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Italy Travel Update Issue #15, November 26, 2003

I think it is amazing that I finally have found time to work on another travel update, and it is exactly one month to the day since I wrote my last one. This update, however, will be limited to discussing a few matters from my final week in Rome (last week in October) and my trip to Spain during the first week of November (which will certainly make this update long enough!).

When I last exited the stage in my prior update, I had a sore throat, which indeed turned out to be the precursor to a cold. Compared to others I've had, it was a mild one, but it wiped me out for a couple of days, leaving me just enough energy to finish my packing and other chores before driving to Lucca and back (with an overnight break), which was a 7-hour ordeal going there, and a more normal 4 1/2 hour trip back. My cold was, thankfully, short in duration, so I was in good shape for touring in Spain.

And tour we did. In fact, in that one week we visited three countries (with one on an entirely different continent)! All due to the fact that we were in southern Spain, with our home base in the luxury resort town of Marbella (no, none of us has any significant amounts of money, just my sister has the ability to do time-share exchanges all over the world for a very reasonable sum). We had a rental car and spent a significant amount of time in it, driving to the places we wanted to see. The weather was optimal, warm enough during the daytime, not too cold at night, mostly sunny or no worse than partly cloudy.

We initially tried to go to Gibralter on Monday (our first full day there), which is under British control, and so was technically a trip to the United Kingdom. Alas, for the first time in some 50-odd years, the Spanish border guards decided to close the border. As we learned, even in the best of times, the Spanish really don't like the fact that the Rock is not theirs to do with as they will, and so the border guards play politics and cause traffic delays for those coming and going to the isthmus by car.

The drastic step of closing the border, however, was caused by a British cruise ship that had docked in Gibralter, a ship on which half the passengers had come down with some stomach virus. The Spaniards claimed that they were worried about this unknown disease spreading into their territory, and that the closure was advised by their chief medical official. They threatened to keep the border closed for 45 days, but by the next morning they had opened the border, after the cruise ship took to the high seas to head back to Britain.

Thwarted in our efforts to visit Gibralter that day, we looked at a map and decided to head for Cadiz. We ate a late but much needed lunch, then wandered around the town, which reminded me of many medieval Italian towns I've seen. Due to our late arrival, followed by a late lunch, we managed to miss getting into any attractions, but we enjoyed walking the streets and the shoreline promenade. Definitely a town that I'd go back to explore some more, another trip.

Tuesday, having heard that Gibralter's borders were open again, we headed back down there. We took the cable car (mid-size and I steadfastly looked at everyone's shoes while it was in motion) to the top of the Rock and walked and walked and walked to the various things to see from the top on down. The views were wonderful (see photo above): though there was a big dark cloud hanging over the top of Gibralter, you can see everything down below and along the mainland coast.

We had some negative experiences with the Rock Apes -- one jumped on my shoulder when I wasn't looking and scared me because I couldn't tell what it was doing or wanted; then another jumped on my sister's friend and starting yanking on her hair when she was trying to help me dislodge the one on my shoulder. We thought the Siege Tunnels and St. Michael's Cave were cool, but we were rather pooped by the time we made it back to the midpoint for the return cable car ride (more shoe watching for me). We rested back at the bottom in town with a late lunch/early dinner, then sat in the traffic delays caused by the border guards as we tried to leave Gibralter.

Wednesday, we decided to not only visit another country, but a whole different continent: Africa. We drove to the main port for the ferries to Morocco and took one to Tangier. Alas, as with our trip so far, our timing was a bit off and we missed the fast ferry and spent over 2 hours on the slow one. That didn't give us much more than a couple of hours in Tangier (even with the unexpected bonus of an hour's time difference in our favor) before we had to catch a ferry back, in order to reach home at a reasonable hour. We hired a guide who took us around the city, through the very interesting markets and to various shopping points, as well as past mosques and an ancient cypress tree (see us in front of it in the photo above).

I would have preferred to skip the shopping and spend more time just wandering and absorbing the atmosphere, watching the people, seeing the market goods, but majority rule voted for the guide and so we were subject to his shopping stops. He was very informative, though, and spoke excellent English, having lived in America for some time. So he gave us plenty of information that our guidebooks certainly didn't have to offer, and he kept us to the schedule we set for him and got us back to the ferry in time.

Thursday, we drove to Granada (our home base was generally an hour to two plus hours from the destinations we wanted to reach, but it was in the middle of them, so we could reach quite a few places, it just took a bit of time to get to each one and back), and spent most of our time there exploring El Alhambra, a huge Moorish fortress city up on the hill above the old city. It was magnificent, lots of things to see, beautiful gardens as well as incredibly ornate palaces (see photo above left), amazing views of the city and the Sierra Nevada mountain range (snow-capped just recently). We also visited the Cathedral in the old town, which I really liked, and wandered the streets a bit. Another place that I would go back to in a heartbeat and spend a few days exploring the streets, neighborhoods and other cultural sites.

Friday, we were wearing down, but determined. We went to Sevilla, which seemed closer than Granada but took us just about as long to drive there. We somehow managed to find our way to the parking garage right next to the bull ring, a world-famous bull ring. So that was our first stop, and it was a very pretty place (you can take a tour when there are no bullfights), but smaller than we had expected. We then had some lunch and went to the Cathedral, which was immense and stuffed with so much art and decoration that I was rather overwhelmed. It took a couple of hours just to see everything, by which time the place was closing (an hour early because of some festival we knew nothing about).

I really liked the bell tower, easiest one I've ever climbed, just keep walking up a ramp enclosed in the walls until you reach the top and a couple of steps out to the views. No need for my fear of open heights or vertiginous climbs to wake up at all (see one of the views from the tower in photo at right). We then split up for awhile, as the others wanted to shop and I just wanted to do what I love to do best, wander the narrow street alleys of the old city. I think Sevilla is my number one choice return destination, even more so than Granada. Wonderful atmosphere, pretty streets and plazas, it was lovely in the evening lights.

Saturday, our final day, we slept in (ahhhh), and then just went into Marbella's old town to explore and do some final shopping. We had a lovely lunch in the Plaza de Los Naranjos, the main square in the old center, and easily covered the relatively few streets of the old center. We hopped back in the car and drove over to the principal port for Marbella, Porto Banus, to ogle the yachts of the exceptionally rich, then headed back home to pack and relax for the evening.

It was a very busy week, covering a lot of territory in a short time, but I think we really got a feel for southern Spain. The history still confuses me, as the cities there changed hands, kingdoms, empires, etc. many times in their various pasts. However, I would love to have the opportunity to go back to Cadiz, Granada, Sevilla and visit some of the smaller towns we didn't get to, and learn more about them and their amazing pasts. All in all, an excellent trip.

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