Southern Spain Holiday - April 2013

For one of our last few adventures while here in Europe, we decided to go to Spain again, this time the Southern coast.  We were desperate for some sun, since Spring came a bit late this year in England, there are some neat things to see on the southern coast, and I just love getting to use my high school Spanish again!

We started our trip by spending a day at the resort and enjoying all the activities.  The beach at the resort wasn't that great, but thankfully there were many other activities and nice pools on the property.

We even got to play a little bit of volleyball! Alexa is an amazing blocker!

 

That evening we drove to the nearby city of Marbella to explore the narrow streets of the shopping district and have some nice Spanish food.

One of the things that Mia loves about Spain is that they serve sugar with milk (hot or cold)!

 

On Sunday, we decided to go on an adventure to the Rock of Gibraltar, which I never realized is a British territory.  So we had to use our passports to get onto the peninsula.  The neat thing is that the air strip in Gibraltar crosses the only road in, so as we drove onto the peninsula, a plane landed ahead of us and then we drove across the airstrip!  We headed straight for the Nature reserve on the rock, where wild apes live.  And yes, they are completely free and wild.  As we approached the entrance to St. Michael's Cave, we were quickly greeted by an ape who jumped onto our car and was hanging onto our side mirror.  A bit shocked, I carefully closed my window because I really do think he would have come in.  As we parked our car and walked to the cave entrance, we saw a few apes along the way (they tend to hang out where people are).  I moved along walking on the footpath and noticed something tickling the backs of my legs....a freaked out a bit when I looked behind me and saw that it was an ape running along behind me grabbing at my legs.  Thankfully, my reaction scared him away a bit. 

 

At the entrance to the cave, there were a few apes to watch, so we posed for a few pictures. While I was posing, the ape next to me saw that my purse was open, so he reached over to see what was inside.  Luckily I was able to pull away before he took anything!

 

St. Michaels Cave was pretty amazing.  It's probably the biggest cave I've been in, with the most rock formations that I've ever seen. The pictures don't do it justice, but you can probably understand how this blows other caves out of the water.

After St. Michael's cave we walked uphill to the top of one of the peaks of the rock. There we saw many more apes, some amazing views and had some interesting experiences as well.   On our way up, Alexa had fallen maybe 15 feet behind the rest of us, and suddenly we heard her cry..."Mommy!!!!!" We looked back and an ape was grabbing at her waist, before we could even react, he pulled something out of her pocket....a granola bar!  Needless, to say, Alexa spent quite a while in her mother's arms after that, but she soon got over the trauma of it all.  On our way back down the hill, she found the wrapper from her granola bar on the side of the footpath.

 We later found our way to some tunnels that were created in the rock for military purposes over the last couple hundred years.  Very interesting, and amazing to know that some famous American leaders spent some time in those tunnels during WWII.

 The view from outside one of the tunnel entrances...you can see the air strip in the background.

Couldn't resist this photo.  The owner of the bike was not too thrilled with this little guy that dreamed of cruising on the road.

We had a great time in Gibraltar...it was definitely a very unique experience that will be a highlight of our European adventure.

On Tuesday, we went to the beautiful town of Ronda, about an hour north of us.  This gorgeous bridge divides the old and new parts of the city.

 After a quick lunch in a café, we enjoyed some special dark and white hot chocolates, which were especially thick, and quite delicious.

We enjoyed walking around the city, stopping in lots of shops, and exploring the Peinado museum, which included some paintings by his friend Picasso.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much the kids enjoyed that museum.

 

The rest of our time was spent primarily at the resort, enjoying the

 SUNSHINE!

A fun filled week in Spain, some fabulous memories!