Week 3 Cheney European Vacation

Marbella - We woke up Saturday morning in Marbella to a beautiful windy day.  We had a quick morning around the hotel and then drove down to Gibraltar.  We had no idea what we were going to do, we just wanted to see what the day would bring.  To get onto the island of Gibraltar you have to get into a long line of cars (took about 45 minutes for us), park and get on a bus, or park and walk.  Once you get to the boarder you have to show passports for everyone in the vehicle to the boarder patrol and go through.  If you're lucky you'll go straight over to the island, some people have to wait for an airplane to land or take off first.  The area that serves as a bridge to Gibraltar is an airport landing strip.  This strip is one of the hardest places to take off and land in the world, but it is quite an interesting place to watch the planes come and go.  We ended up driving up to the upper part of the Gibraltar Rock.  The trail took us up to the Saint Michael Caves.  We parked and went to into the caves.  The caves were pretty amazing, huge stalagmites and stalactites, they have found human remains from 40,000 BC and cave drawings.  The St. Michael Caves were used as a hospital during World War II.   While we were inside there were people setting up a stage, they were getting ready for the Miss Gibraltar pageant.  They have a large stage and seating area already in place for such events.  After the caves we ate lunch, there were monkey's right outside waiting for anyone with food.  You're not allowed to take food out of the restaurant.  The lady was telling us that the largest monkey, named Dumbo, she has to bring food for him every day or he starts stealing from the store. We then drove down and through Gibraltar and made our way back to the hotel.  The kids took grandpa for a walk back at the hotel and found some snails. 

Road to Marbella, a small town on the cliffs in the Top left and bottom right corners.

The other three are views from our hotel, yup that's the ocean in the middle one.

Pictures on the left are inside St. Michael's Caves. Top is a look at the pageant stage
bottom is Stalactites from the ceiling.
The pictures on the right are of the Gibraltar Monkey's, bottom right is Dumbo the largest monkey.

Sunday we woke up to a colder windier day.  We drove to Granada to see the Alhambra.  As we arrived at the Alhambra it started to rain, it was a very cold wet day.  We got our reserved tickets and still had an hour before we were allowed to enter.  So we found a small restaurant for lunch.  We then went to the Alhambra, is an old palace and fortress built for the Muslim Emirs. The palace has a lot of Moorish influence in the building design.  The detail in the sculpting of everything is incredible. The gardens were beautiful, but it was just too cold and wet to really enjoy it.  We were happy to get inside the palace and look around.  There was a famous American writer Washington Irving that lived here in the Alhambra to have some quite to write his Spanish books "The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus" and "The Chronicles of the Conquest of Granada".  On our way back to the hotel from the Alhambra we were driving through the mountains that were now white with snow on the top.  That's how cold the day was.  Later that night after dinner Jimmy noticed that the sun was setting, so we ran out the door with kids in their pajamas to go see the sunset on the beach. What a great way to spend the evening. 

Pictures of the Alhambra, simply beautiful.

Pictures of the beach at sunset, and the next morning.

Monday we stopped at the beach just to take a stroll, headed home, then enjoyed the afternoon/evening in the yard with the kids.

Tuesday, kids went back to school, Jimmy was back to work.  So mom and I had a day in downtown Seville with Clara.  (Dad wasn't feeling that great so he stayed to rest).  I took mom to see the Cathedral of Seville, it's the 3rd largest in the world.  It's also "believed" to be the final resting place of Christopher Columbus.  This was the first time I had been in the Cathedral myself, and it was pretty amazing.  We enjoyed our morning being able to stroll through street performers and some side street shops, and a nice jamon sandwich for lunch.  That night we had the missionaries over for dinner, we had an Elder that it was his last night in the mission field.  It was also mom and dad's last night with us.  We had a nice dinner, message, and so special time with grandma and grandpa.

Top Left: Outside view

Top Right: A statue of a past pope

Middle Left: One of two very large organs

Middle Right: Christopher Columbus' tomb

Bottom Left: A small door only about 4 feet tall

Bottom Right: A very large candelabra about 15 feet tall

Wednesday, mom and dad started their journey back home.  Flying back to Paris, enjoying a walk through the catacombs, and a nice lunch.  Then they got stranded their hotel was over booked, and they had to get shipped out to another hotel that the hotel worked out for them.  Thursday they flew home. We had a great 3 weeks with you mom and dad, and will always cherish these memories.  Thank you so much for making the effort to come over.  We love you.