A BIG Catch up from David and Lee

JUL

4

A BIG Catchup

Hi to all and as it is about time that I put finger to keyboard, here goes.
We are currently in Andorra la Vella, the capital of this beautiful wee country in the Pyrenees after a breathtaking drive in from Carcassonne where we spent last evening. But, how may you ask, did we get here as from memory the last post was from Marrakesh. 

The view from our window in Andorra la Vella

Our journey back to Casablanca was as exciting as was the one out with further mountain passes and incredibly complex switchback roads. I was glad not to be driving the bus.

Looking down on the road from high in the Atlas mountains (we had to travel several kilometres before even reaching the scene below us).

Murray meets Nomad

A dessert oasis

So it was that we finally arrived back in Casablanca where it had started a small lifetime ago. By this time we had made many new friends and so it was with a little sadness that the realisation of the end of this part of our trip was all but over. A tour of the city included a visit to the Grand Mosque, the second largest in the world, a quick flick past Ricks Cafe and a farewell dinner.

The Grand Mosque Casablanca

Rick's Cafe

Next morning and we were on our own and after having had everything done for you, the realisation  that our fate was in our own hands and we had yet to get from Casablanca to Madrid on public transport, a daunting task given our lack of language skills or a knowledge of the workings of the Moroccan transport systems. Our first task was to train up the coast to a town called Asilah, whic had sounded really nice on the web and fortunately lived up to this. From our small hotel to the beach and town, everything was near on perfect.

Hotel in Asilah

The Beach, Asilah

Asilah

Asilah is decorated ready for it's annual festival.

We had arranged for a driver to take us from the railway station, to the north of the town, to our hotel on arrival in Asilah and had retained his services for the trip to Tangier Med the following morning, a trip of around 60 km, where we hoped to catch a ferry to Algeciras in Spain. He arrived promptly at the arranged time and managed to pack our bulky and somewhat heavy luggage into his old Mercedes and so we bumped and rattled our way to Tangier and  were ferry bound by lunch time. This was somewhat to my relief after my many assurances that all would be well with this phase, being less than totally convinced myself. Soon, however, we were steaming up the bay into Algeciras with Gibraltar away to our right. A taxi ride of a few hundred meters found us at our hotel and our first of many encounters with the Spanish Police. Now I suggest nothing untoward going on here, but wherever we stayed in Spain the police seemed to be there, in this case it was for the local festival, a street parade the likes of which I have never before seen.

Off to the Parade in Algeciras

We await anxiously for the parade to start

It was a grand and colourful occasion.

The whole affair lasts around three hours and several tonnes of sweets must be thrown to the crowd, and the children just loved every moment of it. Got to admit some of us big kids loved it too, but what a mess.

The mess was cleaned up as soon as the parade had passed.

Time waits for no man and another train needed catching, we had managed to pre-book this one and it turned out to be very comfortable and quite fast, the trip to Madrid taking around 5 hours. We caught the shuttle from the Station to the airport where we picked up our Peugeot lease car and on to our Hotel. Next day and we were off to explore the region. Highlights were to include Toledo, Segovia, Avila and, of course, Madrid itself.

Toledo

Murray and Jill were pleased to see an anti windmill protest

The walled old city in Avila

Roman Aqueduct in Segovia, built some two thousand years ago without mortar

This survived the 1755 Lisbon earthquake

Now we had wheels and the world was our oyster, so "Go south young man" was the cry and so it was that after two more days we were back where we started at Gibraltar after quick visits to Malaga  and the like on the Costa del Sol. Gib. another of my must sees will have to wait for another day however, as the queue was just too much, the Spanish are being difficult and slowing things down. We had places to go and see and couldn't wait for diplomacy to clear our way so went off instead to Ronda, a spectacular village a little to the north. We all loved this place, it is just built in the most spectacular place imaginable.

The view from the bridge in Ronda

Ronda

The road out of Ronda is quite spectacular but needed to be taken in order to get to Cadiz and Seville, our next destinations, both of which are very nice but it will be Seville hospital that I think we will all remember most. I had acquired a very sore lump on my leg and without any apparent cause. Mrs Currin's mind was instantly filled with thoughts of blood clots and being a weekend, we were told that the Hospital was the best bet. This proved to be a very easy process and I was given a clean bill of health, and no bill of any other sort, with only an inflamed vein, but what proved memorable was the hospital cafeteria where food to every ones liking could be had for a very small consideration. Murray was particularly pleased as he was by this stage going for long periods with little or no food, Spanish cuisine not being up there amongst his favourites. 

I am afraid that at this stage I am going to have to whizz up through Portugal and into Spain and France. The highlights including Lisbon, Cabo de Roca, the most westerly part of Europe and Nazare.

Not a bad lunch spot in Nazare

I think that Burgos, in Spain deserves a special mention, if only for it's spectacular cathedral. Where room upon room or is it chapel upon chapel ( I'm not that church literate) are decorated in the most ornate way imaginable.

Burgos Cathedral

The place is immense and I guess it is fitting that god alone knows how much it all cost.

The road now led us north into France and retraced some old steps together with some new ones, including Millau Bridge, Avignon and

 Monaco. A quick flit over the border to Sanremo, so Murray andJill could tick Italy off their list and west again around the south coast via St Tropez and Marseille  to Carcassonne.  BUT for me the highlight of our visit to France has to be our visit to Uzes, a small town in Provence where my sister had been staying with Husband Wazza for about four weeks. what a grand night we all had and thanks to Helen and Wazza for hosting us in Uzes.

A family gathering in Uzes

Carcassonne has long been one of my favourites and so it was a pleasure to be able to take Murray and Jill there, I hope they enjoy this town on the Midi as much as I do.

Our visit to Carcassonne

This brings us, in a very brief way to where we now are, Andorra and it is here that I shall once again leave off. Tomorrow takes us down to Barcelona  and then we take to the air and home via Singapore, so tootle pip and all that.

Take care and its good bye from Andorra.

David