My Travel Blog
Wow, what a full day! We did not realize that daylight savings time occurred today in this part of the world, so when the 
Easter morning church bells rang out we wondered why we felt so tired. Jeff and I ignored that 'alarm clock' and hit the snooze button (a.k.a. threw an arm over our ears). After getting ourselves organized for the day (destination - Gibraltar!), Jeff and Chloe made the long trek to retrieve our car from the bus depot, while Julia and I got organized for the road trip by making sandwiches, gathering snacks, and tidying up the apartment.
We hit the highway - a beautiful toll road with fast speeds and great drivers. The scenery on the way down to Gibraltar was really beautiful and we were interested the entire way. Gibraltar is a fascinating place - you hear about it all the time, but how often do you get the opportunity to actually visit? 
Figuring that we would most likely not find ourselves in this part of the world for quite some time, we needed to take advantage of the situation. Carpe diem!
Little did we know, but today was the perfect day to visit. Sundays are the slowest, and Easter Sunday, in particular, is very slow. Bonus! We parked our car on the Spanish side of the border and walked across - border control was lax (we just waved our passports at them) and BAM, we were in another country. A very interesting fact about Gibraltar is that they have the only live airport runway that has an active road crossing it. We literally walked across the runway to get into the city/country - how bizarre! When planes take off, or land, they put down a barrier 
and stop all foot and car traffic until the plane clears the area. Very interesting. This is a picture of the girls and I standing in the middle of the runway - and no one was about to arrest us!
For those who don't know, Gibraltar is considered a "British Overseas Territory" and was ceded to Britain in 1713 during the Treaty of Utrecht. They still experience some tension with Spain over this tiny territory, but I must say it is pretty interesting to be in Spain, walk across a border/airport runway, and find yourselves served by an English speaking person in a square, eating fish n' chips and drinking British beer. Did I accidentally go to Epcot?
After lunch, we wandered to the base of the 'rock' and ended up hiring a driver to take us on a tour. What a great investment - Peter did a phenomenal job and we learned so much today - more than I think my brain can even remember! The tour started at the Pillars of Hercules; after viewing the map of the Mediterranean (and understanding that they thought the world was flat at the time), it was easy to see how they felt that after crossing the straight they would fall completely off the earth and into Hades. How terrifying for them! There is so much more to it than the few sentences I can give it right now, but it is worth looking into, if you feel so inclined.
Up we went to St. Michael's Caves. Wow!!! I had zero expectations when I went in, and I have never seen such amazing caves in my entire life. They actually hold concerts in there, and I can only imagine how incredible that would be. If you ever find yourself in Gibraltar, you HAVE to go in. Nature at its finest.
We got back in the van and headed up close to the top of the rock where there were a zillion macaques (monkeys) just hanging out. They climbed onto the van and were just monkeying around in a (slightly) disconcerting way. Plus there was poop everywhere! The best part was standing up on top of some ancient stairs and seeing the Atlantic Ocean to our left, and the Mediterranean Sea to our right. The Mediterranean was shrouded in fog, while the Atlantic was clear skies and sunshine. Very cool.
Last stop, halfway down the hill, were the caves carved out during WW2. There were huge cannons pointing out of small holes protecting the British Territory, and they actually used the rubble from the caves to build the runway for the airport. Recycling! We actually got to see a plane take off from the runway while we were up at those caves - it was pretty cool to watch, considering that only hours before we stood right there. What an interesting place.
On our drive back home we took an alternate route and watched the sun set over the Atlantic - something you never see from North America. We eventually made it back to Seville for dinner (which here, occurs at 10 pm) and devoured our food. It was a complete day, and we are allowably exhausted. More adventures tomorrow!
Today was a great day filled with lots of new sights, wonderful food, and fun times. After another stop into the café underneath our apartment for hot beverage fortification this morning, we hit the streets. Today was so different than yesterday - there were actually people out and about! Yesterday, we found many areas of the
city that felt either like a ghost town or a carnival. Today there were people out shopping, eating, and being merry. Apparently the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is a normal free-for-all, and the masses were out enjoying the day. We found a great sidewalk restaurant across from… something that we never did figure out what is was. On the map, it is a giant block of nothingness! But there were thousands of chairs set up for something exciting happening tomorrow for Easter, and we thought we would figure it out when we returned to our apartment and Googled it, but we came up blank. People here seem to know where to go and when, but we haven't quite figured it out, even with the internet at our disposal.
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fter a delicious lunch (shout out to my sister - we had CRAZY buffalo mozzarella on our salad and I thought of you!), we went in the direction of the Seville Cathedral. I'm not going to pretend that I knew much about this cathedral before going there, but I have since learned that it is the third largest in the world and was completed in the 16th century. Umm… slightly impressive! I am massively boggled by the fact that they broke ground in 1401 and completed it in 1528. What the *#^$??! It is huge and very impressive. We didn't go inside because the line-up was ridiculous, but we admired it from the outside. We wandered into a little side-square that felt a place like where military formations probably practiced before quenching their thirst from the many orange trees around the perimeter.
We left the cathedral, with Plaza de España as our next destination. This part of the city is very different from the other areas we have explored. The buildings are larger and grander, and the boulevards are much wider. The Plaza is very impressive, and the first thing I thought was that there must've been some sort of exposition or something that occurred there because the area is so pretty and expansive. Well, thanks to Wikipedia, I discovered that it was the site of the 1929 World's Fair, which makes total sense. All along the outside of the plaza, there are mosaics depicting the 50 different 
provinces of Spain, and I'm sure there are many people who proudly pose in front of their home province. I can only imagine how fantastic it must've been at the time of the Expo, although while we were there I really had to pee (sorry, but it's true), and I couldn't help but wonder how they dealt with that 'issue' back then. Hide behind your parasol?? And the corsets and such? Ugh.
By this time we were pretty exhausted (Google Maps tells us that from our apartment to the Plaza de España it is 4 km - not including the side streets we explored on the way). So, we unapologetically took a taxi back to our neighbourhood and stopped for a refreshment before hitting a grocery store for a few apartment essentials.
As is the custom here, we returned home for a siesta. I was a bit chilly and cuddled up under the covers only to accidentally (?!) fall asleep. Oops. I had to get up for family 'exercise time', which I had skipped yesterday. Gah!!! The 50 jumping jacks, 10 sets of stairs, 20 sit-up burpees, and 50 jumping jacks came fairly close to killing me. I don't think this is what 'siesta' means to most people. Crazy.
After recovering (sort of), we went out in search of dinner. It was a beautiful evening, so we sat outside and ordered some drinks. About 10 minutes later the temperature dropped, and a slight wind came about. All of a sudden sitting outside wasn't quite as appealing. Apparently everyone else felt the same way, and we had trouble finding a table inside a restaurant. There is a cute place close to our apartment that we hadn't had the chance to yet check out, so tonight was the night! It was really interesting (and had a heater, which was a plus!). It seemed to be geared towards people with food sensitivities, as underneath each item it said whether it had gluten, eggs, dairy, etc. As none of that really mattered to us we didn't pay close attention, but I can imagine it would be great if you did care. We ate delicious salad, mini hamburgers, paella, patatas, burritos, and calamari. Yum! Quite the variety, but very light and delicious.
Now we are back home and getting ready for bed. Our little apartment isn't as fancy and spacious as the one we had in Lisbon, but it has two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a cozy living room which serves our family just fine and allows us all the space and privacy we need. The kids have usurped our bedroom and are laying together giggling over something on the iPad, Jeff is on the couch engaged with something online, and I am sitting at the kitchen table writing to whoever is reading this!
Tomorrow we plan on hitting the road and seeing a few other sites/sights here in Southern Spain. Ready or not, here we come!
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