After we leave Sos we travel north to the Basque country and the sea., What do we first notice; beautiful rolling green hills, “a land of exceptional beauty”. Although I have never been to Austria or Switzerland, I imagine this a similar landscape. I even see a few windmills, lots of neat and tidy stone homes, red tile roofs, terraced gardens, grapes. Everyone seems to have their own little sustainable homestead; garden, vineyard, a few cows, sheep and a place for everyone to roam.

We start to notice the Basque language popping up on signage. The Basque rightly consider themselves a bit different than the rest of Spain. “The oldest Europeans to speak the original European language.” What else do we know about Basque country? That for many travelers it’s a culinary path to the best food in Spain. San Sebastian alone is credited with 16 Michelin stars and described as one of the “culinary capitals of the planet”. For Mike and I, we’re more the “pintxo” type. That is to describe the Basque tapas. Small offerings literally stacked on a counter or table. Each being the “perfect 2 bite morsel”, exquisite taste, texture and appearance.

They are served both hot and cold, and made of what ever is a specialty of the establishment; lots for seafood; marinated anchovies, prawns, squid, crab, pate, mushrooms, eggs, pork, chicken, minced other stuff. Homemade bread and rolls. In ordering, you tell them what you want, they give you a little plate, and you pay at the end of your visit by the toothpick. Unusually around 1.50 Euro’s each. Dinner can be quite reasonable.

Accommodations; our first stop is in Lekeitio- Bizkaia, they have a population of around 8,000 and the village is gorgeous. There are 2 beautiful beaches, a large late Gothic church and a busy harbor where all gather to eat at the cafés and watch the boats bob. We are staying at Hotel Zubieta which is a lovely converted 16th century palace, elegant, old and in the center of town.

We have a small suite of rooms. The views from our windows are stunning countryside, flowers, gardens and other estates. We walk down to the harbor with the rest of the Sunday population and eat our pintxo and watch the boats bob.

Our next northern stop is in Cantabria & Asturias. The coastline is spectacular with sheer cliffs, beaches and small fishing villages. So many places, so little time. We choose village of Cudillero as our next stop. It is described as the most picturesque fishing village on the Asturias coast. “The houses painted in a rainbow of pastels, cascade down to a tiny port on a narrow inlet. We were not disappointed but kind of surprised that there were LOTS of people enjoying the tiny port and watching the boats bob around. Another thing about this place, everyone drinks unsweetened cider. They have this crazy contraption that holds the bottle of cider, then metal tube that sucks the cider out of the bottle, down into some ice then up another metal tube then squirts it into a glass that has to lay slightly on it’s side.

The whole purpose is the cider has to “bubble up” and get some air into it. We tried a bit of cider and it is quite tart with a little bit of fizz. It tastes sour if it does not have the bubbles. I can’t imagine drinking a whole lot of this cider, it must be an acquired taste because everyone drinks it.

Accommodations: Hotel Azpiaz slightly outside of town. It is very close to the crashing sea, there is a surf shop in our back yard and a babbling brook that runs by our open window. Accommodations are inexpensive and the restaurant is packed. Their seafood fare attacks people from all over and you need a reservation (which I made after seeing the lunch crowd).  Here are a few shots around our hotel, our simple room with map spread out, cords to recharge, research.

The fish is before I ate it.

From Sant Sadurni d’Anoia to Sos del Rey Catolico
Yesterday we left the lovely little grape growing town of Sant Sadurni and “headed for the hills” or rather the foothills of Pyrenees.
I wake up this morning, look out the window and imagine King Ferdinand II of Aragon strutting about as a 5 year old. He was indeed born in this hillside village in 1452 in the Sada Palace.

The locals call this place “Sos”.

Mike and I are staying in the heart this Aragonese village. The bell tolls every 15 minutes and little has changed since 1452. The cobble stone streets are tight, and complicated to a newcomer.

The sun slants thru different times of the day but it’s cool, everything is stone. It’s difficult to imagine present day village life working here at all but we begin to notice a few tienda’s and restaurants and shops tucked into nooks and crannies.

The hours are different here than in the US, businesses are open in the morning and evening. Does everyone really take a nap mid-day? Mike “squished” a copper coin (like we do a penny) with the likes of Ferdinand, oh my; he may have been impressed with this little trick. We are housed at the Hostal las Coronas, same digs offered in 1452 albeit a few improvements in plumbing and electric.

Our small apartment on the 4th floor overlooks a tight little plaza. Leaning over our balcony rail would not agree with my friend Gail. The height made me swoon. I took a picture of Mike smoking a cigar below in the plaza.

There are no cars and very few people. This place is amazing. Yester wandered, today we explore.

Our exploration first took us to Sada Palace the birth place of King Ferdinand II of Aragon. You would probably recognize his likeness; full puffy lips and little boy looks. And yes, he’s the one who kept Isabella happy by financing Columbus with the monies to start his little adventure to the new world. As the small museum and “presentation” showed their lives were not easy, filled with strife, religious unrest, battles and the continuous struggle for power. The views from the palace windows were stunning, the most memorable is the view is across the village to the “Keep Tower” of the castle.

There is nothing left of the 10th century castle except a few chimneys because it was built of wood. The tower however remains in total as in the 12th century. It remains the most important vestige of the castle and the village. The San Esteban Church right next door, has a Romanesque entrance which means pretty fancy, and the church holds a baptismal font from the 8th century. At first I thought the village quite small but the marks of progress since the 12th century are quite clear; there are market arcades complete with roman scales

(with the Argonese measuring stick), the Jewish quarter, schools, the town hall, the guild hall. All recycled; blending the Medieval with the new; families, businesses and a micro culture we were so very pleased to experience.

Somewhere in the 1960’s the champagne region of France decided to own the word “champagne”. Declaring that; from then on only grapes grown in the French region of “Champagne” can be made into the bubbly and called “Champagne”. Thus giving Spain the opportunity to call their bubbly “Cava”. The Cava district is approx. 1 hour northwest of Barcelona located in the town of Santa Sadurni Anoia. It’s a lovely drive; we passed fields of bright red poppies and buttercups and greens of every shade. The Spanish are proud of their Cava and like the French have decided to own their own word “Cava”. When we drink Cava in the US, it is from Spain, very close to the town of Sadurni Anoia. To get a feel for the place we went on a tour of the Cordornui vineyards and caves. And by caves, I don’t mean any sissy caves, 18 miles of underground caves. I told our guide, “you could run a marathon down here!” Cordornui is the oldest vineyard in Spain and also the oldest business. The Cordornui family purchased this land around the same time Columbus was hiking around in the new world. They painted their house the same time Michel Angelo was painting the Sistine Chapel. The architecture of the older cellars and production houses have a relation to Gaudi; under his influence and or an apprentice; they are quite special and defiantly have some “Gaudi going on”.

The second treat of the day was to attend a fashion show in the main square of Sadurni Anoia; I say fashion show in a very local way. It consisted of beautiful clothing, hair-do’s, hats, shoes, bags, glitz modeled by the local gentry. The whole town showed up and we all clapped for the outfits, and for the models who were everyone to the mayor, police chief. Grandma and Grandpa. Great fun!

For the next 3 days we explore, walk, and take the Metro all over Barcelona. On Easter Sunday we start out at Gaudy’s mother ship; La Sagrada Famila. It is truly the masterpiece every one describes and talks about. Gaudi was hired to build this basilica in 1882 to house 13,000 faithful. He wasn’t the first architect, and defiantly not the last as it’s also quite famous for being “unfinished”. I believe he was around to see the completed crypt and the apse although the entire design is rightly credited to him. Domenec Sugranes took over after Gaudi’s death in 1926.

As we visit on Easter Sunday the sky is blue and air is fresh and the La Sagrada Famila looks like it’s coming down the home stretch as far as the basic footprint is concerned. Eight of the 12 bell towers are completed. These represent the 12 apostles and are often the trademark photo shown and recognized by visitors from all over the world.

As we circled the building Michael tells me bible stories explaining various scenes depicted in sculpture and relief. He’s the greatest because naturally these stories are intertwined by his very own sense of humor which I know some of you are familiar with.

Our Lonely Planet guide book suggests “the best time to visit is at opening and on weekdays to avoid crowds”. What could possible go wrong at 11am on Easter Sunday? Ha ha, actually everything went right and we attended some of the catholic mass in the Crypt, it was lovely and we got sprinkled with holy water.
Over the next several days we viewed other Gaudi works including La Pedrera. Little things like his lamp posts became familiar and we are beginning to see his influence in and around Barcelona. I’ve coined a new tourist phrase “something ‘Gaudi going on”.
By now it’s about mid-day Easter and we are strolling the Barri Gotic.

Our destination is the Cathedral of Barcelona, and again everything went right. We attended part of the Catholic mass, admittance on Easter seemed quite liberal as long as you behaved yourself, chairs for everyone. It was very calming and beautiful.

Part 2 walking tour
We were feeling pretty confidant after graduating from the morning walking tour and decided to join the Tapas evening tour as well as the Flamenco Dance show. Again we were not disappointed. The interesting thing about these tours is Daweid (he explains the Spanish pronouncement), our guide for the evening feels absolutely dedicated that we “experience” not just look around and take pictures. It’s all about the history, culture and people. The first thing we did on the tapas tour was get to know the folks we were with.

We were all English speakers except one guy and this made it easier for us to meet these folks from all over the world; South Africa, Scotland, Spain, India, Asia, and the good old USA. David took us to 3 different tapas restaurants where we learned about the history of the food, and that the idea of tapas is more about socializing and not just eating. It was a lovely evening.
After we walked a few of our new friends back to their hotels we marched on to the Flamenco Show.

Flamenco again is more than what it seems. Venues are small and intimate, almost private. The music comes from 5 or 6 people seated on a small stage. Four of them are clapping, one is singing and one is playing the guitar. We become mesmerized, soon enough 2 dancers come pounding out from behind a curtain and the Flamenco begins. Astounding, hard to explain. It is a moving and emotional dance. We vibrate in our seats and the small crowd goes wild with appreciation.

Barcelona, Day 2.

I contribute out total success of un-befuddlement to a free walking tour offered by Sandmans New Europe. These are the folks running around in red shirts collecting the totally clueless and patiently guiding them into the subway, down the street and all over town. It’s Barcelona 101. We had a guy named Ed. Ed is highly educated in history, and an excellent fast talker which he needs to be in order to download this massive amount of information to the totally clueless.

As we marched around the Gothic neighborhood of Barcelona he covered the squares, cathedral, churches, architecture, sculpture, traditions, culture, music and more. The tour was around 3 hours and I’m not going into specifics, you need to come to Barcelona and meet Ed for yourself. In our defense, Mike and I did a massive amount of reading on things we wanted to see and do but without Ed’s introduction it would have taken weeks for us to find these places. We hadn’t been on a subway in 35 years. So thanks Ed. Also if you go on one of these tours; these guys work for tips, so don’t be afraid to show your appreciation.

I want to give a shout out to this  hostel “Generator” in the Gracia neighborhood. I booked a room here several months ago, not knowing a thing about Barcelona. This place has it all going on. First of all it is reasonably priced. Mike and I have a nice (private) room on the 7th floor with a patio/balcony larger than our room overlooking the roof tops of the neighborhood. I can see the guy across the street sipping coffee. He has on a white shirt, I’m going to wave in a moment.

We can also see the tip tops of the Casa de les Punxes, (looks like a Harry Potter castle) but is actually a work by Joseph Puig i Cadafalch and is one of the most emblematic works off Modernism (Catalan Art Nouveau). On the other side of the patio we can see the very tips of Gaudi’s mother ship; Basilica de la Sagrada Familiar. It’s a quiet neighborhood. Down in the lobby the most excellent staff check people in and out, provide a more than substantial menu; breakfast, lunch and dinner and have some great “hanging out spaces”. A true home in the city for us.

Day 13 on the ship was spent packing, sunning, making farewells and trying to figure out when and how to get off the ship with our 4,000 new best friends. Turns out we all had the same idea to “Quick and Carry” as suggested by the cruise line to speed up dis-embarking  Two hours later we were still dragging our bags around from one line to another.  I did remember to reclaim my knife (which wasn’t all that easy). There were five mega ships in port.  I’m not sure if they were arriving, departing our just hanging out but there were  massive amounts of people. After a little patience and a lot joking around we got our passports stamped, and found ourselves in a taxi, speeding into Barcelona.

As our voyage draws closer to Barcelona we make one final stop in Malaga, Spain. It is in southern Spain on Costa del Sol. The weather has become warm and beautiful. The city of Malaga is again built on the side of a hill. From the looks of things it would be quite a haul for us to walk to the city center so we squish on a bus with 60 others. We pass a market area obviously set up for us “cruisers” but I see lots of interesting things to check out on our way back. Mike and I wander around town a bit, we win some more euros at the ATM machine then decide to hike up to the fortress we have seen on our way into port.

The fortress is large and impressive. It guards the bay. We hike up and down the walls and ramparts, really fun and there are amazing views!

By the time we descend the day is about done and we are a little anxious to make it back to the ship in time. BUT we did have a short time at the “cruisers” market and I bought a mushroom brush. Ha ha really!

Day 4: Sometime in the very early morning we felt the ship slow, there was less rocking. We were drawing close to Bermuda our first and only stop before we really addressed “the pond”. Around 7 Mike pulled aside our black-out curtains and there was Bermuda in all its blue splendor. A tug boat called “Powerful” slipped alongside in case we needed a poke here or there. “Powerful” never touched us as our captain initiated our side thrusters and we sidled perfectly up to the dock. This captain is a pro. This ship is his small city. Mike and I hit the gym; with one other guy; we barely generated enough power to charge a flash light.

Bermuda – A Banner declares “Home of the 35th America’s Cup”
Around an hour later Mike and I hit the bricks of the Royal Navy Dock Yard in Bermuda. The Dock Yard not only welcomes most seagoing vessels to Bermuda; it also served England as a well-built fortress securing safe anchorage for the British Navy after the independence of the USA in 1783. At that point in history England got a little skittish and figured they needed some kind of mid-Atlantic cubby hole. The actual dockyard wasn’t built until 1809, prior to that the naval base was at St George (east end). They started out using slave labor until Emancipation in 1834. Then they changed over to convict labor which they describe in a little more in debt. Those poor guys lived a miserable life in a shipwreck (literally) quarters and chopped up tons and tons of Bermuda lime stone to make this amazing fort. They managed to build fortifications, casement barracks, storehouses and workshops to supply British Ships in the 1800’s. They built the Commissioner’s House starting in 1823 on the very tip of the Dock Yard, it’s the first thing you see when pulling into port.

The Dockyard closed in 1953 and was left to the willies of weather, ocean and storm. Finally in the 1960’s the local folks recognized it as a potential gem in the rough and possible cultural tourism destination. They soon opened a Maritime Museum, and started to restore from then on. They have done a beautiful job. For those cruise boat strollers there is everything in walking distance.
Mike and I ventured a bit outside the walls and across the bridge, where we saw the America’s Cup Village. Workers had erected large white tent structures to house the various teams and equipment; Britain, France, USA, Sweden, New Zealand and Japan. It is all quite exciting and a great boost to Bermuda.

The actual race was in 53 days, and activity was high.

I felt pretty lucky to see the French boat “Groupama” in full sail but then almost fell off our balcony when USA’s boat the “Oracle” came right behind them also in full sail. They are funny looking things. Knife like, catamaran, big tall skinny sales with a wing sail in the front. They go very fast. There is a crew 7 or 8, and the whole shebang only costs around 100 million. Yikes!

Day 6
Mike and I are watching a lot of water go by our balcony. “Not much going on out there” I comment. Mike says “I think we are a few days from the porpoise show.” It’s a very mild day, the sun is out with a few clouds softening the horizon.

We are in the middle of the Sargasso Sea and I don’t see a single blade of grass. Sargasso Grass is the bane of existence to the fancy resorts of Cancun, Mexico. It mounts up by the foot to be laboriously raked up and drug off somewhere so all the brides who have spent a fortune have a pretty beach wedding. Meanwhile all the local crab, bugs, birds and other beach dwellers are looking for a place to roost and spend the night. I understand the Sargasso Grass forms in very large boggy islands out in the sea and washes up (many miles away) to shore. I think I may need to look up the actual facts, I don’t see any grass out here.

The Captain came on a short while ago; clear sailing ahead, we’re sailing over several miles of deep blue ocean. Mike has his compass and maps out again “just checking the route”.

We as passengers are allowed into the “bridge viewing room” which naturally Mike and I have visited. There is a thick plexi-glass window that protects the actual navigational crew and captain, There is a posted warning “Do not tap on the window” You are not at the zoo. On our side of the plexi-glass there are non- touchable instruments that show wind speed, direction, longitude, latitude, and where we are in the world. On this trip we will cross the Prime Meridian, aka: Meridian of Greenwich (London), if falls slightly to the east of Barcelona. On the windshield of the bridge there are giant windshield wipers.
Day 6 also presented the opportunity of a Magellan documentary which we attended. It was extremely accurate and parallels the book I just finished “The Ends of the Earth, Magellan’s Fateful Journey around the globe. (not so much around the world as he gets hacked up along the way). Anyway after that I forced Mike to attend the “fancy fruit cutting” demonstration. Really very entertaining.
For dinner we went back to the Manhattan Room, very nice; Corn fritters with salmon mouse and jalapeno cream sauce, grilled Teriyaki steak and roasted fingerling potatoes, steamed broccoli and asparagus, desert: warm chocolate lava cake with strawberry compote and hand churned chocolate chip ice cream. As a special treat after the jazz band retired, the dance group: “Burn the Floor” came charging out onto the dance floor. No chance for Mike to escape. Talented dancers, 4 couples, (dancing with the stars type thins), amazing. Even Mike liked it.

Day 7
The sea is calm, dark blue, with light wind. There are some clouds but also sunshine and blue sky. We have coffee and read for a while. The gym is full and I have to change up my routine; cardio at the end.
When we return to our cabin Ricky our steward is bustling about the hallway, cleaning cabins, filling ice buckets, changing out towels and linens. Ricky is a nice kid from Indonesia. He looks young but I put him somewhere in his early 20’s. He talks about his mom a lot. She is a batik artist. Ricky loves my pillow case which my sister Jackie made me; it’s a beautiful cotton; printed in a fish batik pattern. Ricky’s work day seems long. He’s pretty much in our hallway all day and evening. I suppose this is his spot except while eating and sleeping. When he’s not here I picture him sitting in one of the side rooms marked “crew only” making piles and piles of the “cute” towel animals. Ricky leaves a new animal each night on our bed. So far we’ve got a frog, elephant, some kind of walrus and last night my favorite; a penguin wrapped in a blanket. He has little tiny eyes which are the pointed ends of a washcloth and a funny little beak. OK, it sounds like I’ve been at sea a few too many days so I’m going to drop the towel animal subject. Ricky gets to go home in August. There are many Indonesia workers on the ship so I’m sure Ricky has plenty of friends.

In the afternoon Mike and I retire to the top deck to sit in the sun, read books, and have a salad. There is quite the mini world up on deck 16. Adults only, quiet, small swimming pool, hot tubs, lounge chairs, small restaurant and bar, it’s at the ass end of the ship so we have a great view. In the evenings they show movies on a giant screen under the stars.

In the latter part of the afternoon Mike goes to the cigar lounge and I decide to stroll the shopping promenade. I’m horrified at a couple googling over a watch “and it’s only $ 299” he says, “Oh honey, you should get it!” she says. I’m thinking it looks like it weighs 30 lbs. and if he ever fell in the swimming pool he would drown, god forbid he topple overboard while waving it over the rail.

As I stroll up the promenade I come to a balcony overlooking one of the large dining rooms. There is passenger I recognize from the gym seated at the grand piano in the center of the dining room. I quickly realize this is not your average chopsticks concert. This woman has command of the piano and is giving a performance like no other. She plays for a full hour, all classical, I only vaguely recognize a few pieces, but the beauty in that one hour is astounding and I am struck silent, listening. A small crowd gathers and applauds when she comes to the end of a piece. Her work out in the gym (which makes total sense now) is a series of unusual hand exercises, body strengthening through floor exercises and stretching. She is an oriental woman of average size, good shape, around mid- 40’s. I believe I am occasionally fortunate to cross paths with extraordinary people in my life and I believe this is one of those people.

Mike meanwhile has made a new friend in the cigar lounge named John. He is an older Syrian fellow, he and his wife travel frequently. They live in Redondo Beach, CA. He is a retired dental lab owner. John has great travel stories.

There are a lot of elderly folks on this boat. Some of them are wandering aimlessly around the world, but others have stories to tell and I feel so very fortunate to hear them.

Day 8
The captain just came on the horn:
1,700 miles since departure from Bermuda, 700 miles to reach land, the ocean is 1,300 feet deep, the wind at 50 knots, our speed; 20 miles per hour. Water temp 61 F, air temp 60 F sunset at 20:17. We have left the Sargasso Sea (I still did not see a blade of Sargasso Grass.)

The sun is out and as the day slides from am to pm we entertain ourselves reading, writing, walking around, and sitting up top. Some of the more unusual events listed in the “What’s Happening Today” are; Botox party with Dr. Amanda, Free Foot Analysis, Teppanyaki Demonstration, 50% off Diamond Event, Bachata Dance Class # 2 (not sure when # 1 was, not sure what Bachata is), Splashtacular Extravaganza Tricks, Spot the Tanzanite, Sit and go Poker Tournament, and Liquid Facelift with Dr. Amanda, the list goes on and on. These events are sandwiched around more normal things, music, dancing, cards, magic shows, comedy shows, Broadway shows, and lectures. We have dinner at a Chinese restaurant, it is again excellent.

We are moving our clocks forward again. It’s been happening every other day. We are now 7 hours ahead of Colorado and 5 hours ahead of Florida. (Where our 2 kids live.) It’s getting a little confusing and our sleep pattern is a bit off.
It’s Cloudy today and actually rains in the latter part of the day. We spend most of the day inside, we go to the gym, read, write, text our kids, listen to music. Some people are getting a little itchy and lots of folks are spending time in the Casino. Mike and I both lost 2 dollars playing one of the poker machines, and went stomping out. (we didn’t really stomp) Ha ha, I can think of lots of other ways to spend money. We did attend a lecture: “Funchal, Madeira; Wine, Women and Song”, it was so bad I felt sorry for the woman giving it. Poor Mike almost had a major melt down when she identified a picture of Henry the Navigator as Vasco De Gama. Mike left along with a few other rats deserting the ship; I stayed for the remainder, it was bad.

Day 9 (Sunday): The highlight of this day was the “Deck and Engine Q + A” which was hosted by our Captain; Frank Juliussen, Chief Engineer Bibin Hardi and Hotel Director Richard Janicki. I left the lecture having no doubt that Captain Juliussen would indeed go down with the ship and do everything in his power to save us, that this; the Epic ship in the Norwegian fleet was by far biggest and baddest cruise ship in the world. I believed the Chief Engineer when he described our osmoses water purification system, as producing far better H2O than bottled water, that the water we discharged into the sea is of drinking quality although we do NOT drink that water, that our diesel engines, props, thrusters, equalizers, and everything else that pushes us thru the sea takes every advantage of the advanced technology available to date, and that we function far above the eco regulations afforded by international maritime law. It was a good talk. In the evening Mike and I attended the Broadway Show: Priscilla Queen of the Desert.” I have to admit this was a great show. Talented dancers, singers and if you’ve ever seen it; amazing costumes. The show was a full blown production.

Day 10: Funchal, Madeira (Portugal). We wake up at port in Funchal, we set foot in Europe for the first time. Madeira is a beautiful, fairly small mountainous island. Funchal is the capital and manages to have built itself up the side of a steep mountain. I had read a little about the island and wanted to take a cable car above the city then take a wicker sleigh down. I neglected to tell Mike about the sleigh ride and he baulked in a major way sighting one of our last adventures; a fairly difficult kayak trip in the South Pacific. He’s such a sissy.

Anyway we had a nice hike into town along the waterfront. The line for the cable car ride was long so we headed down the first little cobblestone street we came to. Fascinating city, shops, markets, little restaurants, great local traffic on foot. Restaurants and delicious pastries all over the place. We stop for a snack and wander around a bit more. We go to an ATM and manage to extract some Euros. The exchange rate is quite good. Later in the day we return to the cable car and the line is smaller, we compromise and I give up the sleigh ride down and buy round trip tickets. The cable car ride is fascinating as it hauls us up the mountain. We sail over residential white homes with red tile roofs, small gardens, lots of flowers, everyone has a vegetable plot. There are tiny little paths to access many of the houses. These folks must be very fit. There are a few roads and cars are parked in the closest spots to the homes, some a bit difficult to get to. Riding over these homes gave us a birds eye look into their lives, probably very different than ours. There is laundry hanging everywhere, dogs, cats, sheep and goats. Many of the houses have a cistern for water collection, one had a little waterwheel to water the different levels of vegetables. The gardens are terraced and everything is bright green. Also very noticeable is recovery from a devastating fire in 2013. Quite a few houses totally destroyed and abandoned, red tile roofs caved in, families unable or not wanting to rebuild.
At the top of the hill where the cable car left us off is additional hiking up and up for fantastic views of the harbor, city and sea.

Day 11; Navigational information by the Captain, on the horn: May 11, 2017, 11:23 am, 34 D long, 10D lat., we are 345 miles from Malaga, Spain (our next port call). We are traveling 067 D NE at 19 knots (22 mph), over deep waters 4,000 meters (13,000 feet.) There are light winds N at 10 knots, sea conditions light, 1 meter, waves air temp 67 F. Sea temp 68 F Sunset at 21:00, Sunrise tomorrow 7:50. Passing Straight of Gibraltar narrows at 2:30 am tonight, at which point we will be 5 nautical miles away, at 3:30 am we will be 5-10 nautical miles from monkey mountain (Africa) depending on traffic. Peaceful day today.