European Adventure: Conclusion

So Spain was amazing! Here's what happened next:

We left Ronda and headed south and drove along the beach past Malaga to a little beach town called Torrox (close to Nerja). We didn't actually bring beach towels with us, so we showed up amidst the crowds of people with their beach chairs and chaise lounges, and set out our hand towels and sat down. Fortunately, we found a grassy area, so the hand towels were adequate (but it was pretty funny).

After a lovely afternoon at the Mediterranean, we drove up to Granada and went on a moonlit tour of El Alhambra. We didn't know what to expect, and were pretty much blown away at the intricate decorations on the walls and ceilings. A very impressive building. We stayed the night in Granada, woke up late the next morning and had a lovely breakfast (at noon) of churros dipped in hot chocolate pudding (good, but could have used WAY more sugar) and gazpacho. It turns out that I really like gazpacho--it really hits the spot on a hot day.

Justin doesn't count a vacation a vacation unless he's climbed there...so he found a random mountain called El Chorro, and we headed off the beaten path to find it. We expected it to be in the middle of nowhere, and thought it was more than likely that we'd have to sleep in the car. In fact, when we saw a sign for El Chorro right in front of a tiny dirt road, we assumed that was the turn off. We took our little Ford Fiesta off-roading a little ways before seeing a road down below and deciding that maybe we should try that instead. It turned out that El Chorro is actually a major Spanish tourist attraction, much like Zion National Park combined with Lake Powell. (There are huge limestone rock faces and a really deep reservoir in the middle of the desert.) It also turned out we didn't have to sleep in the car because there was a sweet resort called La Garganta that had lovely little apartementos for us to rent. We liked it so much we stayed two days. The first day we went climbing with our chain-smoking, f-bomb dropping climbing guide, Sergio (the highlight of the trip for Justin.) And the next day we spent swimming at the clean, beautiful, not-too-cold lake (the highlight of the trip for me). We were going to climb up to this little pathway built across the gorge at El Chorro, but I had a last-moment panic attack, so we didn't do it.

Instead, we drove back toward Rota to catch our flight--which we thought would be around 8pm the next night. We stopped in Jerez de la Fontana to sleep for the night. Fortunately for us, we woke up at nine that morning (an hour or two earlier than the rest of the trip...it turns out that in Spain, they stay up late!) and called the air-base, because the flight had been moved up to 11:25 am instead. We high-tailed it back to Rota with just enough time, only to find a sign at the car rental shop that said, "Back at 11:30." STRESS!! We started booking it (with all our stuff) onto the base to sign in, and then we'd worry about the rental car after that. Fortunately, a nice family in a minivan stopped and asked if we needed a ride, and they drove us to the terminal on the base. Once we were checked in, Justin ran back to the rental car place and returned the car, and then ran back. Let's just say he was kind of sweaty. :) But we made it on the flight, and got back Sunday night.

It was a perfect week adventure! Click here to see the pictures.

European Adventure, Days 2 and 3: Arcos and Ronda

So we actually made it to Spain! We sat at the terminal at Dover pretty much all day Monday, but for some reason, it didn´t seem that bad. There were a bunch of nice people there (some of whom had been waiting for 5 days to make it on a flight). We flew on a C5--which is a huge cargo plane. It was pretty awesome. The best part was that there was enough room to lie down on the floor and go to sleep.



We made it to Spain early Tuesday morning, rented a car, and headed out to the hill towns of Andalucia. We went to Arcos de la Frontera in the morning (a beautiful white-washed city built on the side of a cliff, with small winding roads similar to venice). Then we set off to the next little town, Ronda, and that´s about when we hit a wall. Not literally, although, driving in Spain where we don´t know what any of the traffic sign mean, it´s probably fortunate that we didn´t hit a wall. And that we´ve actually found our way to the places we want to go. Anyway, we were both about to fall asleep by the time we made it to Ronda...so we found a hotel and took a nap.



We spent the evening wandering around the beautiful little village, again white-washed and built on the side of a cliff with an impressive bridge across a gorge. Anyway, this afternoon we´re heading to Granada, and tomorrow we are going to do some rock climbing. So fun!