on our tour.

We took a high speed ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar (about 45 minutes) and on arrival were met by a Moroccan tour guide. 

Leaving Tarifa for Tangiers - Moorish Castle at Top

Ferry To and From Tangiers

We had a tour of Tangier and a bit of the outskirts.  At one point we were able to ride a camel if we wanted to.  Jim and I did so.

Camel Ride

Jim Riding Camel

After the tour we had a Moroccan lunch at a facility set up for tourists under tents.  It included entertainment consisting of Moroccan music, a belly dancer and other entertainers.  From there we proceeded to the Casbah (market). 

Market Day in Tangiers

Entrance to the Casbah

It was a very interesting area but we really couldn`t look too much as we were taken to one large shop that was promoted as having the best of Moroccan crafts.  We had heard this would be very high pressure but we didn`t find it that way.  They did have a presentation about carpets and then had a lot of other crafts and leather things.

We were back to our hotel around 5:00 P.M.

Beautiful Seville

We were in Seville by mid-morning and toured the Square of Spain, built for the 1929 World Fair. It was really an amazing sight. 

Square of Spain

Square of Spain

Square of Spain

Square of Spain

 We then toured Santa Maria Church, the largest Gothic church in the world and third largest church to St. Peter`s and St. Paul`s. 

Santa Maria Church

Organ - Santa Maria Church

 It has the tomb of Christopher Columbus and it has been proven with DNA analysis that his remains are in the tomb. 

Tomb of Christopher Columbus

We toured other sights in the older part of Seville, had lunch and then headed to Gibraltar.  We ended our time by having coffee at the Hotel Alphonse XIII – like having tea at the Empress in Victoria.  It is a very beautiful hotel but the coffee, tea and sweets cost more than our lunch!

Courtyard at Hotel Alphonse XIII

Although we only saw a small part of Seville, it appears to be a very beautiful city, one to which I would like to return and spend more time.

Three Days of Sunny Weather

We had to leave the Algarve to get some nice weather!  We had perfect weather on our 3 day trip to Seville, Tangiers and Gibraltar.  It was a very good trip although tiring for us all especially Lois. There was another couple from here who went on the trip so the 6 of us hung out together throughout the trip.

We had a 5:30 A.M. pick-up and weren`t to our hotel near Gibraltar until almost 7:00 P.M.  We were at the same Holiday Inn Express for 2 nights so that was nice.  It had the best mattress and pillows we have had on the trip! It was in a more commercial area and there weren`t many restaurants close by so our dinners were catered in – they left something to be desired!!

The return trip was straight back to the Algarve from Gibraltar.  We left Gibraltar about 2:30 P.M. and were back here at 9:00 P.M. although there was an hour time change so it was really like 10:00 P.M.  The slowest part of going and returning was picking up the other passengers across the Algarve.  We were the last dropped off.