Oh the Places We Go - The Adventures Of Joni and Gordon: October 2015

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Barcelona

October 31, 2015

Taste of Barcelona - For 2 days we have toured Barcelona utilizing the Hop on Hop off tour buses to get arounf the city and see the sites. On the second day we were fortunate enough to meet a 20 something girl who lives and works as a graphic designer in Barcelona. She told us of a scenic overlook Bunkers of Carmel where you can see a panoramic view of the city. Several of the photos are of the Sagrada Familia deaigned by the Gaudi. The church was started in the 19th century and is still being constructed today.

Barcelona has unique architecture

Cruise ship port

Tons of statues

Love these balconies

Vespas are a major mode of transportation

Beautiful boulevards

Sagrada Familia

Detailed picture of Sagrada Famila

Sagrada Familia

Another detailed view of Sagrada Famila

Balcony that I loved

View of Sagrada Familia

Scenic overlook view of the Barcelona

Park

Madrid

We spent a day in Madrid. Big city that has really small streets and sidewalks. So far not my favorite as it is very crowded.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Granada and Gibraltar

Monday, October 26, 2015

Not all travel days can be perfect and we sure had one that was far from perfect! It was raining near Malaga so we decided to head north to Granada and see the Alhambra. After 2 hours of driving through the mountains in the rain we got there and it was raining even harder. The line for tickets was huge and the people were just standing in the rain. I asked a young woman with a toddler who was standing near the front of the line and she told me the only tickets available were for the gardens in the afternoon. Gordon and I decided that just to see the outside wasn't worth the wait in the pouring rain. So we decided to go back via a little town called Nerja. It was a cute white building seaside town. We stopped by a grocery store and picked up supplies for a picnic lunch of ham, cheese, a baguette and chips. After lunch we went to a plaza that is basically a walkway along the coast. Very pretty.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Today's plan was to go to Gibraltar, a British owned peninsula, which is the closest point of land to Morocco in Africa. On a clear day you can see Morocco from it's shore as it is fairly close. Unfortunately we had another day of rain and fog. We did get to see the rock of Gibraltar up close but not Morocco. We decided to head back and check out Marbella. The drive was nice and the mountains were beautiful, as we were going into the mountains I looked over my shoulder one last time to see the rock and saw Morocco! The fog had cleared just enough! We stopped at a scenic pullout and took a few pictures. Then off to Marbella. Marbella is a nice, expensive beach town, about the same as the area we are staying in.

Nerja's Plaza Balcon de Europa

View of Mediterranean Sea from Nerja

Another mountainview at Nerja

Rock of Gibraltar

Scenic overlook outside of Gibraltar

Gibraltar with Morocco in the background

Mountains in the background are Morocco

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Ronda, the mountains and a day off

Saturday , October 24, 2015

We headed into the mountains to a small town called Ronda. Another quaint white village (pueblo blanco) with shops and restaurants only set in the mountains with a gorge running through it and aquaduct. It was a lovely drive with great scenery. We stopped at a local bar for tapas. Thankfully we have google translate as no one in the bar spoke English and with our limited Spanish who knows what we would have been eating. We had fish, wings and calamari. We drove back to Malaga through Marabella which is a really nice tourist area on the Mediterranean Sea.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Today was a resting day. We spent the morning hanging out in the condo and had lunch of paella (a spanish dish with rice, veggies and meat) at a restaurant along the beach. Then we thought we had better try to find out where to return the rental car and find the train station since we will be doing that early in the morning on Thursday. We are sooo glad we did this as our gps, gypsy, took us in the wrong direction. We even found ourselves driving into a plaza on a sidewalk where a taxi driver took pity on us and showed us the way out of the plaza. It probably wouldn't have been too bad had it not been Sunday with all of the locals, tourists and three huge cruise ships of people milling about. Needless to say it was packed with people. Time for cocktails and preparing dinner.

Mountains on the way to Ronda

Aquaduct at Ronda

Gorge that runs under the Aquaduct

Another mountainview in Ronda

Church in Ronda

Park in Ronda

Friday, October 23, 2015

Daytrip to Mijas

Friday, October 23, 2015

Today we drove to the quaint little hillside village of Mijas. It's known for it's beautiful Mediterranean Sea views, white buildings, little shops and restaurants. We strolled around taking in the view, shopped a little and stopped for a mid afternoon snack of tapas, which are small plate meals. The nachos and empanadas were yummy. The empanadas came with a BBQ sauce that tasted strangely enough like KC masterpiece. Gordon said he would have preferred Arthur Bryant's BBQ sauce (it's a Kansas City BBQ landmark).

We left Majis and headed back to Malaga for the evening. Once again we stopped at the grocery store on our way back to the condo. While in line to pay we met a gentleman (I would say he was in his 80's) from New York, a retired Federal Judge who lives here 6 months out of the year. He said he purchased his first 2 bedroom condo here for $18,000 in the 1980's. I asked if he liked it here and he said "what's not to like great weather, good food and cheap wine and the women are beautiful."

The evening is ending with some of that cheap wine and great weather on our 6th floor balcony overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

Happy Travels! Joni :)