Seville to Algeciras and Morocco, Grenada and the end of our Iberian adventure.

Looking at Gibraltar from Algeciras Harbor

We were now nearing the home stretch of our eight week odyssey across Spain and Portugal. We departed Seville by bus and headed to the southern tip of Spain. When we hit the coastal highway before Algeciras,  I excitedly scanned the sea to catch a glimpse of Africa. Eventually I was rewarded with the grey forms of that continent in the hazy distance!

Africa!

We were staying in Algeciras, a fairly unglamorous little city on the Mediterranean coast. We decided on this place because of its proximity to both Gibraltar and access to Morocco via ferry service. The hotel we stayed at was right on the harbor, which I thought was pretty cool, although the area around it is a little sketchy. Doing a little research I found that Gibraltar was an easy bus ride. Getting to Tangier was not too difficult either, the tour service I found would bus us to the nearby town of Tarifa, from which we could catch the ferry for the 45 minute cruise to Tangier. This, and a guided tour of the city was offered for 49 Euro's, (only about $75), so what the heck!

We went to Gibraltar first, the bus dropped us off at the neighboring Spanish town, then we walked over to the "Rock" It kind of reminded me of walking into Tijuana from San Ysidro, except that you had to cross Gibraltar's airport's runway to get into town! Man, you don't want to forget to look both ways there! 

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An iconic view.

There are lots of tunnel complexes all through the Rock!

I kid you not, you have to walk across the runway!

It's interesting to visit Gibraltar, one of those places you've heard about all your life. Mostly English is spoken here, although it seemed like most people working there had a pretty good accent. There were lots of pubs and we stopped and had a pint of course. We couldn't stay long though, and after hiking through the village we had to head back. Sadly, I didn't catch sight of the Gibraltar apes. Maybe next time! 

Actually, the bus ride to was interesting too. We realized that there was a lot more to Algeciras than the harbor, it's quite a large town. Strolling around looking for dinner we found some nice parts too with good shopping and dining. It's just the waterfront that's a little sketchy!

Next day, we caught our bus to Tarifa and boarded a large ferry to Tangier. I was happy to be able to squeeze this little side trip in; I wasn't sure if we could do it, but it turned out to be a pretty routine thing to do. The ferry ride was about 45 minutes or so and was pretty nice. Quite a variety of people on the ferry, kind of  an exotic looking crowd, too, with the Muslim and African influences mingling with the European. 

At Tangiers Harbor

Arriving at the harbor in Tangier, we cleared the immigration checkpoint easily, but had to wait for the rest of our small party booked for our tour. It was small indeed, with Shelly and I and another couple from Italy, our driver and our guide! We piled into a van and headed into town. The guide kept a running commentary going on about the history of Morocco and Tangier and pointed out several points of interest. At one point we stopped at a small field beside the road to see camels! This was a small tourist stand where you could ride and pose with the animals. We were content to just look at them and snapped a couple of photos.

We eventually came to a large square and alit from the the bus. Across the square we passed through an arched gate and entered the Kasbah! The Kasbah is really nothing more than a shopping district. Very quaint and cramped and interesting to visit. Eventually our guide brought us to a room for lunch. I would not have guessed it was a restaurant from the outside, but inside it was a nice comfortable place. There was even a quartet that performed for us during our meal. The food was not half bad either!

At the Kasbah!

They make these tours pay by taking the tourists to various vendors who hawk their wares to them. After lunch we were taken to a large rug maker's shop for the full treatment. Well, it wasn't too bad and I learned more about rugmaking than I ever wanted to. We also had the chance to visit some of the many small shops in the Kasbah and to be polite, we did buy a couple of small things. Then it was back to the ferry and back to Spain! All in all, it was a fun day and well worth the 50 Euros. It also gave me a taste of Morocco, I think I would like to wander through that country again someday...

It was now time to leave Algeciras and start heading back towards Madrid. Time for one more stop before that, so we booked a room in Granada! This was an impulse since I knew almost nothing about the city, but it was along the way to Madrid so what the heck? A little research revealed that the #1 tourist location in Granada was the Alhambra, a Moor citadel which was the final Moorish stronghold taken by the Spanish in the reconquista in 1492.

View of Granada from the Alhambra.

Reading some tourist literature, I was getting a little apprehensive about being able to visit the Alhambra, as it is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Spain! It sounded like getting passes was really difficult unless you had made reservations. However, it all turned out fine since we were definitely in the off season; early November! There was a large line when we approached the entrance, but I noticed something that indicated that the lines were at the "cash only" gates. There was another set of kiosks for credit cards that were hardly being used! I walked up and got our passes, then we just walked up through the gates, no waiting at all!

An example of the Moorish design of the Alhambra.

The Alhambra is a vast complex of buildings. However, I think the most impressive feature is simply the view of Granada from the Alhambra. Just wonderful.

After spend several hours there, we walked back into town and wandered around. We had dinner at "Shawarma King", a mediterranean style cafe which looked suspiciously like a Burger King.
Next day we were back on the train for Madrid. We stayed at the AC Carlton, the same place we stayed the first night eight weeks ago, and which was very close to the train station. We walked around a bit. The Prado was not very far from our hotel and offered free admission in the evening so we went by and took in some of the art.

Finally back in Madrid...we find a mariachi band!

We spent a couple of nights in Madrid, preparing for the long flight home. As we were old hands now at Spanish life, we found a comfortable small cafe for breakfast and enjoyed our last cafe con leche.

Finally it was time for one last train ride...to the airport. We packed up our larger things into a duffel and checked it on our flight. Our route home took us back through DFW, where we had some extremely expensive beer...then back in the air for our final leg home. We'd been gone for 8 weeks, and it was good to be back home. Sam had watched our house for us while we were gone and he had done a good job keeping clean! The only bad news was the small flood that occurred in our garage during a freak downpour. Fortunately no permanent damage occurred. 

Doing the Camino de Santiago was an experience I'll remember all my life. The three weeks of touring after were also exciting but man, oh man, we were beat! Next time I will do the Camino and then go home.Do touring in a separate trip, combining the two was just too much; we carried some stuff on the Camino for our tour afterwards that we didn't use for those first 5 weeks, and then we carried a lot of stuff while touring that was only useful for the Camino! So that's my advice to anyone who wants to do the Camino: plan on doing just that! It will make things a lot simpler!

But most of all, do it!

Here's a selfie taken at the start of the
Camino at St. Jean Pied de Port...

...And here we are after 8 weeks of travel.