Off to Spain for the final part of this adventure. Will and Alyssa are trying to gain Spanish Citizenship. A Spanish law passed in 2015, provides an opportunity to get Spanish citizenship to those of Sephardic Jewish Heritage. We had received word from the attorney a few weeks before we left providing a signing date to submit their application. So, we changed our flight plans and tacked on a tour of southern Spain. Alyssa flew out and met us in Malaga, Spain.
We walked around to get a feel for the city. As you walk through Malaga you notice the fort overlooking the city. There are actually two different structures the Castle of Gibraltar and the Alcazaba, a fortress built by the Moors. Getting to the castle is quite a hike up what becomes a very steep slippery slate paved path. Alyssa was still suffering from jet lag and got pretty dehydrated trying to do the climb in the hot sun. So, I was on my own to tour around for a few hours. There is not much to see at the castle, but the wall surrounding the castle grounds. There are some great city views, but not worth the effort of hiking up the hill, if you ask me. The better one to me is the Alcazaba. It’s easily reached across from the main church. The gardens in the fortress are beautiful as is the moorish architecture. That evening, we had a nice sunset cruise. The boat headed down the coast for a bit before turning around to watch the sun set.
Most of the following day was spent at the Notario (notary’s) office signing papers.
Had an all day tour the next day to Granada and the Alhambra. The tour was billed as a semi-private tour. When the big tour bus pulled up, I was a little surprised. Their idea of a semi-private tour and my idea are obviously quite different, but the tour guide did a great job. The Alhambra was originally built as a defensive fortress by the Moors. Throughout history the Alhambra has been through a few changes lastly by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492. And yes, we saw one of the rooms where the final meeting between the Queen and Christopher Columbus was held before he left to find a new route to India. The gardens were beautiful and the estate grounds were impressive. Really the Alhambra is a must see, however, I would not do the day tour again from Malaga and instead would spend a night in Granada.
After picking up our rental car, we were off to the next city, the small town of Ronda. Ronda is famous for its picturesque “new bridge”, built in 1793. Really, seeing it in person is unreal. Just to think how the engineers built that bridge all those years ago is incredible. Ronda is also the birth place of the more modern style of bull fighting. We took a tour of the bullring, which is also home to a dressage training school. We were able to watch one of the dressage training sessions. I think those horses know more Spanish then I do. Touring the bull ring with the audio guide was really interesting and we ended up spending much more time there than expected. We checked into our apartment, too bad we were only there for one night. It was a large 2 bedroom, one bath in a great location in the center of town.
All of us were really tired. So, we decided that the next day, we would just take a leisurely drive to our next town Algeciras. We had originally planned to tour Gibraltar for the day, but decided that would be more of a hassle than anything else. Algeciras is not a great tourist destination, but we just were using it as a jumping off point to take a ferry to Morocco.
We had scheduled a day trip to Chefchaouen (“the blue city”) in Morocco. Well, our ferry ended up leaving late and instead of us arriving at 8:30am, we met our guide close to noon. Traveling sometimes requires a lot of patience and flexibility. By us arriving so late, we would have spent all day in the car just driving to Chefchaouen. So luckily, we were able to change it up and Abdul (from Latif Tours) gave us a great city tour of Tangier. – Just a note for anyone planning on doing a day trip from Spain to Tangier. In Tangier there are 2 ferry terminals, Tangier and Tangier Med. The Med is the commercial ferry terminal and is about 30 miles outside the city center. So, for day trips, if you don’t have a vehicle, it’s better to leave from Tarifa, Spain and go to the Tangier terminal. The Tangier terminal is for passengers and is right in the city limits. – Abdul took us to Hercules Cave, a camel ride, a great meal in the old part of town and all the other usual tourist places. We saw where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. Also, we saw where Columbus went left instead of right and eventually found the New World. Our guide also took us to the Sephardic Jewish Synagogue when he found out why we were visiting. It ended up being a great day and we were glad we came to check out Morocco. We plan to come back again to spend time touring some of the other Moroccan cities.
Alyssa checking out the Rock of Gilbraltar 
Born in Algeciras Statue of Paco de Lucia 
Camel Riding in Morocco 
We loved the food we had in Morocco 
And the dessert 
He put the cobra away and put a harmless snake around my neck. 
The Jewish Synagogue
Love wilde animals in Africa !
I do as well!