Day 241 April 2 2015 Barcelona Spain

at the aquarium in Barcelona

close to the aquarium

Ciutadella Park

balance contest with Isabel

A good climbing tree in the Ciutadella Park

Day 241  April 2  2015  Barcelona  Spain

The highlight of the day was going to the aquarium.  It was ok but nothing compared to the Atlanta or Toronto aquariums.  What was impressive is the number of super yachts docked in the harbour next to the aquarium.  After the aquarium we walked to the Ciutadella park so we could walk around it.  Isabel played at the playground for a while then we returned to the Apartment for supper.

Day 240 April 1 2015 Barcelona Spain

finally eating paella in Spain

Day 240  April 1  2015  Barcelona  Spain

We drove from Casa de los Pinos to Barcelona Spain with a stop in Valencia for paella.  We ate at a restaurant in the center of the city and the food was OK but not fantastic. We had booked a hostal to stay at in Barcelona.  The hostal had good reviews and we had reserved a room with two bunk  beds and a private bathroom.  When we got to our room there were 4 very short cots set up in what looked like common room.  The door to the room did not even have a number on it and there was no bathroom.  We imediatly returned to reception only to be told that there was a problem and they did not have the room available.  We got our money back and found a nice apartment hotel complete with a washing  machine 1 block from Plaza Espana for the same money.  We did have to pay an extra 15 euros for parking a night but it was well worth it.

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.