The Rock Hotel Gibraltar
A quick live cross from The Rock Hotel (yes this is what happens when you have easy and constant internet access!)
We’re just going for a swim (well daughter is) after scoffing High Tea on the Wisteria Terrace of The Rock Hotel, having just spent the day arriving from Spain. No stamp in the passport though, so disappointing. I did try to talk them into it!
We been to the top of the Rock, we’ve been to the bottom.
We’ve seen the monkeys, and we’ve walked through the military tunnels.
An action packed, day by all accounts.
Tomorrow we head to Morocco. 10am Ferry in the morning.
Africa, here we come (again)…can’t wait.
ps speaking of Morocco and the internet… there probably won’t be nearly as many blog posts over the next two weeks as I expect access to be very limited, especially in the desert, on camels!
how exciting…
Ronda, help help me…
no not really, couldn´t get the song out of my head though!
We have spent today lunching al fresco, in the delightful sunshine, admiring the view of the oldest bull ring, and then spending time not only in it, but on it.
Whilst I didn´t think the whole bull fighting thing would be remotely interesting… I was wrong, it was fascinating. The tradition, the history, the atmosphere, the colour were all palpable, even though the first bull fight does not start in Ronda until the 10th of April for this year. There is a whole season of bull fighting from then on. As to who lasts and is able to fill pending dates on the calendar depends on the bull, pretty much!
We had also spent time on a guided tour around the bull ring in Seville, however the Ronda one is older by 13 years, but who´s counting when we´re talking centuries! And we were able to walk on the Ronda one, which made it even more tantalising.
The daughter pretended to be a matador! (as you do) and had a wee crowd in the stands shouting “ole!”… rather humorous really
Interestingly enough, this year on the Seville program, there features one female (whoa!) and a non-Spaniard (German/French). Who´d have thought a form of globalisation and affirmative action could effect such a stalwart of tradition. Of course the other begging question is, why would you want to?
We continued to dawdle atop of the Puento Nuevo… no mean feat in bridge building I can assure you.
The other big deal happening both here, and in Seville (in fact I think its happening all over Spain), is the “Semena Santa“. Huge processions and festivities around Palm Sunday (of the Christian persuasion). A very impressive sight, although I don´t get it, but then I didn´t try to hard…click on this link for details http://www.sevillaonline.es/english/seville-city-centre/semana-santa_holy-week.htm
Tomorrow we´re off to Gibraltar, passports at the ready.
One night there, and then onto Morocco. Not sure what the internet access will be like there, we´ll just have to wait and see…
Good red wine!… adios!
Ronda (& red wine), via Seville…
Ola!
We´re currently sitting in a bar (and yes it´s 12:35) in Ronda www.enfrentearte.com typing to my little hearts content, waiting for our rooms to be finished cleaning. We got here a little earlier than planned, from Seville. Pity we weren´t here longer than one night as everything is “gracias”, free, nada, nil cost, including the red wine… blimey! However given that Karsten and Michelle are tea-totallers, it will be party time for me on my pat malone, or in Spanish, on my papaloma!!
Our room is bright red, tomato red… is that good for dreaming? I can´t remember. Or maybe the imaginative dreams come from the red wine instead!
Seville was a great place, we really enjoyed it. It´s almost like the further south we go, the more we are starting to warm to Spain, in general. Whilst the early places are amazing, they haven´t been pushing quite the right buttons as I had imagined. However, that is all shifting…
The hotel we stayed in Seville, “hotel Amadeus” www.hotelamadeussevilla.com, was a rather classy establishment. In our deluxe suite, we had a shower that doubled as a spa and sauna; even though we felt like we were in a space capsule when standing in it. It did have a little dicky seat so that was novel, if nothing else.
As you may have surmised, the hotel does have a musical connection. But only from the viewpoint of the owner family having a strong musical pedigree, which enabled the instruments to not only decorate the hotel, it allowed guests to avail of them, at any time. Suffice to say, daughter did voila practice, and guitar and piano (I have video to prove it), and even the harp… school will be proud!!
Another cathedral (although good for taking aerial shots from), another palace, and more shops visited, although now much is starting to blend into one another, fashion and frescos alike!
Must be time for that first glass of red now surely…
no idea what any of the grape types are, but then I guess that´s half the fun!
salud!!
Cordoba, and the majestic Mezquita…
Ola!
We survived the snow…
We have spent today swanning around Cordoba, and mainly being gobsmacked at the majestic Mezquita. Originally the Basilica of San Vincente, it then became a Mosque, only to be returned to a Cathedral in 1236. Pretty damn impressive really…
After that, it´s been mainly loitering with intent… to shop mainly. We´ve found an amazing label called ¨Desigual¨ from Barcelona we think, really colourful and edgy. www.desigual.com The first I must say, which has been a little surprising, that is after the world famous ¨Zara¨ of course! www.zara.com
Daughter is doing really really well. She is such a seasoned traveller now, it´s wonderful watching her practice and master all the stuff you need to do whilst doing the travelling thing. Today it was about carrying ones smalls to the laundrette, working out the cost and pick up arrangments. She´s also picking up a little Spanish along the way. One of our favourites is ¨una mas¨, meaning ¨one more¨… saves us having to repeat things, especially food orders!!
We have been getting into the Tapas, and really enjoying it. Although daughter does keep reminding us about what we´re eating and how cruel we are ie last night it was lamb chops, and she was in tears over the ordering of such a thing. So she stuck to her croquettes, and spanish meatballs and left the rest of us heathens to handle the rest. The tears at the dinner table are a bit head turning though!
We leave Cordoba tomorrow and head for Seville.
No doubt we´ll have much more to report then.
Adios…
Granada – an historic Spanish offering…
Ola!
It´s bucketing rain, it´s 9oC (yes we´re feeling the cold)
Not only that, we´re living in a cave! www.el-abanico.com/ingles.html… and we´re loving it.
Have spent today swanning around the Alhambra Palace, which is rather impressive. However the highlight was, when standing in the Palace of Carlos V (a colosseum type construction with amazing acoustics), a rather large English tourist steps into the middle and rips out a rendition of a classic operatic number, and completely blew us all away…it brought a tear to your eye, seriously beautiful. And then he and his fat mates moved on and went back to being geysers…who´d have thought!
Daughter has such a story brewing in her head that I can´t wait until she gets it down on paper. She may even share it with you all, we´ll see. This is now a book in progress… stay tuned for publishing details!
Off to the snow tomorrow. Sierra Nevada. Not sure what to expect (other than white stuff of course). The drive itself will be hairy enough given that this is the first time driving has been attempted, on the opposite side of the road, for some time. Couple that with roads unknown, mountains unknown and bends unknown… an adventure it could definitely turn into!!
Until next time, adios!!
p.s. phone is working now, so it´s full textíng ahead!
Ola! from Madrid…
Ola!
After approximately 30 hours, we´ve arrived in Madrid.
All smooth sailing really. Saw a number of movies that had been on the hit list, so not all lost time!
However, slight complication…I´m not able to send and receive text messages!!!
Ah, bloody technology & me.
And then the phone was dropped at the airport.
And then forgot the PIN on the travel card so no Euro.
And then the room we´re in has a busted shower with hot and cold running water, running constantly in the dunny!…
And you know what, we´re soooooo tired that we don´t really care…
Going to bed very soon, even though its only 18:33 here.
Madrid is reminiscent of many a large city, except for the dirty great palace and cathedral in the middle of town. All very European, clearly.
Will report in again soon.
The adventurers
Alain de Botton – The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
I read Alain de Botton’s latest gem whilst swanning around Spain, on “adventures with daughter”. I really enjoyed it. I do like the way he writes; and I do like what he says, and how he says it. I am a fan of his offerings I must admit.
I’d like to see him extend that to the Pleasures and Sorrows of being Entrepreneurial…I’m sure there would be many a good tale to be told and many great questions to ask.
I am particularly encouraged to see that he, and noted others, are putting their money where their philosophy is, and have set up The School of Life. Oh to be involved in something like that here in Australia…
Lynn Barber from The Age got to interview him whilst we were away. I’ve included it here, “The Way Words Work” for your viewing pleasure.
Been back nearly a week now…my, where has that time gone?
Slowly but surely getting back into the routine and rhythm of what is our daily life. Can’t wait for the next adventure though. But until then, daughter has basketball training this evening!
London – the final H = Heathrow
Our 6-leg journey back to Melbourne went something like this:
1. Carpool – Alton Towers (near Birmingham) to Stratford London (3 hrs)
2. Train – Stratford London to Paddington London (30 mins)
3. Mini cab – Paddington London to Heathrow London (45 mins)
4. QF10 flight – London to Singapore (13 hrs + 2 hr stopover)
5. QF10 flight – Singapore to Melbourne (7 hrs)
6. Taxi – Tullamarine Melbourne to Camberwell (45 mins)
Total travelling time = 28.5 hours. No wonder we’re exhausted!
Given we are both struggling to stay awake at 19:00 (actually daughter has already crashed asleep), I suspect it will be a very early morning wake up.
What a fine way to top off yet another fabulous adventure. What with…
the majestic of Spain
the magic of Morocco
the mellow of Lisbon Portugal
the magnifique of Paris France
the melting chocolate moments of Bruges Belgium
the movement of London UK
and the madness of Alton Towers
…what a wonderful way to spend 6-7 weeks of oné’s precious time. It’s always rather sad finishing off an adventure…
but then of course the next one is already on the drawing board!
Apart from Bali May 2010, how does Peru, Bolivia and Argentina sound? Want to come too? Go on, you know you want too…
help! I’VE BEEN ROBBED!!
…that was my cry as I realised my purse (and scarf) was no longer in my bag! “You cannot be serious”; but unfortunately it was.
Whilst we’re only talking 70euros and $100AUD in cash, we are also talking 4 credit cards and the drivers license (no passports fortunately). What a bloody hassle. I am officially pissed off!
And this all happened in one of Spain’s more salubrious chain of stores – “Zara”. Fat lot of good surveillance cameras are after the fact!
So after hours of the Horne’s last shopping day being spent at the police station assisting me, the shine of Barcelona is severely tarnished; well for me at least anyway. Sad really as it is a great city. What a difference a day makes!…however, give me the Africans again any day.
After finally working out how to cash up again, we leave Spain tomorrow and head to Portugal. A little worse for wear now, but no real serious harm done, praise the lord!
Here’s hoping the rest of the adventure goes without a hitch. To quote our friend Mohamed – insha’Allah
ps As for text messaging, it’s all systems go again. However any sent to me in the past two weeks when in Morocco were not stored, so if there are any I need to see, please resend.
Off on our next adventure…
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware.”
Michael Buber
I really hope so!….
As you may, or may not be aware, Ireland and I are off on our next adventure….whoa!
Spain, Morocco, Portugal, France and the UK feature this time
and we leave tomorrow….
Should you wish to know detail, click on these:
http://theentrepreneurialmother.com.au/docs/2009_Portugal_France_Brussels_and_UK_itinerary.pdf
http://theentrepreneurialmother.com.au/docs/2009_Spain_and_Morocco_itinerary.pdf
Should you wish to follow our escapades, check into theEM blog on a regular basis:
http://www.theentrepreneurialmother.com.au/blog
as I will be updating it as we go along.
Feel free to leave comments… nice ones that is!
“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
St Augustine
