Seville

We started the morning by realizing that it was fast Sunday. Some of us decided to fast but others wanted breakfast so we stopped at our favorite Lidl - it is apparently closed on Sunday so everyone got to fast.

"Sunday didn’t afford any break in our tight schedule. Ok, some may say I overschedule our vacations, but no one sees more in the allotted time and we get our money’s worth😉. We were on the road just after 9:00 headed north towards Jerez de la Frontera. It took a couple of tries to find the church with the map, but we made it before the opening hymn. The Elders knew Elder Golightly and Eastman who were also serving in the Madrid South mission from Middleton. Singing in Spanish was adventurous but fun and testimony meeting gave plenty of chances to practice Spanish interpretation. At one point I thought “Natali is going to share her testimony” and as I looked down the row she stood to do so. One of the Elders was on his 2^nd day in the mission so we could understand about every word he shared. In a couple of months that will be Andrew in Nicaragua! Afterwards we spoke to girl who had recently returned from the Milan mission.  Her dad had gone back with her in October to visit one of her areas in Switzerland and met Emeline Walker who was serving in the area at the time, Gigante they said to describe her! Natali also met someone from Argentina and they had some mutual acquaintances."

"We stopped for lunch at a grocery store again only to find it closed on Sunday. We settled, at Andrew’s delight, for McDonalds. After checking in we walked to the old city center. This was our first truly warm day reaching the mid to upper 80’s so we sought out shade as we walked. By 3:00 we were at the marvelous Plaza de Espana where a scene from Star Wars had been filmed. The columns and fountains pleased the eye and cooled us off."

I tried to get Andrew to reenact the Star Wars scene.  He as Anakin and me as R2D2, hence the sunglasses, but he wouldn't go for it and thought my weird squatting pose was weird so we tried for a normal pose instead.

"At 4:00 we entered the Royal Castle (Alcazar), a sprawling palace and garden. The kids weren’t too excited until they found some ducklings and peacocks in the garden. We had a stressful couple of minute when we realized Emily wasn’t with us but we found her quickly."

She told me later that she wasn't lost, she knew exactly where we were.  So apparently it was just me who had lost Emmy 😉.

The kids would have stayed with the birds forever but Natali, Greg and I eventually herded them along.  Mack had caught my cold at this point and was feeling pretty miserable.

Indoor swimming pool anyone?  It looked a little shallow for laps 🤨

Andrew looking cool with Lily's sunglasses while they waited for me to come back from searching for Emmy (she was with them and they were all just waiting for me to come back and see that she was fine 😂)

"We walked around the enormous cathedral and then got gelato to keep us from melting. At 6:00 we parted ways leaving the girls to see a Flamenco dance while the boys went to see Real Betis vs Valencia on the final match day of the La Liga season."

We wandered around trying to get someone to feed us paella but it was apparently too early.  Our feet were tired and it was hot so we headed to the Flamenco place. 

We were the first ones there so I saved front row seats while the girls wandered and found the gift shop.  They were excited and picked out souvenir fans.

The show was intense and beautiful and by the end we were hungry to try our vegetable and chicken paella - both were yummy. Since Lily doesn't like rice we also ordered a tortilla de patatas. Yum.

Realizing it was our last meal in Spain I wanted to find Cheesecake because Nado had told us theirs was better than ours.  I checked menus on line and finally found a place that gave us cheesecake to go.

Feet were so sore by now but we gave Emmy the phone and let her navigate home - a good distraction from the pain.

We took a pic in the hotel lobby before we headed up to our room to enjoy our crustless and quite good cheesecake.  We were hoping to catch a swim in the hotel pool but it was closed so I told the girls sill stories till we were all tired enough to sleep.

Meanwhile..."Mack wasn’t feeling well at all and wanted to rest at the hotel before the game which didn’t start until 9:00.  I sent he and Andrew ahead when I found a place to order Paella.  45 minutes later I had some takeout to share when I got back to the hotel. We took a cab to the stadium on the south side of town. Once again I was literally on the last row—the upside was we had a backrest at the edge of the stadium. The arena wasn’t near as nice as Old Trafford but the fans were passionate as the celebrated a long time player in his final match. Real Betis scored in literally the 1^st minute sending the home fans into a frenzy. They didn’t threaten much after that and Valencia eventually equalized in the 71^st minute. American international Yunus Musah subbed on for Valencia in the 78^th minute but earned a straight red card in the 81^stminute so we didn’t really get to see him play. There were more than 10 minutes of added time so we left in about the 98^th minute to try to beat the worst of the traffic. We hoped to catch a taxi once we were a bit away from the stadium, but after a while I decided we might as well walk. Drinks and ice cream cones from McDonald’s persuaded the boys it was ok to walk the 40 minutes back. We were back to the hotel at about midnight."

Morocco

The next morning Greg tried to get us some breakfast but he had credit card problems, probably due to turning them all off yesterday so we all loaded up and found a Lidl grocery store - Lidl for the win!  Everyone was thrilled with their donuts, croissants, pastries and juice. And we headed for Tarifa where again parking was a challenge.  The spot we got was quite far from the dock and the area was a little sketchy.  We crossed our fingers that we wouldn't get robbed and started hustling to the boat.  It took forever to get through all the lines but eventually we were on our way to Morocco.  

"Andrew and I caught a glimpse of a pod of dolphins but that only frustrated the kids as they missed them. There was free wireless on the boat which led to further disappointment when I got a Whatsapp message that our private boat tour in the Straits of Gibraltar had been cancelled for that evening due to inclement wind conditions. I sent a desperate response but was not optimistic.  Maybe it was just as well as orcas have attacked more than 20 boats in the strait in the last 2 months! The clouds shrouded the Rock of Gibraltar, but we were able to see Morocco across the strait. Coming into the harbor we were clearly entering an Arabic city as we scanned the skyline. When we met our guide and group to board a bus we learned that we would be taking a 6:00 ferry back to Tarifa. Our reservation had said we would arrive back in Tarifa at 5:00 hence our 6:00 private whale watching trip.  In hindsight the windy conditions saved us $900 which I’m sure would not have been refunded (Somehow I’m still struggling to get the money back due to some wiring issues)."

"A local guide gave us a bit of history and perspective but it was hard to follow in our large group and he was repeating everything in 3 languages. Tangiers has been home to a diverse international community for hundreds of years and played an important role during several wars. Our guide led us into the Souk or market area and then sent us on our way with instructions to meet up again in 4 hours. Or we could keep following him around. We took a deep breath and wandered off as a family. We ended up down at the port in front of the Hotel Continental which has witnessed much drama over the last couple of centuries. We explored the public areas of the hotel then walked around the old fort walls and ramparts. The white-washed walls were picturesque but didn’t help you get oriented when so many buildings appeared the same."

Hotel Continental

In side the hotel

"We picked a fancy hotel restaurant for an authentic Moroccan lunch and ordered numerous dishes to share—the ingredients and combinations were a bit outside of our comfort zones but the food was a hit and everyone was filled and contented." 

Everyone enjoyed a chance to sit down out of the sun and out of the crush of people.  The free internet didn't hurt either.

While walking around we had seen stacks of unique breads so we asked our waiter if we could have some bread.  He said, "You no worry about bread in Morocco."  That is my kind of place.

Our bread plate came with olives, butter and toothpicks.  No one but Kate and I ate the olives but Emmy made use of the toothpicks by using them to spread butter on her bread - making things work without a knife.

The kids were really skeptical about this menu but in the end I think this was one of their favorite meals from the entire trip.  This entree below was the hands down favorite.  Some sort of chicken wrapped in phyllo, toped with honey and almonds.  Most dishes had raisins but the kids still gave it a thumbs up.

After our fill of the yummy meal we got to wander the hotel before exited into the wild streets again.

Such a cool place.

"From the hotel roof we enjoyed a panoramic view of the harbor and old city."

"To the kids delight, cats were a common sight throughout the city. In one park there were dozens of kittens but on closer inspection they might not all have been breathing. The kids gained a new perspective on a new corner of the map and different culture but we were all ready to head back at the appointed hour. "

This place was dubbed Kitten Park.  The kids loved all the cats but they gave me the heeby jeebies.  I can't count how many times I said, "Do not touch that cat."

While walking Mack narrowly dodged a rapid fire bird poop brigade.  We heard the sound and looked back in time to see how close he had come to trouble.

Emmy playing model in front of the beautiful door ways.

Natali was feeling this sign.

After our lunch we wandered around and decided to try some little treats and here we ran into a problem. No one accepted credit cards, not street vendors, or nice shops.  They only accepted cash and we didn't have any.  We were just killing time at this point so we stepped into some restaurants thinking we could get out of the sun and eat some dessert - they didn't accept cards either.  Somehow we found the only place in Tangier that took credit cards on our first try for lunch - what luck.  

At this point we just found a place in the square to watch people and rest our tired feet.  Mack was appalled by all the knock of products being sold - Nike, Birkenstock, Croc, and all the soccer gear.  I was grateful the girls didn't have any money.

More cats 😧

By the time the group all gathered we were well past ready to leave Morocco.  It was interesting and I was glad to let the kids experience a place so unlike anywhere they had been before.  The crowded, narrow, old streets full of people trying to sell you stuff, carcasses hanging in door ways, unique spicy smells, and cats everywhere reminded me of the Middle East but it was all eye opening for the kids.  

"The wind had picked up significantly on the return trip and my eyes were dry and face chapped by the time we reached Spain. Our effort to stay outside was rewarded was Emily, Andrew and I saw a couple dozen dolphins. With the ferry’s pace the dolphins speed, and the height of the boat it wasn’t easy to distinguish which of the 3 species we were seeing but I snapped pictures and got feedback later from iNaturalist that we saw Striped and Common Dolphins. The dolphins made Emily’s day." 

Sadly the wind was a bit much for me and I went inside and missed the dolphins but Emily saw them - that is all that mattered to me.

On our walk back to the car we stopped for dinner at an open air Italian place.  Somehow in the confusion of trying to be moderate in how much we ordered Lily didn't get to order at all (we were planning to have her share a pizza with someone else).  The waiter noticed and brought her a special breadstick.  After Greg finished eating he walked to the van while the rest of us finished up.  After he left a street singer began singing a variety of songs outside the restaurant.  His English was good and we were enjoying the familiar tunes - "Another One Bites the Dust".  We were also greeted by a random poet walking around giving out one page samples of his love poems - it was weird but got even weirder when he came back later asking for money if we wanted to keep the poem.  We gave them back, met up with dad, and made the trek back to our hotel.