Spain 2010

We found our way via metro to the old town in Lisbon and completed the Rick Steves walk by lunch. We had lunch and then came back to the hotel to cool down in the pool and then rested. Tonight we had a great portuguese dinner - we were able to try a lot of things, including a Portugeuse Paella, a must. We will leave for home in the morning and will conclude our tour. Lots of wine, food, friends, views, pictures. Will be good to get home where the weather is a little cooler and hopefully, I can recover from my sun stroke, or whatever it was.

Ciao!

We were able to play golf at the Vila Sol Golf course, however, I got very sick with a fever, sun stroke I think, and ended up waiting in the shade on the last 4 holes for Barb to finish. We spent the rest of the day inside where I tried to recover and get cool. The next morning we went by train to Lisbon and arrived about 1:30pm. We found the Metro and arrived at the hotel by foot, drenching because it is so warm here, by Denver standards, even though it was only about 90. We went to the pool to cool off and laid low. This morning we are planning to take the Metro to the old city of Lisbon this morning and do the Rick Steves #1 walking tour. We leave for Denver tomorrow morning and should be back late tomorrow night (Denver time).

Early morning walk in Sevilla.

This is a picture of the outside of the Cathedral. Tonight is our last night with the tour group. We head for Faro in the morning and plan to play golf torrow afternoon at Vila Sol. I will try to upload a video to see if that works on this site.

This is a picture from inside the cathedral in Sevilla. Sorry about the quality of the picture from my iPhone. We had a long day today and are starting to feel very tired. We are heading out to a Flamenco show near the hotel that starts at 9:00pm. We tour the Alcazar tomorrow and end our tour with a group dinner. Barb and I will be heading to Faro, Portugal to play golf and then on to Lisbon.

This is the view from our hotel room patio over looking the gorge in Arcos.

This was the view from our hotel in Morocco. You can see the port, beach, and city of Tangiers. It was definitely a unique experience. We spent the first day wondering what the heck were we doing there, but it grew on us and by the end we left appreciating it more. We (Mark, Heather, Barb, me and another tourmate named Rogene) had a great experience with a man named Mohamad who showed up outside our hotel wearing a long tunic and Fez hat, said he was a friend of Aziz, our guide, who is also a friend of Rick Steves. Long story short he was just a typical hustler, but insisted on showing us to the store to buy postage. He took us through the Kasbah and would stop to show us where Tennessee Williams lived, where Matisse lived, where the Rolling Stones recorded the album Continental Drift, etc.. 45 minutes later we got our stamps and postcards and he got us back to the hotel. For a few Euro we tipped him he got us safely thru the Kasbah and back. It was worth it for the experience. We are now in Arcos de la Frontera and just finished dinner and back at the hotel. We have wireless in our room so are trying to catch up with email and my blog.

This is a picture of our breakfast this morning on the patio of our hotel in Morocco. Sorry for such a short note, but we have limited access to wifi.

Here we are at the Rock of Gilbralter on our way to Tarifa. This morning we head to Morocco on the ferry boat. We walked to the beach at sunrise to touch both the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Morocco should be an interesting experience.

Today's front page from Granada newspaper...I hate when that happens.

Today we toured the Alhambra and gardens which were amazing. We had Indian food for lunch and planning to meet for paella for dinner. Tomorrow we head for Tarifa and will board the ferry boat to Morocco. We will be in Tangiers for 2 nights. This is a picture of Heather & Mark, Dennis & Jean, and Barb and I, known as the "Hearty Party".

This is a picture of the view we had of the Alhambra for dinner. We have not had access to the Internet for a few days so sorry for being late with an update.

This is a picture of Barb at the Egyptian Ruins in Madrid. This morning we leave for Toledo and will tour the Cathedral and Alcazar.

Egypt Ruins

Today we walk to the Prado museum and visit the Royal Palace. Our hotel is located in the Puerto Del Sol and easy walking distance to many sites. Some of our group are going to the bull fights this evening, but because it is sold out they are buying scalped tickets at a premium, 60 Euros, 4 times their face value! We're opting to have cervezas on the plaza.

This is a picture of the Roman Aqueduct in Segovia that was built in the first century. The main course tonight was hard for us to eat. The suckling pig was served with it's little piggy feet still attached splayed out flat. The consistency was not what we expected, a little mushy and my portion had a lot of fat-not very heart smart. Besides, we couldn't forget thinking about the fetal pigs we disected in high school biology.... Poor Arnold! Dessert was 2 flavors of ice cream topped with a hot chocolate sauce with a hint of lavender. Wine was local to the region, and a ton of it. After dessert drinks included cafe con leche and an apple liquor.

Segovia Aqueduct