Spain & Greece 2000
It all started with a great idea, 4 friends, 2 couples, travel to Spain and Greece together.
This would fall under the "seemed like a good idea at the time" vacation.
We flew from Vancouver to London at the end of September, where we would connect with a flight to Spain. Trouble is, our traveling companions made the travel arrangements, and arranged a flight that arrives at Heathrow airport, and departs at Gatwick airport. As is customary with our favourite airline, Air Canada, the flight arrives late, it actually was rescheduled in Vancouver to leave at 1:00am instead of 8:45pm. We would have had 2 hours to take the train or shuttle to the other airport, except Air Canada flights don't usually leave on time, this flight is no different.
Friday
Air Canada checks our bags through to Malaga, Spain, we aren't sure that is right because of the airport change, so we re-confirm with a 2nd rep, and they assure us the bags will be transferred.
Our companions are sitting in a separate section of the plane, closer to the front, and when we get off the plane, they are gone! They are nowhere to be found, and after we search multiple areas of the airport and have them paged, we assume they jumped the train to get to the other airport, without us.
The quickest way to get to Gatwick is by shuttle bus, and we head over to the British Airways check-in desk at the other airport, and find out we have missed the flight. The flight had already been rebooked for us to leave the following day at 8:00pm. They say there is nothing they can do as the flights weren't booked correctly. We have now lost 1 day in Spain.
Saturday
Our luggage has not been transferred from Heathrow, and there is no Air Canada office at Gatwick. We are on our own for accommodations, and we have no luggage. We find a hotel in Gatwick for the night, and there is still no word from our traveling companions (herein referred to as X&Y), so we leave a message with the airline, and take a cab to the Jarvis Hotel & Country Club, quite dumpy, quite pricey... 
It's not the best night of sleep after a long flight and the travel stress, and we are up early and go back to the airport to try and track down our friends. Apparently they left a message with the airlines, but the airlines never told us the numerous times we met with them.
London, England
Since it is so early, our flight doesn't leave until 8pm, we decide to play tourist and we are on of the first few tourists in line for the Buckingham Palace tour. The Queen isn't there, and there is no sign of the Corgi's on the back lawn. Apparently there must be Royal Pooper-Scoopers.
We do all the tourist standards, Westminster Abby, Big Ben, The London Bridge, well, the new London Bridge as I think the real one is in Arizona somewhere.
We ride the Thames river by tourist boat, we ride the tourist "London Eye" Ferris Wheel, and we feed the pigeons tourist food in Piccadilly square.
After wandering through the beautiful Hyde park, we head to the airport at 5pm, and finally find X&Y. Apparently they were pulled off into a room when departing the plane as they wouldn't make their connection. The airline gave them an overnight bag, put them up in a hotel, and arranged for their luggage to be ready for the next flight. I guess the airline never thought to grab us, and X&Y assumed they would. Once they realized they hadn't, they got an extra 2 overnight bags, and supposedly left a message with the airline. We obviously never got the message in all our conversations with them.
Sunday
When we check-in, we get the message X&Y left for us the night before. Our luggage is still sitting at London Heathrow, Air Canada didn't send it over, and we don't have enough time to go get it and make our flight to Spain. We phone Air Canada from Gatwick, begging them to send the luggage over, and they tell us there is nothing we can do except file a missing luggage report once we land in Spain... it's not missing, we know exactly where it is.
We are still in the same clothes we flew out in on Friday, it's now Sunday, so we do a small shopping spree in the airport, basics such as shorts, t-shirts, sandals, and underwear. We now have an overnight bag with a toothbrush, and deodorant, so we are ready to head to Spain, finally.
Monday
We land after Midnight, and I rush over to the Iberia Baggage Services desk and file my missing luggage report... it too a long time to convince them that the luggage was not on our flight. They take our hotel info and say they will track it down, they don't have to, I tell them exactly where it is (Air Canada's office at London Heathrow), a description of the 2 bags and ID tag #'s. Our hotel phones Iberia in the morning, and are told the bags will be on a 9pm flight... they weren't.
Spain
We stay in a nice "time-share" called Club Bena Vista near Marbella, in the Costa del Sol area, on the Southern Andalucian coast of Spain. The Costa del Sol feels like a small British seaside town, as it is catering to all the English tourists that stay there regularly... Fish 'n' Chip shops everywhere. This isn't the Spain that I came to see, so we spend some time in the pool, and after spending some time trying to track down our luggage, we arrange for a car rental to go check out the real spanish towns.
We pick up our itty-bitty car and after a brief stop at the beaches of Estepona, we head into the hills to get away from Little U.K., and experience a sense of true Spanish towns.
We work our way away from the coast and up into an amazing historic hillside town, Ronda, it sits on both sides of a massive ravine, and has a massive Roman bridge connecting both sides of the town.
The centerpiece to Ronda is the beautiful 'Plaza del Toros', the bullring. We are not too keen on seeing a bull get murdered, but it is an amazing structure to wander around in. Inside the ring, behind the protective walls, in the stands, and the catacomb of hallways and tunnels that make it all work. Luckily for us, there is no scheduled bullfights on the day we are there.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning we phone Iberia again, and they told us they tried to deliver the bags to our room at 1am, but there was no answer... LIARS! We were in the room and still awake at that time, washing our 1 set of clothes, so we are less stinky when we have to travel around.
After Breakfast we head to the white-washed town of Casares, it's layout is incredible, stacked houses, winding streets and car-less walkways that go off in all directions.
It is a bit of a game trying to figure out how to get from the parking area to the castle ruins overlooking the town. It's also becoming a game to stay cool, as the heat is rising, and the pathways are very steep as you work your way higher and higher through Casares.
After returning from our hillside town tour, Norine's bag is waiting for us, but not mine...
Apparently my bag is still sitting at London Heathrow, and will fly out at 9pm... uh-huh.
We drive to the small town of Mijas for dinner, a chance to avoid Bangers and Mash, or Fish and Chips and have genuine Spanish Paella. Paella (Pah-eh-ah) is a traditional rice dish mixed with vegetables, meat, or seafood, and made with saffron and olive oil in a frying pan. Paella actually means frying pan. As one of our few true Spanish meals, it was fantastic.
Wednesday
The next morning kicked off another case of "It seemed like a good idea at the time". We were about as close as you can get to Africa, so it seemed like a really good idea to take the 3 hour ferry ride and do a daytrip to Morocco. Algeciras to Tangier, how exotic. This may have been one of the worst day trips I have ever done, and one of the few times when I really felt unsafe in a foreign country.
It was very interesting upon arrival, the unique signs and written language, the architecture. Immediately we were mobbed by people asking for money, people trying to sell us stuff, the only words we learned were "La Shokran", which means "No thank you". As is usual when traveling, the first tourist stop was a bathroom, and that was a shocker... just a hole in the ground with two foot pads. You know what they say about first impressions. Morocco's bathroom made an impression.
When they took us for lunch they put chains on the doors to keep them out, if there was a fire, we were in deep trouble. We had traditional Moroccan food, very spice heavy with cumin, coriander, saffron, chiles, dried ginger, cinnamon, and paprika. All mixed in with couscous, assorted meats including lamb, and some fruits and Veggies. Coca Cola was being downed in a hurry.
After lunch things got worse, it seemed to be all fun and light when we saw the King Cobra snake charmers,
even funny when they put a snake around Norine's neck. But they wouldn't take it off until we gave them some money, Norine says, "That's fine, I'll keep it".
Once they got money from everyone that fell for it, they kicked the listless snakes back into the baskets and left.
From there the hard sells really started, we were locked in a room where "Do you want to buy a carpet?" has real meaning, very hard sell, we weren't interested, but the pressure was non-stop... from there we were locked in a spice shop, where we bought a few things so they would leave us alone. The magical qualities of their spices were amazing in the stories, at the end of the day you had a baggy with just some plain old spice in it.
The street sellers were relentless when we came out, they were all around us in a mob, yelling, flashing their goods, you had to keep a close eye on your pockets and your camera bags or purses. I wanted to get a souvenir spoon for my sister-in-law, but didn't have exact change, of course he didn't tell me this until he had the bill in his hand. Now he wouldn't give me change, and wouldn't take back the spoon. Our group is starting to get away from me, so knowing I have to leave he gives me another identical spoon, and says "fair deal". Right... get me out of here. The best part of the trip was watching Morocco disappear behind us from the back of the boat.
After returning from Tangier my bag still hadn't shown up, so we phoned Iberia again. Apparently my bag didn't make the 9pm flight... surprise!
But it would be put on tonight's 9pm flight for sure. To put this into context, I had now been wearing my new shorts, underwear and shirt for 5 days in a row.
Thursday
Thursday in Spain is probably the best day in Spain, we pile into our little car and make the trek to Seville aka Sevilla.
The sights along the way are quite interesting, there is a a lot of plains in Spain. There are some hills,
and some unique roadside attractions, including Art installations, and these unique Huge Black Bull billboards,
they are the symbol of Spain, and bring a smile to your face when you see them at the rise of several hills along the roadways.
We arrive into Seville and are immediately directed to a parking spot by local police,
actually it's just a space on top of a meridian, in the heart of the city centre, works for me.
We pile out and walk right into the courtyard of the Plaza de España.
A beautiful structure that was constructed for a Spanish-American Exhibition in 1929.
The Plaza de España appears as Naboo in Star Wars: Episode 2.
From the Plaza, we work our way to the Gothic/Baroque Cathedral of Seville (started in 1402) and it's bell tower,
the Giralda Tower which was started in 1198. The interior is ornate with artwork and multiple worship areas,
one of the centerpieces of the Cathedral is Christopher Columbus' tomb.
We wander the city for the remainder of the day, finding unique buildings, gardens and squares. We have lunch in a hidden square sitting under Orange trees, with the smell of citrus. I will not forget Seville, it is one of my gems of our travel history. Sadly we have to leave.
On the road home we watch as the sun sets over a field of windmills.
After returning from Sevilla, my bag was waiting... HOLY CRAP!
It looked like it had been through a war, it was scuffed, scratched, and had several small rips in it, it was obvious that it had not spent it's time just sitting at the airport in London. I suspect that it has done more traveling than I have, but at least I had my clothes again!
One day before we leave for Greece, I almost spent my entire stay in Spain wearing the same set of clothes.
Friday
It's our last day in Spain, since the previous excursion to another country went so well, we decided to try it again. It's hard to believe that a section of land no bigger than a few blocks is part of England, but this big rock sticking out of the Southern Tip of Spain is.
The Rock of Gibraltar has remained English territory, and we have to go through a very tedious customs border to get there, as the Spanish are not too happy that England has kept control over this chunk of limestone.
Gibraltar is famous for a few things, it's defensive position relative to Africa and Spain, it's network of tunnels and caves inside the Rock, and it's Barbary Macaques, known as Apes. They are the only wild monkeys in all of Europe.
They seem very cute, but they are wild, they grab peoples food, fight over it with each other, at one point a small ape is thrown over the side by a large ape cause he wouldn't give up a small bag of nuts X&Y brought.
The funniest sight is a small ape that is so cute, and rolls around on a wall to the oohs and ahhs of the tourists, and then proceeds to roll right over the edge.
After wandering through the network of caves, we head back to our Villa for some final pool time. We pack up our bags, and say "Adiós" to Spain, and head to Greece... with our suitcases.