On Saturday we drove an hour south to the Rock of Gibraltar. Gibraltar is owned by the UK so we had to pass through the "frontier" aka border to get into English territory. It went very smoothly. We just drove up and showed our passports. The rock itself is a huge mountain (1,397 ft high) surrounded by flat land...and ocean. It has been a well known piece of land over the centuries. It is a strategic place to have a stronghold in any conflict. The Allies had it in WWII and even General MacArthur came here to oversee plans for battles.
There are thirty miles of tunnels and fortifications carved into of the rock. It even had a hospital.
Naturally, it also has a beautiful cave with cave stuff! Haha! You know, stalagmites and stalactites and such? Anyhow, it was cool to see. This picture is on our drive up to it.
Our E-bike tour was led by a man named Dave. He loved to talk so we learned a lot about the history of the rock. He knew a lot about the military information because he worked for the RAF for twenty years. He retired from the Air Force and now he and his family live full time in Gibraltar.
The first part of our tour brought us to this point. It is a picture of Gibraltar's Airport runway. It is used for military and civilian airplanes. This is the only place in the world that people are allowed to walk on a commercial runway. When the traffic arms come down the pedestrian and bike traffic stops, and a street sweeper comes out to clean the runway. Shortly thereafter as we looked into the distance we could see a big plane coming in for landing. We were lucky enough to see two jets come in just after we crossed over. One was a huge British Airways passenger jet. I cannot remember what the other was.
One of our first stops was at this working lighthouse. Right across from it was a park filled with kids playing either soccer or rugby. I couldn't tell which. (I was concentrating on riding my bike with moving cars around me)
We made a couple of stops on our way up because it was steep and hard. We had a nice view of the North African coastline and lower Gibraltar with it's port. We could see all the way across the bay to Algeciras.
I was so glad that we had E-bikes on this tour but even still it was a lot of work! Many people were riding regular bikes up! There are some serious bike riders in this world!
This was the cave portion. We took about fifteen minutes to walk through the cave. They also had a light show going on in the cave. Pretty neat!
After a couple of intense hills we made it to the top! What amazing, glorious views!
On our way up we had ridden past this beach. This shows how high up we rode!
The Skywalker deck allowed us to walk out on a clear deck to look down over the cliff.
Coming down was a hoot! So glad that the brakes were working because they were used ALL the way down!
This is the Moorish Castle we passed on our way back down.
Here is a picture of us at the end of our ride posing with Dave.
He had given us a recommendation to eat at the Rendezvous restaurant. It was quite a walk from where we left our bikes but we surely enjoyed our meal.
There was so much food! I ordered a steak with potatoes and veggies.
Rick ordered the ribs.
We both had leftovers and took them home for our Sunday dinner.
Even though we did not finish our meals we had to have dessert.
I ordered the lemon creme brûlée which was too delicious!
Rick ordered the brownie and ice cream.
This was so good, too:)
We enjoyed our drive back to our hotel and were glad to relax the rest of the evening.
We ordered some soup and nachos for a light dinner since our lunch was so big.
It was Scout's 9th birthday so we gave her a call, and she had a good time showing us her presents from her party the day before. She is so cute and was excited for the day!
The next morning was church. We drove to the Algeciras Branch about forty five minutes away from our hotel. We got to meet some really nice people in the branch. Rick was able to translate for me so that was helpful. A sister named Michele gave the first talk and then was followed by the full-time missionaries. They were really great meetings.
After Sunday School we visited in the hall with a young sister named Anna Christina who has a young son (9 or 10 months old) named Charles. She said she is from Panama, and her husband (Jose') from Portugal (he was sick that day and not there). When Rick asked how they got together she told us their story: She received a scholarship to study in Portugal and met her (future) husband there a few years ago, and they became friends. They were both raised Catholic. One night Jose' had a dream (in English, which is very unusual for him, she said). In the dream he saw a man dressed in white who told him, "My name is Joseph. I am a prophet. I was shot and killed". He awoke quite disturbed about it. It continued to bother him, so the two of them searched on the internet to find if there was a prophet named Joseph who was shot and killed. They learned about Joseph Smith on Wikipedia. They then found info online about the Church, and Jose' filled out a 'referral' type card to learn more. He received a call from someone in London...the person mentioned that when they received the referral card they believed it may be a joke, because they rarely receive referrals that way. They contacted someone in the ward near Jose', and soon the missionaries began teaching them both. Jose' was prepared to accept all that the missionaries taught...they even told him that they had never had anyone so readily accept the law of tithing as he did :). It took Anna a little bit longer. They were both baptized in 2019. They were married civilly at the beginning of 2020 so that parents could attend, then toward the end of February they were sealed in the Lisbon temple. They were the last couple to be sealed in that temple just before it shut down because of Covid. Just days after their sealing, Jose' left to Bulgaria for a new job that he had received. She followed later. Anna then told us,"As I tell this story it still gives me goose bumps". What a wonderful story! So glad we got to hear it! The Lord does all of the 'behind-the-scenes work; we just have to show up & do our part.
After our meetings we drove further south to Tarifa. We wanted to get information about parking and leaving our car for our trip over to Morocco which would happen 2 days later. We got what we needed and drove around Tarifa a little bit and headed back to the hotel. By the time we returned it was time for dinner so we ordered up some room service and enjoyed our sweet suite!
We also walked out to the pool to see the wonderful sunset on the mountains.
The next morning was our day to see Marbella. We After breakfast we packed up our swimsuits and headed over to the beach. This was both Rick's and my very first time to set foot in the Mediterranean Sea. It was a bit chilly but after getting in for a bit it was ok. Mostly I enjoyed beach combing. There were a lot of small pieces of sea glass on the beach so both Rick and I collected a bunch for the kiddos.
Marbella, Spain
After Marbella we went back to the hotel and spent a couple of lovely hours at the pool.
We got in and enjoyed the cool water but mostly enjoyed our time out of the pool.
Rick ordered a Mango smoothie and I read my book:)
That night we found an Italian restaurant not too far from our hotel in a place called San Pedro.
Those little rolls there (in the picture) I think are the best rolls I have ever had!
That's sayin' a lot!
Pizza was good too:) I can't remember what Rick ate. Something Italian😉
Lat night in Marbella. We went home and got packed up and got to bed.
We would have an early morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment