This gallery contains 8 photos.
Monthly Archives: September 2013
Tangier, Morocco
Today, Spencer and I took a boat from Tarifa, Spain to Tangier, Morocco. It’s been a forever dream of mine to travel to Morocco and experience the beauty of their markets and the taste of their tea.
After walking around for a few hours, people watching and seeing the wonderful tiles outside of every home we stopped to eat some traditional food and drink some tea. The food was delicious and the tea refreshing. Although I don’t think I’ll ever return to Tangier I am dying to return to Morocco. Perhaps our next trip will be Marrakech.
La Alhambra
Today we decided to take a very lengthy tour that explained the water system in Granada. I won’t go completely into it but in short the technology we use today was invented in Granada by the Muslims. All over the city you can see a lot of “aljibres” where the town used to collect water from. I was able to go down to the water deposit where the water was collected and purified for drinking. Incredible.
After the water tour we headed to the Alhambra …wow. I can’t even imagine being a queen living in that castle with all of those beautiful gardens. The place is quite impressive especially when you think of how old it is.
All the tile textures make me want to wear beautiful bright printed dresses!
Granada, Spain
Granada…oh, Granada.
Possibly the best place we’ve been to during this whole trip. We rented an air b&b for almost nothing in the wonderful neighborhood of Albaicín. The neighborhood made me think if Puerto Viejo in Algorta. All white little houses connected to one another.
Last night we parked the car up the hill and found the house we were staying at. The owner Anna greeted us and opened the doors to a beautiful house that dates back to the 1300’s. The neighborhood itself was inside the wall created when the city lived under the Catholic king and queen. You can still see the wall built around the city and the actual archways to get in and out.
We ate our meat, cheese, bread and drank our wine. There was a plaza around the corner we took a bottle of wine to and were able to meet two locals – Richard and Adolfo. They were two super cool guys that ended up giving us great tips on places to visit while in Granada. We listened to a group of their friends play flamenco on their guitars and hung out with Adolfo and Richard. We headed back home and woke up late the next morning…
Valencia, Spain
Valencia was a very short but wonderful stay.
September 23, 2013
We arrived to Valencia at 4:30 pm after picking up our car and battling with the GPS for about an hour. The drive was wonderful and not as long as we thought.
Upon arriving we were greeted by Mirek who had an apartment on the 8th floor of Maria Cristina, 6. Right at the city center. He showed us the rooftop and balcony we were able to use during our stay.
We met the first pets on this trip – El Sid and Santa Eulalia (pictured below). Sta. Eulalia was not allowed to come into our room but we snuck her in. She had the cutest chirp that made me miss Schiap so much.
For dinner we opted to stay in and use the terrace to drink wine and eat cheese, bread and meats – This is our new favorite thing to do.
September 24, 2013
Valencia is quite commercial but also full of beautiful architecture. There are wonderful churches and marble facades.
The Towers of Serranos (pictures below) were built in 1394 under the hand of Pere Balaguer. They were clearly meant to help protect the city but were more of the trade gate of Valencia.
Today, our last day here, we walked into the center market to explore. The thought of being able to purchase all of your meat and produce and cook it that same day is something so foreign that I’m embarrassed at the way we eat
As our last meal we had Paella. You can’t visit Valencia without trying Paella. We opted for the Valencia style which has rabbit, chicken and snails. It also had artichokes, fava beans and green beans. It was the sort of meal that melts in your mouth and it was SO beautiful that we couldn’t even dig into it for a moment.
We drove from Sevilla to Granada today. Our drive was 5 hours but the minute we got here we knew the drive was worth it. It’s so beautiful here. I can’t wait to see it in the light of the day.
