#28 - Travels through Iberia

After two weeks of relative downtime in Valencia, we geared up for a few weeks on the road.  Our trip south would take us through Granada, past Gibraltar to the southernmost tip of Spain in Tarifa, then across the Mediterranean Sea to Africa for a day-trip to Tangiers, Morocco, then northwest to Sevilla and then to Portimão and Lisbon, Portugal.  We were going further south and getting further into the summer, so the weather was turning warmer, but still not the unbearable mid-July heat that was sure to come.  The weather was still only warm, and the crowds were still not overwhelming.

​(Click below right to read more . . . )

Highlights:

1. Alhambra Moorish Palace of Granada
2. Charming Tarifa, Spain
3. Day Trip to Tangiers, Morocco
4. Beautiful Rocky beaches and coastline of Portugal
5. Learning about Portuguese Atlantic exploration in the 1400’s
6. Chicago High School Choir performance in Lisbon Cathedral
7. Hilltop Palace and Gardens of Pena Palace in Sintra, Portgual
8. Extreme geographic points of continents
9. Family Escape Room successful exit in Lisbon
10. Tyler starting to send out daily emails to family
11. Meals with the missionaries
12. Anna’s solo trip to Paris to meet up with friends

 
Lowlights:

1. Hitting a concrete post with the rental car
2. Dishonest Airbnb host in Portimão, Portugal

Highlights:

1. Alhambra Moorish Palace of Granada – Our first stop upon leaving Valencia was the charming town of Granada with the Alhambra Palace sitting atop the hill overlooking the city.  The place was impressive with Moorish geometric designs carved in plaster all over the walls and ceilings.  Even more impressive and beautiful were the lush flower gardens with fountains, roses, manicured shrubberies, wildflowers and paths meandering through.  It was a beautiful afternoon. 
2. Charming Tarifa, Spain – We left Granada and drove to the southernmost Spanish town of Tarifa - a charming coastal town. Our apartment was a riad nestled inside the old walled city, with narrow roads and rooftop views. It was a great place to walk around and see the vibrant community of the markets, shops, restaurants and residences.
3. Day Trip to Tangiers, Morocco - We purchased a guided day-trip across the Straits of Gibraltar to Tangiers, Morocco.  Our day included a ferry ride followed by a bus tour of the city, a trip to the northern most point of Africa, a visit to the caves of Hercules, a walk through the city center marketplace, and a typical Moroccan lunch. The highlight for me was after a stunningly short camel ride in a seaside parking lot, I asked about the camel's milk.  The camel owner ran to his car to get an empty water bottle, and walked up to the camel which I had just been riding and brought its calf to it to begin nursing.  He grabbed another teat and began milking it, squirting the warm white frothy liquid into a clear plastic bottle.  He squeezed an entire bottle full and we all drank it down warm.  It was surprisingly mild and we were enthusiastically told by our guide about all the superfluously healthy benefits that we would derive from ingesting that creamy ivory camel nectar.
4. Beautiful Rocky beaches and coastline of Algarve Portugal – After Tarifa, we drove to the Algarve region of southern Portugal, to the town of Portimão.  After a couple hours of frustration with the conniving Airbnb host (see the lowlight), we settled in for a few days and enjoyed the beach.  One of the days from Portimão, we enjoyed a short drive to a rocky outcrop and took a delightful boat trip all around and through the natural rocky arches along the coastline. The geologic layers were full of shells and fossils easily visible from the boat. The water was beautiful and the rocky cliffs and water-based arches were stunning, topped off with perfect weather.
5. Learning about Portuguese Atlantic exploration in the 1400’s – After Portimão, we headed north to the city of Lisbon for a 3-night stay (our longest since Valencia).  The city was very pretty along the river with the 7 hills of Lisbon visible from various points of the city.  It was full of boats in harbors and monuments to old Portuguese explorers like Vasco de Gama and Magellan, who paved the way in the late 1400’s and early 1500’s to opening the Atlantic Ocean for sea voyages and trade.  We visited the maritime museum and saw huge maps of where the first explorers went to open the waterways from Europe to India and Asia.  I had learned about these guys in junior high, but it is so much more fulfilling and interesting to read about their exploits in the museum in the city from whence they departed, able to look out on the harbor where their ships would have sat at anchor 500+ years ago.
6. Chicago High School Choir performance in Lisbon Cathedral – One evening we visited the Lisbon Sé Cathedral and just happened upon a high school choir from the Chicago area who were practicing for a concert.  They were on a bi-annual European tour and this was the final performance of their 2018 Portugal tour.  We stayed for the acappella concert and it was sublime.  The choir was excellent, filling that stone cathedral with angelic strains of singing. This made Tyler a bit homesick (schoolsick?), as he fondly remembered participating in the AMIS Middle School Honor Choir performance in a cathedral in Rome not too long ago.  They also sang a piece which I had sang 25 years ago in my own choir days at BYU and I longed to jump up with them to sing along. That concert was a welcome surprise and definitely a highlight of our Portugal stay.
7. Hilltop Palace and Gardens of Pena Palace in Sintra, Portgual – We spent a day in the fantastic town of Sintra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, with numerous palaces and gardens and parks.  We visited the Pena Palace which sat upon the highest hill, a former residence of numerous kings and queens of Portugal in the late 1800’s.  The gardens were spectacular with lakes and flowers and steep paths up to the palace.  The views from the terraces were breathtaking and the views of the palace itself from further down the mountain were just as beautiful.
8. Extreme geographic points of continents – Our family loves geography and we checked numerous geographical superlatives off of our “visited” list in southwestern continental Europe and north Africa including: Southernmost point in continental Europe in Tarifa, also the spot where the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean meet on either side of a small island and pier; the most northwestern point in Africa at Cap Spartel marking the southern entrance to the Strait of Gibraltor; Westernmost point in continental Europe at Capa da Roca in Portugal.  At each of these points, the coastline was beautiful and scenic.
9. Family Escape Room successful exit in Lisbon – It has been more than a year since we had done an escape room together as a family so for our final night in Lisbon we made reservations at the “Puzzle Room”.  It was fun, low-tech, 1st generation room, but offered enough challenge that we all had things to work on and each of the kids participated and contributed in a meaningful way to solve the puzzles and open the locks.  It was a fun and surprisingly inexpensive escape room evening.
10. Tyler starting to send out daily emails to family – Tera gave Tyler a writing assignment to write daily emails about our journeys to family members.  It is great to get his perspective on things.  Here is his latest: “June 19 - Today, we drove to a nearby city called Sintra. It was about an hour drive northwest of Lisbon. We went to the big Castle of Pena. There was tons of grounds and parks to walk around and we did just that for a little over an hour. We also ate our packed lunch of, surprise, ham sandwiches. There were also chalets and churches in the area that you could go and see. We went to the castle and walked around for a long time and saw the different drawing rooms and also all the terraces and dining rooms. It reminded me of Windsor Castle, which we saw on our England trip in May. We then drove a bit more to see the westernmost tip of continental Europe, which made two tips of continental Europe in a week (We had seen the southernmost tip of continental Europe 4 days earlier in Spain.) Super cool. There were really cool cliffs there that we could walk around plus a lighthouse and a monument. We got back and quickly made and ate dinner to get to our escape room that night. We were in a hurry on the drive there but once we got to the destination, we realized we were a full hour early. We had signed up for the 8 o’clock session instead of the 7 o’clock. Instead of driving back to the apartment, we stayed in our car and listened to the rest of our book on tape, ‘Lies Jane Austen Told Me’. Great book, would recommend. The escape room was interesting and really fun. It was about finding a treasure map as well as getting out of the room. I hadn’t done an escape room for a really long time and so it was a great time for me as well as everyone else because we all helped equally – Tyler Schaumann”
11. Meals with the missionaries – For our last Sunday afternoon in Valencia, and then again in Portimão, we invited missionaries we met at church over for lunch in our rental apartment.  In Valencia we had female missionaries over and in Portimão we invited a senior couple, the Laytons. It was fun to hear their stories and to hear about the missionary work in Spain and Portugal and to imagine our own kids out on missions in coming years, as well as ourselves in later years.
12. Anna's solo visit to Paris to meet up with friends - Anna was invited to Paris to meet up with her good friend Phoebe, and since in this time of full-time travel it is quite difficult to form and maintain close friendships, we try to make it as easy as we can for the kids. We rearranged our schedule a bit and flew Anna from Lisbon to Paris.  We'll meet up with her again in Geneva to pick her back up.  She had a wonderful time exploring the city and enjoying a girl's weekend.

Lowlights

1. Hitting a concrete post with the rental car – We had an unfortunate fender-bender with an inanimate object pulling out from the gas station.  Ugh, what a pain.
2. Awful, dishonest Airbnb host in Portimão, Portugal –  We had our first dishonest experience with an Airbnb host. The guy sent us to the wrong location and when we realized it, he refused to make the other location available, nor would he give us a satisfactory discount on the less desirable place, nor would he refund my money. We had to involve the Airbnb resolution center, and luckily we found an even better place at the last-minute.  I left him a purely factual an unflattering review, which will hopefully deter other renters in the future from his deceptive bait and switch practices.