Tuesday, August 23, 2011
We are en-route to Barcelona finally. This has been an interesting week as we get used to being in a foreign country with the benefit of moving with relative ease around the Navy base at Rota.
We arrived in El Puerto de la Santa Maria by train on the 16th at about noon, then hired a taxi to the Navy base. By the time we had arrived, we had been aboard 4 planes, 2 buses, a train, and a taxi. To say the least we needed to rest when we arrived. We were able to pick up a rental car the following day on base, causing me no end of stress. All I could imagine was having an accident in Spain!! Damage to the car, injuries to us – Rota has two types of streets! Narrow and not so narrow, and one way and two way. We rented a Chevy Spark which turned out to actually be a very nice automobile. It was small, yet comfortable, with 4 roomy seats, decent power for a small car, and enough storage to get what we needed into it.
In old Rota, the width of the streets were dictated by the roman chariots with a small bit of additional room. Therefore with another car parked on the side, passage was basically side mirror to side mirror. Miraculously, we were able to get through the entire week without even a scratch!
Meals in Rota were not spectacular at all. Swordfish twice for Renne’, pork tenderloin, lamb, many cervaca’s , cupos of vino roja (red), pizzas and Subway sandwiches on base, and a cheeseburger or two to top it off!
Beaches were interesting, including one in Cadiz. Now time tends to be irrelevant here. There are still many roman influences here, Moorish castles, Phoenician tombs and sarcofogi, etc. Anyone coming to Spain to oogle the topless women on the beaches will be a bit disappointed. Maybe 1 in 100. This is a very conservative area. The beaches were mostly dark sand/shells/rocks. The water was a bit cooler and took some time getting used to.
It took us a minute to realize we were still outside Gibralter and we were in the North Atlantic. When we realized that, we were surprised it wasn’t colder water than it was. We did spend a few hours every day except one lying on the beach soaking up the Castillian sun. Now this is August, and this month and July, the coastline of Spain is littered with these umbrellas (not just Rota) packed with European tourists who flock here for vacation!
The romans, a few years before Christ, built retaining walls in the tidal flats at the beach. These still remain. You can see the outlines of them in the Google Earth picture above. The walls allowed fish to enter at high tide, but trapped them at low tide. This technique allowed locals to harvest fish conveniently without the aid of boats. They are still functional today. You see these actually in the picture taken from the beach above.
It took us a minute to realize we were still outside Gibralter and we were in the North Atlantic. When we realized that, we were surprised it wasn’t colder water than it was. We did spend a few hours every day except one lying on the beach soaking up the Castillian sun. Now this is August, and this month and July, the coastline of Spain is littered with these umbrellas (not just Rota) packed with European tourists who flock here for vacation!
The romans, a few years before Christ, built retaining walls in the tidal flats at the beach. These still remain. You can see the outlines of them in the Google Earth picture above. The walls allowed fish to enter at high tide, but trapped them at low tide. This technique allowed locals to harvest fish conveniently without the aid of boats. They are still functional today. You see these actually in the picture taken from the beach above.
We spent a day in Ca’diz, where we decided to take a tour bus of the city prior to jumping off to see the city ourselves. It was well worth the money. Ca’diz is the OLDEST established city in Europe. Founded about 3100 years ago. Kinda makes 1492 seem like yesterday. As a matter of fact, El Puerto de la Santa Maria is where Christopher Columbus departed from on his first voyage to the New World in 1492, and Ca’diz was his second departure point in 1493. Magellan left from Spain just 53km down the highway from Rota.
We met Janice Bradfort and Zach Lee, friends, but not a couple. They are DOD school councilors who are newly arrived to Rota. We spent several evenings with them and we were fortunate to have them deliver us to the train station this morning.
We are on the AVE train from Sevilla to Barcelona. We are currently doing 250km/hr. That’s 155 mph. We just passed another train in the opposite direction and it is a bit of a jolt as the air compresses between the two. We left Seville at 9am and will arrive in Barcelona at 2:40pm; Then on to Puerto Monsou to meet Barb and Doug. By the time we are there, it will be three trains and a bus. We are comfortable, have plenty of leg room, have the time, and we get to see the country side. Renne’ and I have decided we want to do more of this. This is great!
Addition: The concept I hadn’t ever thought about is how in the world do you walk from compartment to compartment at 300km/hr (186.4mph)???? Or worse, use the bano – obviously passengers ahead of us hadn’t figured that one out either!! I was fine, but it left a lot to desire for Renne’!! LOL!
The country side is mostly farm land through here. We see fields of cotton, hay, sunflowers and corn as we can determine and groves upon groves of olive trees. Interestingly, they provide a great crop for the hill country.
So meet us tonite for sundowners on the dock with the Schindlers. We will save some wine for you.
JonNe’
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