AUGUST 2006 - ANDALUSIA

In the summer of 2006 we travelled to Malaga, Cadiz, the Algarve in Portugal and Lisbon.

In this entry I'm going to talk about Andalusia and in the next, I'm going to talk about Portugal

In Malaga we stayed at Javi’s aunt home. Thouse days there was the Malaga’s fair, so we went all the days. We had some friends on holidays there too, so at day we went to the beach and we stay with the family and at night we went to the fair with friends, and go to party. We had a nice time. We stayed for four days.

After this, we went to Vejer de la Frontera, a village in the province of Cadiz. Is a very typical Andalusian village, with narrow streets and white houses wich in summer have 24 days of fair. Our hotel was called The San Francisco’s Convent a long time ago was a convent. Is of rustic ambience and the rooms are very well. We also had half pension and the meal was very good. Vejer is in the closest of Los Caños de Meca and Barbate and is in the top of a hill, from which you can see all the valley.

FIRST DAY:  GIBRALTAR-BOLOGNE BEACH-TARIFA

The first day we had the perfect idea to go to Gibraltar, an area in the Southest of Spain which belongs to the United Kingdom. It was a bad idea, because it was raining a lot, you always can go by a national road and was full of cars that went to Tarifa to took the ferrys to go to Morocco. We needed four hours to do only 60 km. Was terrible. At three o’clock in the afternoon we arrived to La Línea de la Concepción, the village where is the Gibraltar’s customs. We’re waiting for one hour to acced to Gibraltar. At the end, Javi and me thought it was much better if we parked the car out of Gibraltar, because if not we had to do queue in the custom, and we were so full of waiting all the day. So we parked out and free and we enter by feet. Just when you walk on trouhg to the other side you can take some buses to go to the centre or you can walk. We decide to go walking because we were tired of being in the car, but is quite fat. We wanted to take the cable car to go up to the craggy rock. At the top there is a church, a cave and some monkeys which are very typical there. But we couldn’t do it, because was 5 o’clock and was closed!!! In august with a lot of tourists. I really don’t understand this timetables. I understad this in the winter but in summer? Anyway we were walking by the city. It is fine. There are pedestrian  streets, all the indications are in English and the signs looked like the signs in London or Dublin, for example.

You can pay with Euros or Pounds. We were looking the shops and we bought some tobaco for our parents but it’s not worth it because is only a little cheapper than Spain. We aet at a Burger King and this was more expensive than in Spain. At 6:30 in the evening came back to Spain and we were to the Bologna Beach, that is near of it. There are some Roman ruins very interestings to visit and the ticket is very cheap (I think 3 € more or less but I don’t remember very well).

After that we went to Tarifa, the surf paradise, with its long beaches of white and die sand. As was a few late, we went to have a walk by the beach but we didn’t have a bath. What yes we did was to walk by the old town, who remembres some city of Morocco. During a lot of years, Tarifa had a lot of arab influence and the people still taking the ferrys to go cross the Straits. We drunk a very good milkshake in a very curious place. It was something like a coffee-library, fulled of white tables and shelves with a lot of books, where you can enjoy of a good coffe, tea, milkshake of what you want with a good book. It’s a pitty that I don’t remember the name…Then we came back to he hotel.

SECOND DAY: VEJER DE LA FRONTERA- LOS CAÑOS DE MECA-BARBATE.

In the morning we were useful to visit the village, that is very nice. We went to do a guide visit, but we were waiting for the guide one hour so we decided to do allane. Then, we went to the Palmar Beach, that belongs to Vejer and we had a bath in a little cove in Los Caños. We ate fried fish in a bar next to the beach.

After we went to Barbate and had another bath, although the water was cold. We walked by the beach, the seafront and we ate and ice-cream.

THIRD DAY: CHICLANA DE LA FRONTERA-CADIZ-EL PUERTO DE SANTA MARIA-JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA.

The third and the last day we decided to visit more cities. In Chiclana we had a walk through the village and in the tourism office gave us some advices. There were some museums but we didn’t visit anyone. Also it has beatiful beaches, like Sancti Petri or Novo Sancti Petri, who are the bests.

Then we arrived to Cadiz, who is so nice. It has a very nice old town and a bay with beautiful blue water. There was a medieval flea market inside the walls and was very pleasant to walk by there because it was to the shade and was covering an agreeable breeze. The churh is also very nice and the monuments in the closenest. Also is an shopping area with a lot of bars and restaurants, so we had lunch there. After that we went to El Puerto de Santa María, another city close to Cadiz. The problema we had was that was 3:00 o’clock and all was closed and it was very hot. We were a long time trying to find the tourism office but it was no possible. We only could to see the Medinaceli’s dukes’s palace in the outsider and ate an ice-cream.

We finish the evening in Jerez de la Frontera, wich also is vey nice. We had a walk by the old town and visit the Alcazar, an arab palace seemed to the palaces we can find inside the Alhambra, that I also recommend.

That night, at every night, we going out in Vejer, because there was the fair. The following day we put course towards Portugal.