Today was a travel day. After a quick breakfast in Tarifa (I love how everywhere serves fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast), we hiked to the bus terminal to take a bus to Algeciras. Upon arriving, we crossed the street from the Algeciras bus terminal to the train station and boarded a 4+ hour slow-speed train to Granada. I slept most of the ride, but Valerie mentioned that the scenery was quite beautiful. Once in Granada, other tourists occupied the available taxis, so we took the very convenient high capacity bus from just outside the station to the Cathedral and walked to our hotel.

Chefchaouen is a small city about 2.5 hours southwest of Tangier. We hired a tour guide to drive us to Chefchaouen, take us on a walking tour of the city, and then drive us back to the ferry port to meet a ferry back to Tarifa. The city is probably famous for many reasons, but what struck us is its color. The bottom half of all the buildings in the old town are blue. Our guide said that the color was for “the eyes and the heat” meaning that it is pretty and keeps the town cool. I have no idea if this is true or not.

We started our walk at the top of the old town near the “waterfall” which was actually a natural spring which flowed into the town’s clothes-washing area. We walked down through the town and admired the twisting alleys, blue walls, and communal bakeries before reaching the plaza at the bottom. We ate lunch at a nearby restaurant that only served tourists and cost a bit more but did not lead to any intestinal distress. (Yay!)

During the long drive, we noticed that everyone in Morocco drives with their windows down. As far as we can tell, no one uses air conditioning in their vehicles.

Tomorrow, we are taking the train to Granada where we will be spending three days.

During our travels, we often wonder if we can drink the tap water wherever we happen to be. In the United States, tap water is usually potable, available at public drinking fountains, and served for free in restaurants; bottled water is usually considered a luxury. However, this is not the case in many countries. As a general rule, we have noticed that the cheaper bottled water is, the less drinkable the tap water is.

We woke up early so we could eat breakfast at 8am and catch the 9am ferry to Tangier. We had churros for breakfast since it was the only café open at 8am. After scarfing down some churros, we picked up our tickets from the dock, passed through Spanish immigration and boarded the ship. On the ship, we had to line up again for Moroccan immigration before we could disembark.

Finally, we were in Africa (the 5^th continent visited in our various travels)! Valerie was afraid that we would face an onslaught of touts when we disembarked the ferry. And we were, but not more than in Sicily or Sardinia. After waiting a few minutes, we met our tour driver who drove us to meet our tour guide. We did a bunch of touristy things, like drink Moroccan mint tea, ride camels, and eat a hardy “typical” lunch of bread, soup, tagine, and fruit. After lunch, our guide led us on a walking tour of the medina (old town Tangier) that ended in the big square.

We walked around town on our own, but without a guide to “protect” us, we were frequently assailed by more touts, which Valerie fended off for us. After getting lost several times, we found our way to the hotel and sat on their terrace, admiring the view of the new cruise ship terminal being built below.

Tomorrow, we’re taking a taxi tour of Chefchaouen before heading back to Tarifa.

We took a long bus ride to Tarifa today. The town was crowded because of a kite-surfing competition (that we didn’t know about). After checking into our hotel, we walked along the beach, watching the throngs of tourists and locals enjoying the warm sun and sea.

We found a restaurant on TripAdvisor and shared a plate of filet steak and two glasses of tinto de verano. We have noticed that Spanish restaurants do not mind if you split a plate. (However, they do think it is weird if you split a drink.)

Tomorrow, we are headed to Tangier in Morocco!

We slept in until noon and missed our included breakfast. Around 1pm, we headed out for lunch, which would probably be considered an early lunch by Spaniards. We shared a 5 tapas and .5L of sangria combo.

We finally started our sightseeing and visited the cathedral and the royal alcazar. The cathedral is the largest by surface area (according to the Guinness Book), but otherwise quite similar to other large cathedrals. The royal alcazar was even more Moorish and grander than the previous alcazars we have seen. Behind the alcazar is a large garden that would be lovely to stroll through on a warm evening. Alas, we had no time to stroll as it was time for our flamenco show.

The Casa del Flamenco show was a lot like other flamenco shows we’ve seen. There were one male and one female dancer, a guitarist, and a vocalist. The male dancer and guitarist were quite good.

Afterward, we walked to the Plaza de Espana, which Rick did not recommend but was rated highly on TripAdvisor. A beautiful landmark, it is definitely worth a visit, even if only for a couple of minutes.

It was getting late, so we headed to the restaurant directly outside our hotel and shared a plate and some drinks before going to bed.

Today, we took the train to Sevilla via Madrid. On the ride south, Renfe (Spanish train system) played the movie Le nom des gens (The Names of Love) in Spanish and French (with Spanish subtitles). Since neither Valerie nor I are fluent in Spanish or French, we spent a great deal of the movie trying to figure out what was going on in the quirky French film. (We still don’t know.)

After arriving at Sevilla, we walked to our hotel in the Santa Cruz barrio. (In retrospect, we should have taken a bus.) After settling in, we took a Rick Steves walking tour of the barrio, during which we met another couple doing the same walking tour. We also signed up for a Flamenco dance show tomorrow recommended by Rick.

Valerie has been having trouble sleeping on the hard Spanish beds. Since we don’t have any early morning plans for tomorrow morning, we will probably sleep in.

We woke up around 8am this morning to catch our trains to Toledo via Madrid. Rick Steves recommends spending two nights in Toledo, but we only scheduled one, so our tour of the city was abbreviated. Our first stop was the cathedral and its associated museum. Admission is a steep 8 euro, but it’s a slightly more impressive cathedral than most. Our other sightseeing stop was the Santa Cruz Museum, which is free and will be featuring an exhibit on El Greco in the future, but sadly not while we were there. On the way back to the hotel, we ate a dinner of tapas and wine at a restaurant outside the cathedral.

Some of the online reviews that Valerie has read say that Segovia can be seen in a 3 hour daytrip. They are correct.

There are three major attractions in Segovia: the cathedral, the alcazar, and the aqueduct. The cathedral is a lot like other mid-size cathedrals in Europe. Its main draws are that it is close to the center of town and it is technically free to enter (although a small donation is requested). The alcazar is an old castle on a hill and is much like other castles on hills except more Moorish. For an extra 2 euro, one can make the exhausting climb to the top of the tower for a slightly better view. Finally, the ancient Roman aqueduct is a fairly impressive feat of engineering, but we could not figure out how to view the top of it up close. (Although we saw what looked like a person on top of it, so it is possible.)

We have noticed that many restaurants offer a “typical” menu from the area (where typical seems to refer to local specialties). Valerie was excited to try roasted suckling pig, a typical food of Segovia. At the restaurant we visited, the meal also included local beans, local soup, and a bottle of wine.

We are staying at the Hotel Don Felipe, which is a pretty darn nice hotel for being located in the old town. Tomorrow, we are heading out early for Toledo and on Thursday we are heading to Sevilla.

We woke up pretty late today and had to rush to see today’s sights. On our way to the Royal Palace, we picked up two ham sandwiches to go and ate them on the walk over. About halfway through the sandwiches, we arrived at the palace and began our tour. Equipped with a Rick Steves walking tour and a palace audioguide (4 euro), we quickly walked around the palace and its many rooms admiring the frescos, furniture, and matching wallpaper made of cloth (wallcloth?). Like many palaces, the Royal Palace lacks hallways, with each room connected directly to several other rooms. Unlike many palaces, this palace has air conditioning, which provided much needed relief from the Madrid heat.

From the palace, we took metro to the Prado Museum. After 6pm, the Prado has free admission! Using Rick Steves as our guide, we quickly followed his self-guided tour before being shooed out by security when the museum closed. There was a lot of art, which Valerie seemed to enjoy. I enjoyed sitting at the many benches dispersed throughout the museum. Afterward, we picked up a quick meal of pimientos and beer at a nearby tapas place.

Finally, we followed Rick’s advice and took bus 27 to its northern terminus so we could see modern metropolitan Madrid, which was much more city-like than the old town. We looked around for a couple minutes before hopping on a metro back to our hotel room.

Tomorrow, we are taking a train to Segovia.