Our trip to the coast of southern Spain was wonderful -- relaxing, with a couple of little day excursions here and there. The coolest trip by far was to Gibraltar. We took a boat ride out to see the dolphins (and actually saw some!), and we got to wander around the rock for a little while and see the city built there. There are about 30,000 people living on the island, plus a bunch of others that live in neighboring towns and commute to work every day. Our tour guide said the real estate has gone up like crazy in the past couple of years b/c, well, there's really nowhere left to build. The actual rock contains a wildlife forest preservation, so no building there! Just off the coast of Gibraltar we could see the mountainous Moroccan coastline (we seriously considered a trip there, but it was a little out of our budget to do BOTH things).
Back to the dolphin excursion: we did have to get up pretty early to go (7 am is early for vacation -- we were all in a habit of staying up until 11pm, since it doesn't even get dark until after 10, and Spaniards don't even eat dinner until 9 pm), then take a 2 hour bus ride to Gibraltar. Now, the bus ride in and of itself was not too bad, but the lady in front of us kept closing the window that served as the only method of air circulation on top of the double-decker bus (there was A/C, but it wasn't running strongly enough to cool off the completely packed bus). The second time she did it we were about 15 minutes from our hotel, so I let it go, but it was really annoying that she didn't bother to ask the other passengers before closing the window. I could tell the man sitting next to me was hot, and our son was soaked in sweat by the end of the trip. Oh well, that's the French for you, I suppose.
But now we're home, relaxed and tanned by our ten day trip to Spain. Hopefully we'll have some family here in a couple of months, once the new baby arrives, b/c we probably won't do any more traveling until we get to the States next summer (with the exception of my husband going to a conference this October).
2 comments:
the story of the lady on the bus reminds me of plenty of similar experiences on central european trains! i think they have a superstition that open train windows bring in diseases/illnesses, so no matter how crowded/stinky/hot the compartment was, the (older) ladies would always close the windows! i tend to be warm all the time so it always frustrated me. i feel your pain and would have probably started crying. everything's making me cry these days anyway. :)
Yeah, the Arabs are like that too. They'll go out in 100 degree weather with a newborn wrapped in layers of blankets b/c they're terrified it will get sick. I heard a pediatrician trying to explain to a parent one time that the rash the baby had was a heat rash and she needed to stop covering up her poor baby when it was so hot!
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