In early April we were in for a super-special treat: boB's parents came to visit. Yay!
They were initially thinking of coming to Glasgow last November or December, but they hesitated a great deal. Finally, daD asked "where are you going to spend the winter?" When we said Southern Spain we could nearly see his eyes light up, and moM just about jumped through the phone to get here! Glasgow in December or Spain in April? Yeah, that's a pretty easy decision to make!
On the 6th of April we drove to our favorite market - Harrod's at Algatocín - and met them on the side of the road as they were coming from Ronda. We showed them around Harrod's, picked up some snacks and a bottle of wine to have with dinner, then took them to Genalgaucil. We had hiked to Genalgaucil one Sunday several weeks prior, and loved the place so much we just knew we'd have to take boB's folks there.
Genalgaucil is a really cute white village in the mountains above the Río Genal, and is famous for the sculpture and art that is sprinkled throughout the village. Many artists have settled in and around Genalgaucil, and there is a large art fair and exhibition every two years that attracts artists from all over Spain. The winning pieces of these exhibitions become part of the village.
A view of Genalgaucil from the road a few kms away.
Welcome to Genalgaucil!
The beautiful church.
Here's the normal village fountain, but done Genalgaucíl style!
This is one of our favorites:
Three figures poised over a blue door.
Another of our favorites is the TV Chair.
moM is sitting in the chair, watching whatever happens to be shown through the tele frame in front of her....
...and this is what she's watching! Now THAT is the kind of TV program we can get into!
Funky mural with odd symbolism (look closely....)
We also found this one - faces carved into an old mangled tree stump. The faces look as old as the wood, and evoke thoughts of ancient wood spirits that live within trees.
Paul and Dawn graciously invited boB's folks to stay in the guest room at the molino, and we had dinner together one night. What fun that was! Paul and Dawn have both traveled quite a bit, and so have boB's parents, so we just sat back and let them trade travel stories. Quite entertaining!
Paul gave a tour of the mill, and fired up the looms. boB's daD is a bit of a gear-head like Paul is, and moM is a creative type who loves color, so they both really enjoyed the tour.
Here's the loom in action. They're very loud when they're running!
This video shows a really neat piece of machinery that Paul recently got running: an automatic bobbin winder!
The next day we all went to Gibraltar (aka The Rock). Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory that's attached to Spain, which makes for a pretty odd day of cultural back-and-forth.
There's been a lot of tension over The Rock between the British and Spanish governments, and there are times when the Spanish close the border to Gib if tensions increase for some reason.
The British held Gibraltar during WWII and used it as a fortress to control the straight - they kept the Italian navy in the Mediteranean and the German navy out (except for the u-boats that snuck in under the surface). Since then the Brits have continued to support Gib, sort of to the annoyance of the Spanish, and use it as a military base.
The Rock of Gibraltar is riddled with tunnels. They first were built in the 1700s, and were expanded significantly over the centuries. There are over 34 miles of tunnels on Gibraltar, which is only 2.4 square miles in area! During WWII the Brits could move all 16,000 soldiers stationed on Gib into the tunnels and continue all of the operations of the island from underground. The tunnels still exist, and some of them can be toured (as we did).
Seen from a distance, Gibraltar looks just like the Prudential logo (remember "Have A Piece Of The Rock"?) - a piece of rock angling straight up out of the sea to a crazy high elevation. The west side of Gib is quite built-up on "land reclaimed from the sea" - which means rock was hauled from the tunneling operations and dumped on the beach to make more land. The east side is steep all the way to the sea, and there's not much more than a ring road along the coast.
We drove to Gib and parked outside - still in Spain - then walked through Customs and Border Control. And just like that, we were in a British territory!
Guess what we had for lunch?
Prices are listed in Pounds Sterling. Menus list British cuisine. British beers and ales are on-tap (along with Spanish beers). Cars are driven on the right, rather than the left, but we still saw lots of right-hand drive cars brought in from the UK.
We hired a taxi for a "Rock Tour" that took us from one end of the ridge to the other, and stopped all the way at several sights. We started at the south end of the ridge...
... where boB and his parents became deeply engaged in a serious bout of photography while Melinda looked on laughing at the photo-fools. (But, waaaait a moment! Just who took this picture, hmm?) In the distance, in front of boB's nose, is the Rif mountains of Morocco!
From the ridge, here's a view down the east side, over the Mediteranean to the southern coast of Spain.
And this picture is looking south along the east face. We're looking over the Med towards Northern Africa, but it's over the horizon in this pic.
We toured St Michael's cave, a natural cave in the limestone. During the war years the Brits used this cave as a hospital. Now it's outfitted with funky colored lights and is used sometimes for concerts. Bet the acoustics are great!
It's otherworldly to see the place in different colors....
This panoramic picture is along the west side, looking down to the city.
As we continued along the ridge we were treated to a collection of "Caution - Wildlife" signs that had us sometimes scratching our heads.
Drive slowly because there are birds. Well, you'd think the birds would move when a car came through, right? And besides that, the ridge road was so incredibly narrow and jam-packed that we couldn't move more than five or ten miles per hour anyway!
Look out! Rabbits! Aaaiiieeeee!!!
Caution! Dragons!
This was the funniest. Drive slowly (or, more accurately, drive "even more slowly") because of butterflies? Well, okay...
The next one was the best:
And it was followed by this sign:
And that sign was followed by this fellow:
Gibraltar is home to numerous groups of apes called Barbary Apes, and also known as macaques. They're wild, but quite accustomed to humans, and one can get fairly close. But not too close because they are known to attack people, steal food and purses (check u-tube for videos of such things), and they'll defend their young if necessary.
And they are cute!
boB caught this one perfectly as he flew from the fence to the rooftop.
Ever feel like a wild animal trapped in a concrete jungle? He does too.
Here's a view of the city, looking southwards from the north and west side of the hill. That's Morocco again on the horizon to the left.
And below is looking north, into Spain. The Gib international airport is visible below, and to get into Gibraltar all traffic has to cross the runway (you can see the road in the picture). This means that whenever a plane is taking off or landing the runway is closed and no one can enter or leave Gib. We saw this happen while we were on The Rock, and boy does the traffic back up!
Remember the tunnels? We toured one of the oldest tunnels, started in the 1782 by a team of eight English guys in order to reach a blind-spot on Gib where they could mount cannons. The finished tunnel is over 600 feet long!
From the gun ports you can see the runway. It's easy to see why the tunnels were dug and the guns placed - it's an excellent defensive vantage point. Of course, attackers on the ground with binoculars can also see the gun ports, but hopefully not before the defenders got in a few good shots on the attackers.
Hers another view from the tunnel gun ports, looking northwest.
And now! The moment! You have! All been! Waiting for! The Clean Up After Your Dog sign!!!!!
And that's how they do it on Gib.
It was a hot day, so we stopped at The Aragon for a brew after walking down 1001 steps from the Moorish castle. moM remembers every one of them and didn't hesitate to remind us about it 1001 times! ;-)
Ah, the shade. We treated moM to a gin-and-tonic to ease the calf cramps from the 1001 steps. We still owe her 1000 gin-and-tonics!
The woman running the place had a British accent and also spoke perfectly fluent Spanish. About ten thousand people cross the border every day to work in Gib, many of the Spanish, and that means there's quite a mix of cultures.
After a long and hot day learning about this wee corner of the British Empire, it was time to go. We joined the teeming throngs of Spanish making their way home across the runway and through customs, and were treated to one final great view of The Rock.
boB's dad - he looks tempted to run down the runway making airplane noises!
On our way out of town, we attempted a brief rendition of the fantastic bagpipe march the '79ths Farewell to Gibraltar' on our practice bagpipe chanters, much to the dismay of those in hearing range. Sadly Melinda's plastic reed, having been left in the car, underwent some structural change due to heat, and it now plays like a growling banshee. We decided that someday we will to return to Gib with our bagpipes for a serious march down the runway.
We went back to the molino, had dinner, and packed. The next day we were to depart for other parts of sunny Spain and hang out with the parents for a couple weeks! This meant that our working time at the molino was over, and we could take a much-needed vacation from our extended vacation!
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