The halfway point

Today marks the halfway point for our trip. I think we have some mixed feelings about that - Monte sometimes says he wants to go home, although that is mostly when he is upset about something. I feel like it has gone pretty fast, and though I miss some things, I am really glad we are doing this and am looking forward to the second half. I think Teo is mostly having fun but is sometimes a bit homesick. Jeff is enjoying it, but I think it might be wearing on him a bit.

Anyway.....
We are in Antequera, Spain for about a month. It is a town of about 45,000, basically right in the center of Andalusia in southern Spain, centrally located between Málaga, Córdoba, Granada, and Sevilla. Two years ago, the town suddenly became a tourist destination when it was named a UNESCO world heritage site. I read an article in the paper about how this has affected the town, and I think they have some growing pains related to this, since the locals aren't really used to tourists.

The main reason they received the world heritage site designation is because of the dolmens, which are ancient burial chambers. They are three here, made with huge stones (think Stonehenge), and they are about 6000 years old. In fact, the town is called Antequera, or "ancient town", because when the Romans came here 2000 years ago, they said, "wow, this is a really old place" after they discovered the dolmens. It's hard to get a good picture of them, but here is one

The biggest Dolmen is facing "La Peña de los Enamorados", or Lover's Rock. Here is a picture of it from the patio at sunrise

La Peña is on the right, it looks like a person lying down. The legend is that a Catholic girl fell in love with a Moorish boy many years ago. Of course their families did not approve of this, so they ran away and leapt to their deaths from the rock rather than be separated.

The town also has an old fortress and castle on a hill with remains from Roman times, as well as when the Moors ruled and then the Catholics.

We bought a pass to the public pool, so we have been spending lots of time there, it is a good opportunity for the boys to speak Spanish.
After about a week we rented a car, which allows us to explore the area more. We went to Málaga, on the Mediterranean coast, the boys enjoyed swimming in the sea

The beach lived up to its European reputation with plenty of topless women. The boys handled it pretty well, with minimal staring. :)
The next day we went to El Torcal National Park, which was truly amazing, and free! We took a 3 mile hike, it is called a karst rock formation, formed by layers of limestone rock that slowly get dissolved, creating really amazing structures

We went to a lake that is a wildlife refuge, also free, saw tons of flamingos. Then we went to El Refugio del Burrito - donkey rescue! I forgot how much I like donkeys, they are really friendly and not as scary as horses. We really liked a mule named Nicky:

Our big adventure was traveling to Gibraltar, it was about a 2 hour drive. Gibraltar is a small peninsula, 1 mile x 3 miles, sticking out from Spain. It is a British territory, so we had to show passports, and they use the pound as currency. The Spanish have tried to retake it multiple times, unsuccessfully. The Rock of Gibraltar is 1400 feet high, taller than the Empire State Building, and we were able to take a cable car to the top

We then walked down, it took most of the day as we stopped at the sites. One of the big attractions is the Barbary macaques, the only wild monkey population in Europe. They are so used to people that you have to keep your belongings close to you or they will take them, especially food. One got into the cafe and stole a sandwich off of someone's table, they had to coax him out with a candy bar. Unfortunately the taxi drivers feed them for the tourists to get good pictures. We didn't participate in that, but still got some good photo ops, they actually pose for you.

Notice the baby in the last pic (it's hard to see), it was so cute!
We walked to O'Hara's battery, the highest point on the rock. From here, you can see Africa, with the Mediterranean Sea on the left and the Atlantic Ocean on the right (the Strait of Gibraltar separates the two, it's less than 9 miles wide).

This is apparently one of the two places in the world where you can see two continents and two large bodies of water, the other being across the strait in Africa.

We had dinner at what I thought was a real British pub, where we watched England get eliminated from the World Cup. However, they were impostors, because they served the Guinness cold, and when I asked for malt vinegar with my fish and chips, they not only didn't have any, the server didn't understand what I was asking for. What a travesty!

I am proud to say that two people (one clerk at the post office and one woman who sold us tickets to see the fort in town) commented on how well I speak Spanish. 😊

The boys and I went to see Hotel Transylvania 3 in Spanish, we were able to follow most of it. We know the town pretty well now, and I think I could walk anywhere and figure out how to get back. Driving is a different story though, with narrow one-way streets that sometimes dead end and it is nearly impossible to turn around.

We are also enjoying siesta - the whole town basically shuts down from about 2 pm -5 pm. It's lovely to take a rest in the afternoon. People don't eat dinner until 9 or 10, and it isn't unusual for young children to stay up until midnight. The boys have been enjoying that part of Spanish culture!

Signing off, here's to a great second half of the trip!
Kristi