Untitled

We have had SUCH an awesome 24 hours!!!! I could literally squeal with excitement!! :)

We started our day later, than we had originally planned to, but the 'sleep in' felt great! We have been staying up late, enjoying each place we settle into, so......it means that something has to give, somewhere along the line! :) After enjoying a good breakfast at our hotel (complimentary) .....we went touring the pretty beach city of Cadiz......we walked into the Old Town , via the beach, and took in the market (where we bought fresh strawberries to snack on and they were soooooo sweet and delicious!!!); the shopping streets; we had lunch (which included grilled sardines [bok-er-on} ),; we walked the beach (with our feet in the warm Atlantic water) back to our hotel area and then, we hit the highway, with the intention of making our way to The Rock of Gibraltar. We decided we would figure out where to spend the night, after seeing 'The Rock'!

The serene beach this morning.

This Petro, from Poland. He is a trained electrician, who does not have work right now, so he lives on the beach, sleeps on a beach chair and makes exquisite sand sculptures, which he eats coins donated to him, much like a busker. H says that he gets food and clothing from a social services- type organization and he is part of a community of sand sculptures. He is waiting to get called for a new electrician contract, but until then, he will continue living the beach lifestyle in Spain. We had met him last evening, when we were out walking, so today, we took him all the hygiene 'treats' from our hotel, like toothbrush/paste, shampoo, soap, shavers + some juice boxes, fruit and a small thing of wine. He really appreciated this. Here is a sculpture one of his friends made, of the Simpsons......

 

A scene from our walk.

The Market......

Orion....here is Gido talking to Pinocchio! :)

Lunch....grilled sardines....you eat them like you would ribs!! :)

Just a couple of points of interest regarding Cadiz......it is the oldest , continuously inhabited city in Spain.....it has been around since 1100 BC......it has SUCH history, culture and beautiful beaches! It is quite a place to be/see/experience!!)

 

The drive from Seville, yesterday, to Cadiz, sported beautiful trees on either side of the big double lane highway as well as on the median....you would think you were surrounded by forest, given the lush quality of the trees but, in actuality, outside of the single row of trees there was agricultural activity at various levels of production.....it seemed like maybe they were growing barley! We saw cultivating; early growth crops; more mature green crops; and barley that was turning yellow and looked close to being ready to harvest. There was a fair amount of irrigation happening and the crops looked healthy and 'good'!!

Today, on the drive, from Cadiz, we wove our way past various agricultural landscapes.....grain crops, ranch land with cows grazing, someone was cutting hay, and vineyards. We saw saw large solar panels in fields and extensive wind turbines.....we saw a lot of irrigation in crop fields. The terrain was beautiful and varied with amazing wild flowers adorning the roads and some fields!

Luckily, we saw a small sign for a turn off to a place our volunteer 'travel guide' (from Sevilla) suggested we HAD to see....a small place called Bolonia....we were sooooo lucky we even saw the sign and registered his suggestion! This place was incredible!!! W are soooo glad we did not miss seeing it! It is a tiny community on a sandy bay with a literal 'fountain' of soft sand rolling down to the main beach from a bizarre high, geographical point! It is a 'wonder of nature', in that it is a strip of desert, with a forest of jack pine- like trees on one side and a rock mountain on the other side. It is such a freaky geographical anomaly!! The wind is strong at this cove, which makes it a wind surfer's/ kite flyer's paradise! We walked up the sand mountain, which was about 1.5 miles up and were in awe of the view....each direction of this sand summit, sported a VERY different geographical view!! It was AMAZING....INCREDIBLE.....UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! We were sooooo glad we had decided to drive off the main road, to find this awe-provoking spot on this earth!!

Kids were jumping from high points into lower points within the dunes!

This is Lawrence at the very top of the sand summit!!

One of the views from the top...

Another view from the top, over one of the edges....

Another view from the top....

And one more.....

It was clear, that we were not going to make it to Gibralter today, so we decided we would drive along and try to find a place we would like to spend the night. We drove into the important port city of Tarifa, which we did not know what to expect......other than we knew it has a ferry that will take you to Tangier, Morocco. It turns out that Tafira IS the southern most point of Spain! (It seems we have been going from one extreme point of the coast line, to another, this whole journey!! Pretty incredible!! )

OMG (again!!!)!!!!! We were blown way at the energetic vibe in this place......it feels so ALIVE!!! So many young adults!......so many unique/quaint shops, restaurants, bars!.....so many people wandering about .....alive and yet laid back! Immediately we knew we would spend the night! We found a hotel, right in the middle of the 'old town' district, but, we were told it was full and the lady we talked to said she owns 3 hotels here and all were full, due to this being a long weekend. We felt strongly that we would prefer to stay in this inviting quaint 'old town' area and we saw a sign for a 'HOSTAL' ....we thought, "What the heck....let's check it out!" Our only criteria, for taking it, was that it had to have a private bathroom. WELL!!!!....this place called ' HOSTAL LA CALZADA' is beautiful and perfect and SUCH an amazing gem!!! It is CLEAN....it is very warm and quaint.......it is cheap (45 euro/ night)...... It has a large private bathroom, with a bidet, tiny tub/shower/ sink, etc......it has a balcony that overlooks the narrow side street it is on......it has WiFi.....AND there is free parking about 1 block away!!!!!!! Unbelievable find!! :) :) :) !!!!!! (Laura.....we thought you would be VERY PROUD OF US!!! :) ).

The lady at the reception desk, recommended a place for us to eat supper....it was definaely 'off the main track' and it was so great! Good food....lots of it....and inexpensive! (We had fresh calamari [Lin....I thought of you as we ate these]....croquette de polo....grilled shrimp and a salad!)

We quickly decided we HAVE to stay here 2 nights because there is sooooo much we want to see and experience!

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy