TARIFICA!!!

We have savoured this day (Friday May 3), spent in Tarifa!! It is the place where the Mediteranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean meet. The actual spot for where this marriage takes place is called Isla De Las Palamos.

We learned, today, that Tarifa IS the most southern point of Europe! It is 16.4 km to Morocco, which takes approximately 35 minutes to get there, by ferry. We decided not to go, for a number of reasons and were glad, for this decision, after we talked with someone, who has lived here for many years, and he strongly discouraged a trip into Tangier, for just a few hours. We will plan to go, just to Morroco, for it's own adventure, some day! We enjoyed looking at it across the sea, today!! :)

Lawrence's finger marks the spot, of where we were today.

Here is the walkway to get onto the Isle De Las Palomas.

Here is Lawrence dipping his feet in the COLD Mediterranean Sea!

And me....embracing the wind, while looking out toward Africa!

Here is the Atlantic Ocean!

It was a VERY windy day here......we have a feeling it is often very windy, which is why this place is a major draw for wind/kite surfing. We enjoyed watching them scoot about,on the water, throughout this day! There are many, many shops and schools related to the surfing lifestyle/sport here!

We strolled throughout the maze of narrow, cobblestone streets, especially in the old town......shopping, browsing, stopping for coffee/a drink. We walked their beautiful promenade, along another gorgeous, sandy beach!

 

 

 

We stopped for the VERY best lunch we have had, since being in Europe! It was a tiny outdoor cafe, just a few steps away from our hostal....

We had two AMAZING salads.....mine had falafels, pakoras(which were soooooooo good, actually one of the best flavours I have EVER experienced!!.....made with chickpeas, grated carrots, onion and very interesting spices), hummus, salad greens, tomatoes, onions, goat cheese, pitas and the most amazing dressing! Lawrence's, had avacodo, tons of greens and fresh vegetables, goat cheese, oranges and pita.

We loved this meal so much, we decided to go to her evening cafe (different location) for supper, where we totally enjoyed another great salad, grilled dorado (fish) and chocolate cake for dessert......

 

 

This was our last meal in Tarifa.....it was a wonderful celebration of a great experience!

 

We had a lot of fun shopping in this lady's Morrocan leather shop!!

Lawrence loves leather, as you can see from the treasures he picked out!! :-)

 

Look at this amazing building, which is right at the end of the bigger street that our little HOSTAL side street connects with. If you were to go in the direction of the man, you see in this pic, you would come to our HOSTAL!

This is the castle that looks out, over the Srait of Gibraltar, facing Africa, with the Mediterranean sea on the east and the Atlantic on the west. Soooo much history!!

We have decided not to go to the Rock of Gibraltar.....everyone here says it is a huge tourist trap that does not offer you much for the money you pay to get in. Instead, we slowed our pace and strolled/explored the streets of Tarifa, soaked up it's marvellous ambiance/energy and are preparing to return to Sevilla in the morning, where we will shop/explore and then, get back to our beautiful Tavira for 5:20 PM, when our car is due back at the rental place.

As we prepare to leave this incredible place, we leave saying clearly, that Tarifa is definitely TARIFICA!!!! :) :) :)

 

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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!

 

 

 

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Sunset in Cadiz.....

We have enjoyed a day of travel into Spain! It was a great, quick and easy trip, on the really big highway, from Tavira. Our first exploration stop, after a quick pit stop to pick up a map at a small town gas station, was Sevilla! Literally EVERYONE we asked about Sevilla, said they loved it and what a nice city it is, the thing is they did not just say this.....their face would melt into a smile, with kind of a soft glaze in their eyes and a dreamy tone to their voice, as they said it!! This was every, single person.....so we knew it had to be true!

We were a bit worried about finding our way to the 'right' part of the city for a quick, 'Coles Notes version' of a visit......you know the place.....quaint, yet traditional.....unique shopping area....the heart and pulse of a great city. We were very fortunate to have found it right away and not only were we lucky about that, we had a very friendly man notice us looking at a map, once we parked and were heading out, on foot, who asked us if we needed some help finding somewhere. Well....he ended up being so very helpful, not only related to Sevilla, but he offered some very interesting suggestions for where we should go, outside of Sevilla! His suggestions were not on our 'planned route' for these 3 days but, hey......he seemed to be very knowledgable and very invested in making our visit to Spain, an interesting, beautiful and memorable one! E decided to let him be 'the wind' that directed our journey into this new and beautiful country!! :) Here is a picture of him and I......

Today (May 1st) is apparently a big civic holiday in Portugal and Spain (& maybe other European countries as well??....) it is "Worker's Day"..... We somehow missed the memo about this, so.....we arrived in Sevilla on a store-closed day! This was too bad because I really wanted to shop for some beautiful Spanish leather boots!!! This 'closed' status did not hamper the amazing 'energy' in the parks.....at the outdoor cafes.....and in the stunning garden/street squares! There was a vivid 'hum' of laid-back-let's-enjoy-this-worker's-day-off-work energy everywhere and it was WONDERFUL! We walked about the streets a little bit.....had lunch .....witnessed a bridal party celebrate a young bride's up and coming marriage and devised a plan that involved heading out to another part of Spain (as suggested by our impromptu travel guide/friend) and return to shop and explore Sevilla, on Friday, for a full day.

 

We arrived in the exquisite small city of Cadiz, which is a peninsula on one of the farthest south points of Spain. It is LITERALLY encased by 14 kilometres of soft, sandy beach!!! Seriously.....this place is amazing.....the sand is the space between the city perimeter and the Atlantic Ocean!! We arrived in the late afternoon to find people 'playing' on the beach.....volley ball, sand castles, jogging, fishing, swimming, walking/strolling, sunning, and it looked like some nooky as well!!! It was 'alive' with the energy of people who love the beach and were really into it!! We were, once again, in awe of this new shade of 'BEAUTIFUL'!!

We took our sandals off, walked the sandy shoreline, for a couple of miles, dipping our feet into this corner of the Atlantic Ocean!! Once again, the water was clear and the waves were lapping vs.crashing! It was so beautiful, we decided to spend the night here, so..... we booked into a hotel that is about 50 steps from the sandy beach and we are, now,wonderfully settled into this comfortable place. After watching a exquisite sun set on the beautiful beach of Cadiz (sitting on the sand with a glass of vihno) and then, walking along the promenade (which is right at the sand's edge) for over an hour (being wonderfully entertained by the harmonic chorus of many different languages, spoken all around us), exploring the way to 'the Old Town' (which we plan to spend some time in tomorrow morning), we sat on our balcony enjoying a glass of wine, before settling into our room. Our 'travel guide' told us there is an amazing market in the 'old town', so we will rise to the shine of the sun on the water, tomorrow morning, and head out to absorb the rich beauty of this stunning little city! :).

 

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