The last few days...

After leaving Elche, Spain we drove south about 4 hours. The South eastern portion of Spain resembles the high desert plains of the American west. It is stark and beautiful. We arrived in Gibraltar and settled in to the Bristol Hotel on one of the old city streets of Gibraltar. We found we did not have Internet access!! Who expected that, of all the places we'd visited! We had dinner of Fish and Chips at a traditional English pub. We thought we'd find hordes following the Rugby World Cup championship match, since England was playing South Africa. No one seemed all that interested. Gibraltar is, after all, independent, we were told. We found that Gibraltar is English, but not. The rock is visible from over 30 miles away and looms in the distance. Passing through border security is fairly easy, traffic is tough. The streets are unbelievably narrow. In fact, you quickly learn to pull in your side mirrors to avoid losing them while driving the streets. There is a lighthouse at the southern tip of the peninsula, called Europa Point Lighthouse. There are a few beaches, we found the public ones to be pretty dirty. The Strait of Gibraltar sees 58,000 ships pass through it's waters every year! After seeing the boat traffic, I believe that figure. The rock itself has an old Moorish fort remains upon it, and moneys. Who knew? All in all, a pretty interesting place to visit!

We took a high speed ferry from Tarifa, Spain to Tangier, Morocco. The ferry takes 35 minutes. It was a very nice ferry, stewards similar to air stewards on planes,and nice, roomy seats. In addition, snack bars on each level. There was even a car deck, although we did not take our rental car. While we were traveling on the ferry, we waited to clear customs through to Morocco. Things are handled quite efficiently. As soon as you disembark from the ferry, you know you have arrived someplace different. Dry dusty conditions and the customary dress of men and woman stand out in stark contrast to Spain. The city itself was much as we expected, beautify, colorful, and very bustling in the market areas. There were some times of concern. You are so obviously not a local, there are many young men, standing and giving unhappy/unfriendly looks. It makes you anxious, but you try not to act it. Our guide was very protective and helpful. We were all glad we went, it was a great opportunity to see a culture quite different from our own.

A street market in Tangier (above)

Spice store in Tangier (above)

Tangier upon arrival by ferry (above)

Colorful doorways are the norm in Tangier (above)

And so we have arrived in Lisbon...

I have always wanted to visit Lisbon, and I must say, this city does not disappoint! I can not describe how stunning this city is, yet very different from Barcelona. Barcelona was beautiful architecturally, while Lisbon's attractiveness lies in the decorative on the buildings. Many buildings are covered in wonderful tiles unique to the city of Lisbon. We are told that they are used to cover the buildings as an insulator against the hot sunny climate conditions. Lisbon also has a beautiful walled castle within it's historical district. The walled castle sits upon one of the 7 hills surrounding the older sections of Lisbon. There are "elevators" (trolleys that ride a track up and down the various hills of the city), there are beautifully restored trolley cars (similar to those in San Francisco) that are used by local citizens for transportation, and there are buses and trams and trolleys. Getting around the city is easy, parking isn't even that difficult due to the numerous public parking garages. There are police on foot everywhere, good thing too, because we took a wrong turn upon arriving and had to stop and ask directions. We had no trouble finding a police officer, who was quite helpful. Portuguese is a language that has some similarities to Spanish, but sounds very different. We have managed quite nicely, picking up words and phrases as we did in Spain, and France (but not Morocco).

Driving in Lisbon was not difficult. The drive from Tarifa, Spain to Lisbon was about 6 to 6 1/2 hours, almost all highways. Tolls are very high, so far I think we have paid easily 100 Euros ($146) in tolls. Gas has run from about $5 to $6.50/gal. The drive from Tarifa was interesting also, because we came upon many orchards of cork trees. I had never seen a cork tree, let alone an orchard of them. Again there were many olive groves also, but then we also came upon a region with cotton fields. These were in the vacinity of Seville, Spain. Many fields still had cotton on the plants, ready to pick. Almost immediately upon entering Portugal, signs of civilization vanished. We drove about 2 hours with hardly any signs of a town, a village, or any homes at all. The Portuguese countryside is lovely, what we saw from the highway. We will spend a few more days in Lisbon and then we leave for Madrid!