Arcos 28th October2019

Monday, 28th October 2019

A quiet day today. We did walk into town, as Bob wanted to go to Orange, the phone shop, and we grabed a few essentials on our way back, as we are coming to the end of our visit in Arcos de la Frontera. So we are trying to use up what food stuffs we have.

Tuesday, 29th October 2019

Just a little bit excited today,  as  we are going back to Gibraltar to explore it more. We have a bus tour booked so we can enjoy the day without the hassles of traffic. Our tour leaves at 12.30 and we arrive early, but that is a good thing, as we have sufficent time to find parking, and to locate where the tour leaves from. Plus, we have to go through the customs again, and being unsure as to how long the lines were, we decided to err on the side of caution, and be early. I always get a bit nervy when we have to show passports, even though I know everything is good, one never knows. We pass through and find the suggested parking place, and go up 7 levels until we find a park. The first few floors of the parking station are private. Then we locate where the bus leaves from, and there is  man there, who comes over to us, and tells us we have arrived at the right place and that we have a bit of time, and suggests we can go to the cafe downstairs or just a couple mins walk go to the main street. We elect to go to the main street, after we have had a comfort stop, which incidently happened to be at the right time, as, when I entered there was no one about, and when I opened the door to get out of the cubicle, there was a waiting line on both ends of the building.
We get to the main street, and it seems to stretch on for a long way. Bob has not had breakfast, so we find a cafe, and order some food to sustain us while we are on the tour, which is a couple of hours.
We head back to the departure place, and wait, and other folks start to arrive and mill around. We have drivers arriving and the guy we spoke to earier arrives, and heads over to where we are to do some paper work. So starts the loading process. He and another lady are consumed with people wanting to get on board, and they are told to wait, as  the buses shuffle positions. It seems there are about 5 buses that are leaving, and a couple of these buses, are doing the WW11 tunnels. Our man signals us over, as he has already seen our ticket earlier, and we get to board the bus first, and we are doing the war tunnels tour.
Once under way, our bus driver gives the audio guide of the area, and the history aswell. It turns out this driver has been driving the buses since 1975. He manouvers the bus around the tight corners and narrow streets, and I am glad we have choosen do to the bus tour. Our first stop is at the Light house and the old cannon on Europa point.   As we wind our way up this huge rock, our guide tells us of the history of the battles of the past, and all about the naval base. There was a 50 percent naval personel, and 50 percent civilan presence until the late '70s. We stop at St Michaels cave, which was absolutely amazing. It is believed that this cave is bottomless, and inside the cave is used for performances of ballet, music and other things. It is a massive cavern and has been presented with a light spectical. This stop was also where the Barbary macaques monkeys are. This is the only wild monkey population on the European continent. They were just so awesome to view, and get up close too. Although you could not touch them, they did let you get close enough to get some great photos. There were a variety of sizes, including a couple of baby ones.
We get back on board the bus, and continue the tour, and our next point of interest is the WW11 tunnels. This is another amazing stop. The effort required to drill out and dig out the rock so that the millitary forces could defend the rock, is mind blowing. In its prime, it housed 16000 men, and had 5 hospitals operating.  It has 55 kms of tunnels throughout  and was able to be used for up to 16 months. It is explained that it was designed to have a slight gradient so that water would drain out by gravity. Water had to be shipped in, as there is no water source on Gibralter, and even now, all houses have a duel system. The toilets are used with salt water,   and then have normal water for everything else. And even for the fresh water for the millitary personell in the tunnels, it was designed to use gravity to feed the water to where it was required.
We have another stop, at a lookout, and then we are winding our way down the hill, all the time having points of interest pointed out to us. As most of the people  on the bus are from the cruise ship that is in dock at the moment, our driver decides to drop them back to the wharf, but not before he drops of those who are not on the ship, at a point near to the city centre. We get off, and ask how far to the bus terminal and the driver says we can stay on, because we are going back to where he is going. It turns out that the ship is the Sky Princess, and is a brand new ship. The passengers have to show their boarding pass medalion, and of course we don't have one, so our driver explains that we are not getting off, and all is ok. After the passengers disembark at the required area, we have the bus to ourselves, and return to the bus terminal.
We take a walk back to the main street, and explore it a bit further. It is a gathering of tourist shops, food, clothes, of which I guess they are all rather pricey, as it is a tourist mecca. We find a currency exchange place, as Bob has some Dirham that needs to be changed back to Euro. So after this is done, we find a place to have a drink, as it feels like it is beer o'clock. We have our beverages, and then we head back to get the car and head back to Arcos. It has been a great day. 

Wednesday, 30th October 2019

A fairly quiet day today, just a little walk into town to post of a couple of things. Started  to pack things up as  this is our last day here in Arcos de la Fronteria. It has been a wonderful time here, and our accommodation has been good. Walking up and down the streets with their hills has been good for our fitness levels, although not all together good for Bob and his knee at times. We go out for tea, at the place we went to no long after we got here.

Thursday, 31st October 2019

We leave Arcos around 9.30 after our hosts relative makes sure the key and everything is ok. I recieve a hug from  this lady, even though we didn't speak much during our time there, I always said Hola when I saw her.
We have planned a stop at a place called Jazcar, which is a hour and thirty min drive, or 105 kms. Jazcar is a village in Spain that is totally blue, as in the colour. It was painted blue, as a promotional village for the Spanish release of  movie The Smurfs. After the movie was made, the film company offered to repaint the homes back to original colours, but it was refused, and the residents voted to keep their homes blue.
It was a wonderful experience, and there even is a huge Poppa Smurf statue in the town, with lots of arty reference to the smurfs. This place is tucked away in the mountians, and it is a very windy road to travel to, but so worth it.
After we leave Juzcar, we are headed for Granada, as we are overnighting there on our way to Gata de Gorgos. Juzcar to Granada is a 3 hrs drive or 262 kms. We share the driving on this league of  the trip, and I take the wheel from Juzcar, travelling down the windy roads.
We arrive in Granada at our hotel, eventually after the mandatory wrong and missed turns. Fortunately our hotel has parking for the carm so after we have found our way to the parking lot, we then settle into our room and taken in the view.  We venture out into the evening and take a stroll down the streets, this is the first time we have been out at night when it is dark. Given that up until now, darkness decends around 8 8.30pm, so this is a pleasant time. There are lots of people about, as it is halloween night, but it is still very enjoyable. We check out a couple of statues, and a water feature and go down some other streets, looking for something to have for dinner. We eventually get almost back to the hotel, before we find somewhere that is not to busy and we dine on good food. Day is done so we head back to the hotel for the rest of the evening.

Friday, 1st November 2019

We start the day with the Hotel breakfast, and then ask if it is ok to leave the car in the park until we come back from exploring the city. Bob has found the equivalent to a hop on hop off bus here, except it is like a train on wheels. We ask directions for the closest stop at the recpetion, and make our way to the said destination. We are somewhat early, so decide to walk about where we are. We are at a Bull ring, and we walk around it, taking in all that there is about. Unfortunately, at this time, 9am there is not much open.  So we wait in the park for some time, hoping that the little train will come soon. Eventually it does arrive, and we board after we have purchased our tickets. We get to one stop and are told we have to disembark as this train is out of action, and another one will be along soon. We take in the surrounds and there are a few market type stalls there, selling artwork and photography, and the usual tourist shops selling their wares, and of course the coffee/bar places. We meander around, and get back to the waiting stop, and the number of  passengers swell. We will be lucky to get onto the next train that comes, but we do. It is now a case of don't get of, otherwise you might not get back on.
We travel around the city and take in the history and listen to the audio telling us all about Granada. Our stop comes by that we originally got on at, and we hop off and head back to the car. The tour took about one and a half hours.
Our next destination is Gata de Gorgos. A distance of  440 kms or 4 hrs and 20 mins. Again, the driving is shared, and we are given the gps co ordinates for our next accommodation. How wrong could it go. You would think not likely with gps, but as in our true style, it takes us to somewhere that is not even remotely near where we should be. We go down some very interesting roads, and then they get more interesting, as they are now just tracks, so the decision is made to turn round, and the proves to be interesting in itself. So now we try a different tact, and use the directions given via the tripit app, and that is no better. So eventually contact is made with the host and he offers to come and meet us somewhere, which we accept, as it is now dark. After a short time our host knocks on the car window and takes us to where we need to be. And thank goodness he did, as I am sure we may not have found it on our own, as it is down some one way roads, that twist and turn, and have blind corners on them. Our host shows us through the place, and tells us a few things, and he is on his way. Our accommodation appears to be nice, and will have to see what it looks like in the morning.

Saturday, 2nd November 2019.

Our lodgings are good, as we are out of town a little way, and it is nice and quiet. There are lots of orange trees growing around us, and there are some pidgoens in their boxes here. Our view is amazing, as we look out at a huge mountain of rock. We go into the township of Gata de Gorgos to get some food items, and it seems a nice area. Gata de Gorgos is known for its wicker making, and we see some shops with baskets and assorted items on display. We take a walk around the town, and do our shopping efore we head back to our place.

Sunday, 3rd November 2019

Quiet day and washing done. We go for a walk about our area here, as the roads are all paved, and relatively flat.