Day 12 - Granada

Today was the end of our trip to Southern Spain.  We left early to go to Granada, do some shopping, have lunch and get to the airport for the flight to Barcelona.

We drove two hours in the rain and navigated through the city to find a parking garage that could take a large van.  The police had blocked access to a lot of streets, so finding a garage close to the shopping area was a challenge.  It took more than 40 minutes of driving once we entered the city to park in a garage down a one-way street with a narrow driveway.  Once we entered the garage, the good Lord Shiva blessed us by providing us a parking spot big enough to hold the van.  In fact, the car parked in the spot waited until we arrived to exit, so nobody else could park there.

The ladies went to shop with Arvind as chaperone.  Surender and I stayed behind and enjoyed a coffee and donut at Dunkin Donut.  Since it was raining, we didn't venture to far from the garage and relaxed while everyone else was shopping.   Shopping was successful so the folks came back to the van.  They had finished shopping and in addition stopped by to buy lunch for everyone.  Getting out of Granada was easier than coming in. 

We drove to the airport early so we could return the rental car.  We got there really early... 4 pm for a 7 pm flight.  The counter didn't open till 5pm.  It continued to rain all day.  The boarding involved walking across the tarmac and up a stair in the rain.   It seemed like we were back at Palam airport in the 1980’s.  We were booked on a low frills airline, so they saved money by not having to pay for a ramp from the terminal.  They made us walk outside in the rain.

The flight to Barcelona was an uneventful 90 minutes.  Renuka and I were going to Barcelona to begin our visit for 3 days and the Zutshi and Nehru families were flying back to California the next morning.  We went our separate ways at the airport to our hotel / Airbnb and agreed to meet for dinner later that night.  We met near Hard Rock Cafe in Barcelona and walked down the Ramblas until we settled in on a restaurant in Placa Real.

The dinner together was a great last evening together in Spain.  We had spent 12 days touring Spain together and truly making memories.  Life doesn't get any better than this.  Renuka and I settled in an Airbnb to begin the next three days in Barcelona while they checked into an airport hotel for a flight back home.

Day 11 - Malaga

This was the day we were supposed to be in Tangiers we had to plan the whole day over.
The day was sunny and clear so it was a pleasant drive with great views of the Mediterranean Sea. Our first stop was the Castillo de Colomares in Benalmadina.  Castillo de Colomares is a monument, in the form of a castle, dedicated to the life and adventures of Christopher Columbus.  It was an interesting boat type structure overlooking the Mediterranean. It was a good place to take pictures on a sunny day.
As we were going to the Castillo de Colomares, we had noticed a Buddhist Stupa on our way to the monument so we decided to stop there next before driving to Torremolinos. Known as the Stupa Budista the stupa in Benalmádena overlooks the Costa del Sol. It is the largest stupa in Europe and was the final project of Buddhist master Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche in 2003.  The setting was beautiful, located on the side of a hill overlooking the Mediterranean.   It was cold so we didn't linger around too long but we did stop long enough to take a lot of pictures while the mesmerizing sounds of the Buddhist chants were playing in the background.

Well the next stop in Torremolinos was a bust.  We drove around for a while and I could not remember anything.  No buildings, areas or sights.   I guess I still have my memories!  Since it had started raining a bit, we made for a coffee and bio stop and continued to Malaga. On reaching Malaga, we decided to drive towards the downtown area and once we were there, we found our favorite store upon arriving ... El Corte Ingles.  Arvind was all ready to start shopping, but we were hungry and started looking for lunch options at the store.

They have a rooftop bar and food court that served many types of food.  We sat on the outdoor deck and enjoyed a delicious vegetarian meal while others had chicken dishes.   Everyone got what that liked.   As we were finishing off our lunch, it started to rain, so we had to move indoors where we promptly had coffee and pastries, a very Spanish thing to do.   I have to say, I'm going to miss my cafe con leche!

Some of the gang wanted to shop so they went shopping while Surender and I waited at the roof top food court. I took a short nap and loved it.   By the time everyone returned from shopping the weather had cleared so we decided to go for a walk through the city as the van was already parked in the El Corte Ingles garage.   This turned into a very short walk and an adventure.

A few minutes into the walk the weather turned again and it started to rain.   Anxious to not get to wet, we started walking faster to get to a covered area.  It was at this moment that Surender took a tumble when he tripped and hit his head on the pavement.  It still plays in slow motion in my head but I could not grab him in time to prevent the incident.   His forehead got a huge swelling and a bit of blood.  Luckily, we were just outside a hotel, so we went to the bar and asked for some ice so he could put the ice on the forehead to reduce the swelling.  We waited for 15-20 minutes while the swelling on the forehead went down and Surender felt better.   Of course, in the process of tripping, his glasses got bent out of shape and my effort to fix them were unsuccessful.  We had seen an optical shop on the way from El Corte Ingles so we decided to go back that way and get the glasses fixed and then drive back to the hotel resort.  This was the last night in the resort and we had to pack tonight and leave in the morning.

We needed to relax so Surender and I decided to use the sauna and steam room at the resort to unwind from the stressful day of driving and tripping!  An hour in a steam room definitely does wonders to help you relax.   The rest of the evening was packing, relaxing and planning the next day's drive to Granada airport to catch a flight to Barcelona in the evening.

Day 10 - Gibraltar

Our day started slowly due to the late night yesterday or should I say this morning.  We left at about 10 am for a drive and visit to the Rock of Gibraltar.  We arrived at 10:45 am and immediately parked near the border and began the walk to the border.  We had to show our passport to Customs and Immigration officials to enter the British Territory.  Two things were immediately clear. First, English was back as the default language but Spanish was spoken everywhere too.   Second, the official currency was the British Pound, but the Euro was accepted everywhere, with a very unfavorable exchange rate of course! 

As we got through the official checks, we walked outside.  There we met a taxi driver, with an 8-seat van, named Jackie (for some reason I kept calling him Frankie and Ruchi nicknamed him Jackie Chan).  He accosted and finally convinced us to hire him to take us up the Rock to multiple tourist attractions.  Since it was cloudy and raining lightly, we thought this was the best way to make a good day out of our visit here. As we started our trip into the city, we realized that we were driving across the runway of the Gibraltar Airport. The runway was blocked, traffic and pedestrians went across the runway into the city state of Gibraltar.

Our first stop on the Rock was St. Michael's Caves full of amazing stalactites and stalagmites. The Caves were huge with room enough to hold concerts or weddings.  The caves we saw in Okinawa last year were not as big but were longer.  The weather was really cloudy and visibility was low. We could see the harbor from the hill but not much further.  When we arrived at the WW II tunnels, we could not see past out hands.  The fog was pea soup thick and we have a video to prove it.

Walking through the WW II tunnels was nice but showed the colonial power of the British Empire that has since waned.  A lot of images showed the British officers with "dark" complexioned workers, but I see them as slaves.  A dark chapter in British history but real nonetheless. Throughout this trip to the Rock, we were also accompanied by aggressive monkeys that had been brought in from Morocco many years ago and now dominate the rock. We had to be careful not to feed them and also careful with our bags, as they are known to attack and grab the bags.

The view from the outside of the tunnels was amazing.  We had sight of the airport runway and Spain as well as the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean.  We waited in the rain to watch a plane take off and people walk across the tarmac. 

By the time we finished the tour, Jackie dropped us off on Main Street just before lunch. We found Marks and Spencer and walked in to shop.  I got interested in a nice Sombrero which I tried on and decided not to buy.  As we were leaving, Renuka commented on the hat and immediately I took it off, realizing I had forgotten to remove the hat after trying it on.

Finding a place to eat with multiple food requirements continued to be a challenge.   In our group, we have two pescatarians, one vegetarian and three regular foods (no beef, pork), which meant finding a place to eat becomes a challenge.   Today's challenge was three of us wanted to eat British fish and chips and each place had limited vegetarian food options.  Well they did have fries but it didn't seem enough! 😂

We finally found an Italian restaurant and enjoyed a really good meal of pasta, pizza and good beer.  Since it wasn't raining, we sat indoors on the second floor.  It was nice to see Arvind and the waiter getting along really well.   They exchanged quite a few pleasantries while we ordered the food!

After lunch the weather actually become better and the sun shone bright and the sky cleared up.  So this was exploring time so we all went off in different directions to shop and explore Gibraltar, but not before we went to visit a Hindu temple that seemed to be nearby.  Unfortunately, we were disappointed because it was closed to the public. 

Surender and I decided to explore the city state and check out some of the shops as well.  In walk around the streets, we found many quaint little stores, but we mostly found shops expensive shops catering to a European clientele.  Most things could be found cheaper in the US.   The one exception was clothing.  While they are more expensive, the quality and style of clothes in Gibraltar is much better.  Surender found a few items to his liking.  

One thing consistent throughout the trip to Spain, was the coffee breaks that we took.  After all the hard work of shopping and walking around we met at a Costa Coffee for coffee and pastries.  Oh, those pastries.  Coffee was good too, but oh those pastries! 🥐🥖🌰☕

It was almost 6pm and the temperature was dropping, so we decided to head back to Estapona and out hotel resort.  We walked back to the border, which involved the airport runway being closed, watching a plane take off, and then walking across the runway, as we had seen others do it earlier in the day.  This was a very unusual and windy experience.

While we were in Gibraltar my data connection was not active since my carrier does not have an agreement with the local provider.  However as soon as we crossed the border it came alive and I received an urgent message from the tour guide in Tangiers that I had made arrangement to give us a tour tomorrow.   He was letting me know that the weather in Tangiers was raining and forecast for the next day was more torrential rain.   The ferry had been canceled due to rough weather.  He was concerned that we would not enjoy the visit in the rain and possibly get stuck in Tangiers.  After a quick discussion we decided that we would make yet another change to our trip by canceling our visit to Tangiers.  Luckily, we had a great tour guide who supported or decision and we had not made any payments for the tour.  It was disappointing but we quickly adapted by going shopping at our new favorite place, El Corte Ingles.  The big mall store.  We bought groceries and souvenirs and went home.  Since we didn't have to wake up early the next morning, we are dinner late and stayed up late till about 2am and enjoyed a late morning wakeup than normal the next day.