Day 239 Mar 31 2015 Casas de los Pinos Spain

Castillo de Garcimunoz

view from hill near Alarcon 

watch tower and old castle in Alarcon Spain

view from partway up watch tower

watch tower yard

Day 239  Mar 31  2015  Casas de los Pinos  Spain

As we were expecting to be visiting Evy’s friend for the majority of the day we had booked a hotel that was 150 km from Ciudad Real in the town of Casas de los Pinos.  The town has less than 600 people in it and we were expecting there to be nothing to see around.   We were happy to be wrong and we found a very cool medieval town close by.   We went to see Castillo de Garcimuñoz but found it closed so we then drove to the town of Alarcon which looked like something out of history as we were approaching it.  Some of the houses in the town had a small tree branches in the windows.  I am sure that it has something to do with the holy week but it was much more fun to tell the kids it was to keep werewolves away (let’s see how they sleep tonight). 

Day 238 Mar 30 2015 Ciudad Real Spain

climbing the stairs to the observation platform

view from the top

olive tree

Day 238  Mar 30  2015  Ciudad Real  Spain

The first activity of the day was to climb the many steps to access the observation platform that overlooked the town of Cambil.  The view was good as you could see the entire town, the olive orchards that surrounded the town as well as the small mountains in the background.  We then drove to Ciudad Real to visit Evy's friend.  At the hotel Evy checked her email only to discover that her friend had an emergency and had to stay in Madriad and would not be back in Ciudad Real until Wednesday.   Evy wanted to eat Paella in Spain for her birthday but it did not go well.  In Spain it seems most restaurants open from 12 noon till 4:30 or 5 and may or may not open for the evening.  If they open for the evening it is typically from 8 pm till 11 pm.  We also discovered that a lot of the places that do serve paella only make it on Sunday.  We ended up eating sandwiches in the hotel room and then going to the pool for an hour.

Day 237 Mar 29 2015 Cambil Spain

really old tiles at La Alhambra

look'en good

enterance gate at La Alhambra

sliding down the staircase room on top of the fort

a cool round building at La Alhambra (also known as Charles V's palace)

Day 237  Mar 29  2015  Cambil Spain

We drove to Granada to tour the walled city of Alhambra.  We could not get the general tickets that let us access the palace as they were sold out.  We ended up with garden tickets that gave access to everything other than the palace.  The gardens were nice and the old fort we went into was also nice but not very impressive.  There was a glass wall that let you see into the palace area and we were happy that we did not get tickets to the palace.  It was enough to see what we saw and the kids and I were happy to leave.  I believe that Alhambra is one of the most visited sites in Spain for history.  I think it holds the same kind of status as Chichen Itza as it is the most famous ruins in the respective country but not the most interesting.

Day 236 Mar 28 2015 Manilva Spain

Pillars of Hercules

view from inside the siege tunnels

one of the siege tunnels

Moorish Castle 

3 country picture with Gibraltar, Morocco and Spain from top of castle 

the monkey ran over to be in the pic

Day 236  Mar 28  2015  Manilva Spain

We crossed into Gibraltar today and toured the Rock of Gibraltar.  The first stop was St. Michael’s Cave.  There are several legends associated with the cave and the rock.  The first being that the cave is bottomless.  The second that the cave is one end of the Ley tunnel which passes under the Strait of Gibraltar, and that is how the Barbary Macaques arrived in Europe.  The third legend is that the Rock of Gibraltar is one of the legendary Pillars of Hercules.  The second stop of the day was the Great Siege Tunnels which were dug out by the British during the 18^th century for the war against the French and the Spanish.  The tunnels were set up with displays that showed some of the activities that would have gone on in the tunnels.  The third stop of the day was the World War II tunnels.  The tunnels were constructed and provisioned to hold up to 16000 troops.  In all there are 55 km of tunnels in the rock of Gibraltar.  Our last stop of the day was the Moorish Castle that was built in the 8^th century.  It shows the importance of Gibraltar as a defensive position for the past many centuries.  We also saw lots of Macaques and even had one jump through the window of our car.  We were outside the car at an observation point and had left the windows open.  The Macaque jumped in and stole our garbage bag, complete with garbage.  We were fortunate that he did not take Evy’s purse and all our passports. 

Day 235 Mar 27 2015 Manilva Spain

Christobel Isabel

The ships that discovered the new world

I should have picked a bigger stump to sit on!

Christopher Columbus

Day 235  Mar 27  2015  Manilva Spain

We drove from Faro Portugal to Manilva Spain with a stop in Palos de la Frontera.  It was from Palos in 1492 that Columbus departed on his first voyage to find a western route to the East Indies...... and the rest is history. 

Day 234 Mar 26 2015 Faro Portugal

The walk into the ruins

selfie at Troia |Ruins

Photo Bomb

On the walk back to the car

looking at a cork tree

Day 234  Mar 26  2015  Faro Portugal

We drove to the Quinta da Regaleria ( Regaleira Palace); however by the time we got there it was raining quite hard so we decided to skip it and begin our drive to Faro.  As we were driving we saw a highway sign advertising the Troia Roman Ruins.  We decided to make the 50 km trip to see them.  When we got to the site it was closed for the season so we walked the 2.4 km into the ruins only to discover that there was a fence around the site.  Evy and the kids played on the beach while I went to explore if I could find an easy way in.  Along the beach there was a very low gate that was easy to get over.  I took a few selfies of the ruins then rejoined everybody on the beach.   We then returned to the car and continued our drive towards Faro.  The walk was through a forest and was very enjoyable as there was nobody else around and the temperature was decent. 

Day 233 Mar 25 2015 Estoril Portugal

Europe's most westerly  point

Castelo dos Mouros

Castelo dos Mouros

Palacio Nacional da Pena Entrance

A window inside the Pena Palace

an intense game of checkers between rival factions! 

Day 233  Mar 25  2015  Estoril Portugal

Our first stop of the day was at Cabo do Roca which is the most westerly point in Europe.  The view from the cliff was very beautiful with large waves crashing into the shore blow.  It was extremely windy and the strong gusts would make you stager.  We also visited the Castelo dos Mouros which is the ruins of a castle built from the 9^th century onward by the Moors.  It was crazy windy there and the wind almost knocked Isabel off of a high walkway on the castle walls and then the wind blew Isabel down some stairs.  It was a good thing she was just starting to ascend the stairs when it happened so she only went down a few steps.  I held her hand very tightly after that when we got to areas of high wind.  The last stop of the day was at the Palacio Nacional da Pena.  The palace started life as a monastery and was converted into a palace by King Ferdinad II.  The king decided that he needed more room and had a large addition constructed.  In the evening I played ping pong and checkers with the kids in the hotel games room while Evy cooked us supper.

Day 232 Mar 24 2015 Estoril Portugal

an old bridge we stopped to look at

Castle in Elvas Portugal

Narrow streets in the town of Elvas

give me that camera!

500 year old acuaduct

Day 232  Mar 24  2015  Estoril Portugal

We left Salamanca Spain in the morning and stopped at a few places on the way when we saw something that looked interesting.  The closer we got to Lisbon the hotter the temperature got.  When we started driving in the morning the temperature was at 1 deg C., when we got to Lisbon the temperature was at 16 deg C.  I think we can stop driving south now and start doing the tourist thing and enjoy Europe.  We stopped in Elvas Portugal for a few hours to tour a Castle that was initially constructed sometime before 1166 ad.  There was also the remains of an impressive 7790 meter long aqueduct that was inaugurated in 1692. 

Day 231 Mar 23 2015 Salamanca Spain

What are we doing here??

I could have stayed in Canada for this!

Day 231  Mar 23  2015  Salamanca Spain

We drove from Bayonne France to Salamanca Spain passing through quite a bit of snow.  We were planning on stopping at a few places. The miserable weather changed our minds and we did not stop to see any sites.

Day 230 Mar 22 2015 Bayonne France

Walking around a park in France

Walking trails by Prieure De Cayac

Statue at Prieure De Cayac

how do we turn on the heat?

beach treasures in Saint Julien en Born

Day 230  Mar 22  2015  Bayonne  France

We drove the back roads between Bordeaux and Bayonne passing along the Compostella route for a good portion of the day.  We stopped for a walk at Prieure De Cayac which is a church and hospital built somewhere around 1210 to serve the people on pilgrimage to Saint Jacques de Compostela.  We had a picnic lunch at La chapelle Saint Roch du Muret, one of the old churches that served the pilgrims that walked the route.  David started eating but his tooth hurt so we decided to pull it out ( it was ready).  As I was tying a piece of dental floss around it David asked me if I was going to pull it.  I said we would tie it to the car door and he could slam the door.  As soon as I got it tied I yanked the string and pulled the tooth out.  David was relieved to have the tooth out and had no more problems eating. We stopped for a walk along the sea side in Saint Julien En Born, it was cold and windy but still pretty.  Our original plan was to drive to Pamplona Spain but we decided it was stupid to drive in the dark and not see the country, so we got a hotel in Boyonne.

Day 229 Mar 21 2015 Bordeaux France

along the Loire River in France

Day 229  Mar 21  2015  Bordeaux  France 

The first thing we did when we work up was to book a hotel on Expedia for the night.  We spent the day driving along the Loire River from Orleans to Tours admiring the beautiful country side and the amazing chateaus and antique churches.  We ate lunch in the parking lot of a grocery store and supper at a highway rest stop.  Once we got to Tours we got on the toll highway and drove to our hotel in Bordeaux.  Once we arrived at the hotel we found it dark with no one in reception.   The notes on Expedia stated that if you were expecting a late check in contact the hotel.  We were not expecting to arrive late but did arrive just before 10 pm.  We contacted Expedia and they could do nothing for us.  We ended up booking a second hotel where we spent the night.  When we got to the hotel, I called Visa to try to stop the charges but was too late.  I was told I would have to call back during business hours to dispute the charges.