I've got a bit of time to kill, so figure I may as well write something here. I didn't finish blogging the trip with the parents yet, and of course I've already finished the next trip. I need to get better at this.
Let's see, after we left Seville we drove south with the goal of visiting Gibraltar. Which did happen, but not as scheduled. We were staying in this town called Algeciras, across the harbor from Gibraltar, because everything actually in Gibraltar was super expensive. So we had planned to get in and go spend the afternoon in Gibraltar, but we changed our plans a bit and instead spent the afternoon driving along the south coast to visit a few cities. Our first goal was Zahara de los Atunes, this little middle-of-nowhere town that's famous for tuna. So we ate like an entire tuna and wandered around a bit. The town was completely dead. Apparently everyone leaves and everything closes in winter, and we were just a few weeks too early. But we did manage to have a fantastic meal, which was the goal. Then we drove back along the coast, making our next stop at Baelo Claudio, just up the coast (although it's like a half hour drive because for some reason there's no actual coastal road and you have to go inland). Baelo Claudio is this 2000+ year old Roman town right on the waterfront, that's been extremely well preserved. It's beautifully situated right between the beach and the mountains, so in addition to getting to climb around on some awesome ruins you also get some beautiful views. It was a pretty great stop, and particularly interesting since I really didn't realize the Roman empire extended that far. Our last stop for the evening before coming back to the hotel was in Tarifa, the southernmost point in Spain, just across from Morocco. We went to look across at Africa because we weren't going to Africa (although we did want to. You can do day trips, or hop across to Ceuta, which is on the African continent but part of Spain, and my parents would have gotten a kick out of just saying they were in Africa, but sadly we didn't have much time and it sounded like there was nothing to do in Ceuta so we just looked at Africa instead). My parents still got a kick out of seeing it, and it was actually pretty crazy to be standing there in Spain and looking across to Africa. Plus I really want to go to Morocco, so that was fun for me too. Then it was back to turn in for the night.
This was our busiest part of the trip, so we were up early the next morning to drive into Gibraltar and visit for a few hours. I got it in my head to visit, and we just wanted to go up to the rock and see something Jewish. Sadly the cable car was closed, but you can pay these tourist vans to take you up to the rock and show you around a bit, so we did do that. They stop so you can get views of Africa, which was beautiful even though we'd already seen it yesterday. Plus they stop way up at the top at the actual "Rock of Gibraltar" and let you see the monkeys. One climbed on my mother. Well, they get the monkeys to climb on you if you want, and since my mother made friends with a panda on our last trip, she figured this time she should make friends with a monkey. So she did and let it climb on her head. Then it was back down to the bottom for a quick run back to the car before running out of time on the meter. Sadly that meant we didn't see anything Jewish, but Google also made it seem like there wasn't very much to see. So we were pretty happy with the visit. Also, fun fact about Gibraltar, in order to cross from Spain you have to either walk or drive directly across the airport runway. No bridge or tunnel, literally on the runway. So we did that twice! Then we started the drive back to Portugal, with a stop in Huelva before hitting the border. I was told they're famous for their Iberian ham, so we stopped, had a snack, bought some ham, and kept going to Faro. Which I'll tell you about next time.
For now, it's music. Today's is Dyan, a band who put out their debut album, Looking for Knives, last year. I heard St. James, one of their first singles, and really liked it, so checked out the album and really liked that too.
The band formed after all having worked on various musical projects, including film scores and albums with Jim James and Ray Lamontagne. Pretty good credits, if you ask me. Although this is quite different from any of those. Anyway, really good debut album, so here's one more song from it, Trouble. This song is pretty typical of songs I love. Pretty female vocals, starting out very simply and understated, and just growing and growing to the end, and with those heavy, fuzzy guitars. Love this kind of stuff, if you hadn't already figured it out.
Let's see, after we left Seville we drove south with the goal of visiting Gibraltar. Which did happen, but not as scheduled. We were staying in this town called Algeciras, across the harbor from Gibraltar, because everything actually in Gibraltar was super expensive. So we had planned to get in and go spend the afternoon in Gibraltar, but we changed our plans a bit and instead spent the afternoon driving along the south coast to visit a few cities. Our first goal was Zahara de los Atunes, this little middle-of-nowhere town that's famous for tuna. So we ate like an entire tuna and wandered around a bit. The town was completely dead. Apparently everyone leaves and everything closes in winter, and we were just a few weeks too early. But we did manage to have a fantastic meal, which was the goal. Then we drove back along the coast, making our next stop at Baelo Claudio, just up the coast (although it's like a half hour drive because for some reason there's no actual coastal road and you have to go inland). Baelo Claudio is this 2000+ year old Roman town right on the waterfront, that's been extremely well preserved. It's beautifully situated right between the beach and the mountains, so in addition to getting to climb around on some awesome ruins you also get some beautiful views. It was a pretty great stop, and particularly interesting since I really didn't realize the Roman empire extended that far. Our last stop for the evening before coming back to the hotel was in Tarifa, the southernmost point in Spain, just across from Morocco. We went to look across at Africa because we weren't going to Africa (although we did want to. You can do day trips, or hop across to Ceuta, which is on the African continent but part of Spain, and my parents would have gotten a kick out of just saying they were in Africa, but sadly we didn't have much time and it sounded like there was nothing to do in Ceuta so we just looked at Africa instead). My parents still got a kick out of seeing it, and it was actually pretty crazy to be standing there in Spain and looking across to Africa. Plus I really want to go to Morocco, so that was fun for me too. Then it was back to turn in for the night.
This was our busiest part of the trip, so we were up early the next morning to drive into Gibraltar and visit for a few hours. I got it in my head to visit, and we just wanted to go up to the rock and see something Jewish. Sadly the cable car was closed, but you can pay these tourist vans to take you up to the rock and show you around a bit, so we did do that. They stop so you can get views of Africa, which was beautiful even though we'd already seen it yesterday. Plus they stop way up at the top at the actual "Rock of Gibraltar" and let you see the monkeys. One climbed on my mother. Well, they get the monkeys to climb on you if you want, and since my mother made friends with a panda on our last trip, she figured this time she should make friends with a monkey. So she did and let it climb on her head. Then it was back down to the bottom for a quick run back to the car before running out of time on the meter. Sadly that meant we didn't see anything Jewish, but Google also made it seem like there wasn't very much to see. So we were pretty happy with the visit. Also, fun fact about Gibraltar, in order to cross from Spain you have to either walk or drive directly across the airport runway. No bridge or tunnel, literally on the runway. So we did that twice! Then we started the drive back to Portugal, with a stop in Huelva before hitting the border. I was told they're famous for their Iberian ham, so we stopped, had a snack, bought some ham, and kept going to Faro. Which I'll tell you about next time.
For now, it's music. Today's is Dyan, a band who put out their debut album, Looking for Knives, last year. I heard St. James, one of their first singles, and really liked it, so checked out the album and really liked that too.
The band formed after all having worked on various musical projects, including film scores and albums with Jim James and Ray Lamontagne. Pretty good credits, if you ask me. Although this is quite different from any of those. Anyway, really good debut album, so here's one more song from it, Trouble. This song is pretty typical of songs I love. Pretty female vocals, starting out very simply and understated, and just growing and growing to the end, and with those heavy, fuzzy guitars. Love this kind of stuff, if you hadn't already figured it out.
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