Thursday in Spain

Unfortunately, I was slow to get moving on Thursday morning and we had to modify several plans that day.  The first was learning that we couldn't get Alhambra tickets for any of the days that we could make Granada work, so we had to cancel that plan.  The second change came around lunch time.  We had been heading south towards Tarifa, so that we could catch the ferry to Morocco and spend the day there.  At lunchtime, I finally admitted that we weren't going to make it in time to see Morocco that day.  The next day (Friday) is their holy day and we didn't have enough to see in that area to wait around until Saturday.  I'm bummed to have missed out on Morocco, but will have to pick it up on one of my next trips.

Because we made that decision, we were able to stop and enjoy lunch along the Costa del Sol.  The restaurant we chose was suffering from an invasion of ladybugs so we were covered with them almost as soon as we sat down.  I've actually never seen so many ladybugs in one place.  The restaurant was actually losing business because of it.  But our sangria was delicious and the food was outstanding, and the ladybugs were avoidable once we switched to an inside table.  Our waitress was very sweet and we liked her enough to invite her to come visit us in Seattle.

With the change in plans for the day, we bumped Gibraltar up a day.  We took a tour of the Rock and were fascinated by the history of that area, as well as the amazing views.  They have a long and varied history, but are proud British citizens now.  Our favorite part was the view from the top.  I took video of the amazing 360 degree view, but I am certain that it won't be able to do justice to the amazing sights!

After our afternoon in England, we started back up the coast again, headed towards Barcelona.  We made it to Malaga before I demanded food.  We ended up at a cafeteria, trying to use their wi-fi to look up hotels.  The streets were narrow, one way, and difficult to navigate.  We were tired and really wanted to find a place, but weren't having much luck.  Finally we just decided to head a little bit out of town.  There weren't many options on the way out of town, so we finally pulled off the freeway again at Cala del Moral.  Lucky us, we found a fabulous little gem of a hotel with low prices and friendly staff.  The desk clerk told me that I was very beautiful, which I'm sure was a lie since it was 11pm at night and I was exhausted.  But we got checked in and then we happily collapsed in bed and slept.

In the morning, I headed out for my first post-marathon run.  It was quite muggy out, but I enjoyed the opportunity to run along the paseo and on a great path up and around a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Ocean.