Spring Break: Malaga, Rock of Gibraltar, and Barcelona

The 100-mile drive from Cordoba to Malaga was spectacular -- rolling hills and olives giving way to the more feral and jagged coastal range.  We were in the mountains for what felt like a long time before coming through on the other side with the Mediterranean sea stretching away below us.  This is the first time either Bri or I had seen the Mediterranean Sea, and it was lovely! We didn’t have any time to spend in Malaga proper (we’ll add that to our follow-up Andalucia trip) but made our way to Carlos’ apartment about five miles north of the city, where we met Peggy who got us and our stuff settled in.  After Bri and Thomas brought back some food from the street below, we watched a little Phineas and Ferb (in Spanish, of course), and turned in.

Bright and early the next morning, we had some french toast and hit the road.  Our goal was to drive the hour and change to Gibraltar and spend mosts of the day there before driving back to Seville for an early morning flight out the next day.  We wound along the coast and enjoyed the spectacular views of the Costa del Sol, and slowly massive Gibraltar came into view. After a few false starts (poor signage!), we managed to find the entrance into Gibraltar, and passed across a heavily fortified border between EU neighbors (but not great friends) Spain and the UK.  Once inside Gibraltar, we parked, ate our picnic lunch, and headed out towards “The Rock.”
Thank goodness we live in the age of google maps and smart phones; Bri’s phone led us through the twists and turns and hills of lower Gibraltar to the base of the tram, we bought our tickets, and jumped on for the steep ride. After climbing for a few minutes, we arrived at the top, and spent an hour walking around the observations. Breathtaking views !
From the top of Gibraltar you can see the nearby Morocco mountain Jebel Musa, which together with Gibraltar were the Pillars of Hercules of antiquity. And our first view of Africa since we left 1.5 years ago!

Almost immediately after arriving at the top, we were entertained by the Gibraltar apes -- Barbary macaques, the only monkeys native to Europe (probably brought by the Moors).

We watched several -- including two little juvenile monkeys that would take these flying leaps off a ledge and into some bushes that were so entertaining -- for several minutes before beginning our walk down the mountain (ride up, walk down -- that’s how we do it in our family!).  We stopped in at St. Michael’s Cave, paid our admission (Gibraltar was not cheap!), and toured the cave complex, massive stalactites and stalagmites and including a cathedral and a concert area.

After St. Michael’s, we headed down to the Ape Den and more monkeys before descending to the WWII guns (outside -- massive!) and tunnels (closed) and the Moorish Castle.

 Another Moorish castle -- as expected, the Moors and their influence and footprint were everywhere during our trip to Iberia. This castle and its fortifications and walls were retaken by the Moors in a counter offense and held from 1350 to 1462 before being lost to the Moors forever, and the walls have been woven into the city that has arisen since the British occupation.

 After the Moorish Castle, we walked down into the town, window-shopped a bit, found our car, and headed out.  Just outside of British Gibraltar, we found a McDonalds and a park in the rundown Spanish side, and got some food and let the kids run off some of their energy while Bri tried to arrange taxis in Seville for the next morning.  This would be an ongoing effort -- we seemed to have no luck with the Seville Taxi Mafia! After the kids had enough, we headed north from Gibraltar in a rain storm (we really had the most immense good luck with the rain!), tried to ignore the enticing signs for Cadiz (“It’s so close!  Let’s just go look!” Bri kept repeating… another one for our follow-up trip), and made our way back to Seville. Another lovely scenic Andalucian drive!

 Savvy had fun trying out a telephone booth. Something that is definitely foreign to these kids with cell phones everywhere. And this one is red in the style of telephone booths in London. After all, Gibraltar is English territory.

We finally arrived late at our AirBNB and met up with Carlos Jesus and what would be our best apartment of the trip -- spacious and comfortable!

After Bri and I hunted up some McDonalds for the kids and dropped it off for them, we tucked them in and headed towards the airport to return our rental.  Again, thank goodness for the GPS. We finally found the offsite return, were driven back to the airport, and this time called a mytaxi app taxi for a much more pleasant and reasonable price.  Once we got back to the apartment, we prepared for our flight the next morning and Bri tried with no success to contact any Seville taxi service to arrange for 4:30 am pickup -- seriously, what is up with the taxis here???  Finally, in desperation we made an arrangement for a couple of luxury taxis for $80 to pick us up because they were the only ones who would take reservations for that hour and had a guarantee. We used the mytaxi app and hoped for the best. We went to bed very late.

All too early the alarm woke us, we got our stuff ready, and -- miraculously -- two taxis were waiting for us below .  We loaded our stuff, got to the Seville airport, checked our bags and got through security, and collapsed on the chairs in the gate waiting area exhausted but relieved.  Bri tallied up our taxis during our 27 hours in Seville -- 201 EU! That works out to $9.75 per hour that we spent in this city. Seville is NOT on our itinerary for our follow-up trip.  ;)

Our flight from Seville to Barcelona was pleasant enough (if thread-bare -- RyanAir was the carrier, and the price might be right but there were zero amenities), and we landed and headed out from our gate in search of our baggage.  We made a wrong turn coming out (again, poor signage!), ended up walking towards the wrong baggage claim (which we belatedly realized), and to make a long story short, found ourselves outside of the airport without our bags, had a visit to RyanAir customer service, and Bri (and Bri alone) found dispensation with an airport employee manning the baggage entrance and managed to get in and find our bags.  We then took a 30-minute (!) bus ride through pouring rain from one terminal to the other (unclear why the airport is divided into two halves that are so far apart!), found the airport luggage lockers in the very back corner four floors down, bought some metro tickets, and headed towards Barcelona.

The earlier luggage drama, the airport layout, and a shorter layover meant we had just enough time to get to Park Guell, walk to la Sagrada Familia, and head back to the airport.  The kids enjoyed trying to read the French-like (Bri thought Portuguese-like) Catalan language in the metro en route. At the Park Guell stop, we had our first look at Barcelona, which reminded us of a Spanish-flavored San Francisco (but bigger and less intimate than the Lisbon version).  We climbed up a half-dozen hills (most of them thankfully had escalators) towards Carmel Hill and Park Guell, bought our tickets at the entrance, and toured the grounds of this funky park waiting for our time to enter. Guell is a manifestation of the wild imagination of Gaudi, Barcelona’s famed architect (and the genius behind la Sagrada Familia).  We enjoyed the different themes and icons, the colors and shapes, and the two famous buildings at the entrance.

After taking some photos and picking up a few bookmarks, we headed out the park and down the hill towards La Sagrada Familia. Per usual, we found a cafe and some croissants for the kids (who are now totally addicted) en route and enjoyed the colorful and artistic wall/door art (high-end graffiti?) everywhere.  After a pleasant half-hour’s walk, we ended up at the base of La Sagrada Familia, and again admired another spectacular Cathedral -- but this one was different than all of the others and truly lived up to its reputation as a wonder.

Bunches of fruits can be seen throughout

The different styles and the multitude of scenes and carvings on the outside, the bare, organic pillars inside, the stained glass and color refracted around the interior all contributed to evoke other-worldly and awe-inspiring emotions.  We had about an hour at the Cathedral but would have enjoyed much more time there.

After taking it all in, we reluctantly retreated to the nearby metro, found our line, and headed the hour back to the airport. We ended up back on the final leg of the metro and in the first car of the trail -- the kids took turns manning the helm and looking out the glass front of the train at the tunnel beyond.  It was a little like riding Space Mountain with the lights on. ;)

Back at the airport, we got our bags out of the cellars, found our airBaltic terminal, checked in and found our gate, and boarded and were on our way.  Traveling with the kids and the big bags is exhausting, and we were grateful to finally be so near the end of the journey and with no logistical problems that could derail our trip.  Once we landed in Riga, Bri and I agreed I would grab a taxi back to the embassy, grab the van, and meet him and our bags and kids and then drive home. Bri gave me 30EU “just in case,” and I headed upstairs, found the taxi line, and grabbed the next available taxi.

Coda -- taxidriver in Riga

I told the taxi driver I was heading to the embassy, and he had no idea where that was and pulled over to look it up on his phone.  As we were leaving, I noticed he had an app open on his phone that seemed to be a taxi counter and it was already at 8.75. I hoped that was not my bill!  The taxi driver figured out where we were headed, and five minutes later we were at the airport. He pulled into the front of the embassy, turned to me, and said in broken english, “25 Euros.”  I told him he must be kidding -- I had paid 6 EU for two taxis early in the morning for the same trip ten days earlier, and I didn’t even have a bag with me! He insisted it was 25 Euros, said it was “VIP service” (where was my water bottle??? ;), and that he was a different company than whoever I had used before.  Little did he know I had just spent a week dealing with the Seville Taxi Mafia, and I wasn’t having it! I felt that he was taking advantage of me because he didn't think I lived in Latvia and I was a woman by myself. I told him I wasn’t going to pay 25 EU and handed him a 10 EU note (which was still twice as much as he deserved!). He became angry and started to back the car up -- at which point I opened the door and started to get out.  He stopped, went back towards the trunk looking for something, and I walked directly towards the guards at the embassy entrance. When he saw that, he shut the trunk, quickly jumped in his car, and peeled out and left in a hurry. Thank goodness I was at the embassy and not somewhere else where I would have been stuck with the bill!  As luck would have it, the van was dead (one of the kids had left a light on). Again, luckily I was at the embassy -- the guards brought out a portable jumper and had me on my way in a few minutes.  I found Bri and the kids shortly thereafter, and we all headed home exhausted.

Per usual, we bit off a chunk of travel on this trip that might have been a bit too condensed (at least Spain -- Portugal was just about perfect).  But we loved our time in Portugal and Andalucia. It was a treat to roam where famous explorers, poets, artists, kings and queens, and so many civilizations existed.  And we truly fell in love with Portugal, a country and culture around which we have danced for so many years. It was a trip to remember!