Week in Spain

After Daniel's family headed home, Ellie stayed behind to spend the week with us (and Debbie, Charles, Dave) in Malaga, Spain (20-27 January). We hired a van and did quite a few day trips around the place. Lucky for us, Debbie's grandma had secured a week in a resort in Malaga, so the apartment we had was really nice, shame it wasn't quite hot enough to make use of the pools!!!

View from the balcony of our room.

Saturday we checked in and chilled out. On Sunday we drove into Malaga and spent the day. Did a walking tour around the city.

Dave, Debbie and I in Malaga.

Also went to the Picasso museum which was great. He actually came from Malaga so there were heaps of his paintings and sculptures as well as his sketches and stuff. Then in the basement there was an archaelogical digging site, which was kind of weird but oh well.

Daniel and Charles as close to the Picasso Museum as they would get.

We all made the crazy decision to wear shorts and paid the price as it dropped in temperature later, as well as all the weird looks we were getting from the locals. Also had one of the biggest and most repulsive burgers ever that night. Dave models his.

Monday we made the drive to Granada and had a wander around the Alhambra - an arabic fortress from the 9th century. It was located at the top of a hill overlooking the city, pretty spectacular views in parts. We looked through the palace buildings which had stacks of water features and gardens, and the rooms themselves were beautiful. Along with the palace we also climbed the ramparts and towers along the walls.

Gibraltar was our destination for Tuesday. Drove up the Rock nature reserve, checked out the caves as well as the siege tunnels which were both pretty cool. View was great, we could see across to Morrocco from one side and the other across Gibraltar and the airport. This lies just inside the county border, so the traffic has to stop for any incoming planes, we got to watch it while at the tunnels. Highlight was the crazy monkeys just outside the caves, one stole and ate a banana out of a ladies hand as she went to have it.

Wednesday was spent in Morrocco. We had decided to take a ferry from Tarifa to Tangier so that we could tick another continent off our list. A very interesting day. We didn't do much research before arriving so kind of stepped off the boat and got bombarded by the locals wanting to be our guides. Dave managed to ward them off initially, before being sucked in by one telling us about this great restaurant that was cheap and just around the corner. We definitely ended up coming out as the suckers, it wasn't cheap nor close by. Ended up just walking around by ourselves, checked out the markets, the town sites and watched a guy tempt a snake out of a basket with a flute. Also saw the walls dangerously topped with shards of glass (below).

Drove to Ronda on the Thursday. After a brief stop at a strange town on the way, we got to Ronda. The town is split into the old part and the new and is joined together by a huge bridge. We climbed inside the bridge and walked around it, pretty spectacular particularly the views down the valley. Rain then washed us out and after a brief look at the bull fighting ring, we made our way back to Malaga.

Ellie on the bull and the matador.

The journey home was broken up for us when as we were going over the mountain range it started bucketing snow. Looking like a bunch of freaks we stopped off numerous times to "play in the snow". A mini snowman, snowball fight and attempt at a snow angel later we were back on the road.

Last 2 days were pretty relaxed. Ellie left us on Friday for her long journey home. Debbie, Charles and I went to visit the local palace ruins, and checked out the beach and then we headed back to London on Saturday.

A Very Long Time

Well it has been a long time since I have posted anything, so thought I'd nerd it up and put some pictures up to cover the last few months. Guess I'll start all the way back at Christmas/New Year.

Christmas/New Year

I spent Christmas in a chalet in Chamonix, France. A total of 16 of us went there for a week of skiing and snowboarding, which ended as a bit of a disaster. Luke, Daniel and I were all set to fly to Geneva when the fog around London cancelled our flight. So after a crazy few hours spent at the airport waiting for our luggage to return, our best alternative to get there was a big drive. With a few small hours of sleep, we caught a mini cab to Dover, a ferry across to Calais and then hired a car and drove across to Geneva. Broke the original trip budget but at least we made it.

The chalet crew and our hosts.

Dan and I at the top of Mont Blanc.

Dave and I giving our best rendition of Alice Cooper's Poison, didn't get a top score - can't understand why!

The snow conditions were pretty crap, not quite the powder we had hoped for, but still had a ball during the week. From there we flew up to Edinburgh for the Hogmanay festivities. Unfortunately, gale force winds stopped the festival happening so we ended up celebrating the New Year in our apartments. Not the best but got to see a few of the city sites so not completely wasted. Got evacuated from Edinburgh Castle just before getting to the Crown Jewels, so that will have to be for another time.

Debbie, Luke and I at the front of the castle.

View of Edinburgh from inside the castle walls.

To top off our trip, I managed to get the flu while at Chamonix and spent the next few weeks getting over it and our plane flight from Edinburgh to London was cancelled, luckily we were able to get on another one that night.

Amsterdam
With Debbie, Charles and Dave all holidaying over here over the Christams period, those of us in London decided to drop across to Amsterdam to meet up with them for a weekend of fun. Daniel and Michael headed across on Thursday morning and Luke and I followed on the friday afternoon. After catching the train from the airport the wrong way (thanks Luke), we made it to our hostel in the red light district. A spot of "window shopping" (not quite sure how some get any business) and then we went to get some culture and watch a "theatre show". An interesting night all round.

Missed breakfast Saturday (thanks Luke) then while Debbie and Charles met up with some friends, the rest of us hired bicycles and spent the next few hours riding.

With our bicycles.

The scenery was lovely until it started blowing a gale and raining, needless to say after apparently riding 30km (I swear it was further!!!) I was not a happy camper and just wanted to get back. My exercise for the next year I think!!!

Just some of the scenery outside of Amsterdam.

Sunday was spent wandering around the city, saw some of the sights, went to the Anne Franks museum and then spent the afternoon chilling in a pub before flying home.

Dave and I making good use of a clog.

The worlds smallest house (really).

Debbie and I outside of the Anne Frank museum (where they hid during the war).

Most of the buildings are crooked and all over the place (look at the ones behind Daniel).