Eleanor – Page 17 – roaming.kiwi

Flamenco

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January 3, 2019 3

New Year in Seville

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We have just had the best New Year in Seville.

We tried to go to the Alhambra, near Grenada but it was sold out. So we just walked round a bit.

Then we drove to Seville. The campsite was a car park and it was a bit rubbish. There were lots and lots of campervans.

We walked into Seville past the Plaza de Espana. It was very impressive with tiles on the bridges, round the fountains, on the stairs and even the lights. There were even rowboats on a tiled river. It was nice and warm.

But the best bit was watching a lady and a man doing some flamenco. They were really good. (See separate post for video)

We walked into town and I got my own beautiful fan. It is black with blue sequins. We walked round the cathedral and had a tapas for dinner. Tapas is lots of little plates with different food. We had bread, olives, toasted almonds, tuna, meatballs, chicken, ham, fries that turned out to be crisps not french fries. And for pudding I had the best chocolate pudding!

Then we went to a flamenco show. I got to sit in the front row. There was a singer, but I couldn’t understand what she said. There was a man playing guitar, and a lady dancing. I liked the dancing the best. She had a long skirt with ruffles at the bottom, and she there was lots of clapping and tapping her feet. Her feet were really fast! At the end of the show she taught us some flamenco moves!! It was amazing. Then we walked back past all the Christmas lights.

The next day we went to the Alcazar, which is like a palace. We had to queue for ages. The palace was very similar to the ones in Morocco with tiles and painted ceilings, and carved walls. There were also some tapestries on the walls that I liked. We liked the gardens too. Mummy wanted to look in the cathedral but the queue was too long.

Now we are driving north.

January 3, 2019 4

Gibraltar

Yesterday we went to Gibraltar. This is part of Great Britain, even though it is a rock on the bottom of Spain. The rock is huge. We walked through passport control and then round Ocean Village.

Then we went up the cable car to the top of the rock. There were lots of monkeys at the top – more of the Barbary macaques that we saw in Morroco. They were using their fingers to find fleas on other monkeys and then they would eat them!

There was a really good view out to sea at the top. We even saw little waterspouts.

We walked to St. Michael’s Cave. There was a big cave called the Cathedral and it had lots of seats and coloured lights and music. It gets used for concerts. We walked further down and there were lots of stalactites and stalgmites. When they join together they are called a column. One had broken and was polished and you could see rings, like in a tree trunk. When it was white it was from a dry year and when it was brown it was from a wet year.

Then we walked to the seige tunnels. Britain took Gibraltar in 1704. The great siege was when France and Spain tried to take it back in 1780. The seige lasted for three years. The British dug a big tunnel in the rock and put a lot of cannons in it. Britain won the siege and at the end they invited the Frence commander to come for dinner.

After lunch we went to the supermarket, there was a lot of food from home. On the way back to the car we had to wait because an aeroplane was taking off. It was a good day.

January 1, 2019 2

Fes

Yesterday we went to Fes. We took a taxi. The driver tooted his horn a lot!

The first thing we did was walk through the Medina to the Tanneries. This is where they make leather from goat and camel skin. We saw the skins being soaked and then all the hair being scraped off. The hair is used for carpets. The skins are dyed in big tubs and then dried. Some of the dyes were: paprika, saffron, henna, mint, tumeric. It was a bit smelly so they gave us mint, which smells nice. We bought a pouffe and he tried to get us to buy more, but we just wanted one.

Then we walked round the medina and saw lots of shops like Marrakesh. I liked it better because there were less mopeds and donkeys in the streets. I saw shops selling leather stuff, wooden bowls, slippers, lanterns, and food. My favourite was one selling carpets, but we didn’t buy one.

I won the lunch stop again. Mummy and Daddy had kebabs, and I had a pastella. This is a chicken pie with almonds and spice (filo like pastry) with sugar and cinnamon on top. It was yummy. The problem with choosing the best lunch is that every one tries to steal it!

We walked through the blue gate which is called Bab Bou Jeloud.

We went to a place called the Medersa Bou Inania which had lots of tiles and wooden carvings. It was used as a religious school.

Then we went to Batha Palace. This was a museum with lots of ceramic plates, jewellery, different clothes, a big gun and a sword. There was a nice garden in the middle.

After Fes we drove through Chefchaouen to Tangier Med Port. All the buildings were painted blue in Chefchaouen. Africa played a trick on us and the GPS took us off road over a hill to the port instead of the proper smooth road. Daddy loved it, it was very bumpy. Then we caught a boat to Algericas, and saw a rainbow. Good bye Africa till next year.

January 1, 2019 0

The High Atlas

For two days we did another route called MH18. This was through the High Atlas mountains. At Imi-n-Ifri there was a big rock bridge that we drove over. There were big stalactites, but we didn’t get a photo.

After this we saw dinosaur footprints. They were from a Megalosauripus dinosaur, which is about 2 metres tall. It is a carnivore, which means it eats meat. I could only just get my feet to reach between footprints.

We went over lots of mountain passes, with windy roads and hairpins. The highest pass was at 2,774m! After that we found some snow to play in!!

We drove through lots of villages. There were lots of shepherds and their sheep, and people with donkeys. We stopped at a house where four ladies were making a rug. It was all done by hand. It was interesting to watch, but they didn’t speak any english.