Beach Hotel Dos Mares Tarifa

... and nautilus were captured, studied, and preserved in giant glass jars of formaldehyde. Bleached skeletons of ancient Risso's dolphins and furry baleens stretched out for endless meters, motionless and memorable. In the gift shop, I bought a red stocking cap just like the one Jacques Cousteau always wore. I am now excited for winter, so I can break out my new gear. Ahoy!<br><br>MARINE MAMMALS: Today, the Captain came over the booming address system and announced that some type ...

... be a mosque in every way. However, it is called the Santa Maria Synagogue. Huh? It turns out that it was built as a Jewish house of worship, by a Moorish Mosque builder. Then it was taken over by Catholics, who added the Santa Maria part.<br><br>From there we headed toward Tarifa. We stopped at a few more of these Hill Towns. The kids got tired of the concept and decided to stay in the camper playing ...

... just blasts everything away, granted this is probably slightly more painful then your normal facial. What a bloody laugh. As always even this wind blown little town has live up to our expectations of Spain. We have decided that if we don´t like Australia, Spain will probably be the place for us. Tomorrow Morocco and hopefully Marrakesh

... Camping which is where we are staying. Apart from the odd hippy chic bar and what I've mentioned above, there's not much here. We quite like it that way but if you don't, don't come here off season. I've been sat by the pool reading for the past 2 hours, completely on my own. There is grass and quite a lot of shade, which is unusual in Spanish pools. A Spanish couple have just snuck in to smoke a joint, presumably they wanted to do it in private but decided I ...

... it was good music. The beaches are really nice here - the sand is very soft. There are lots of surfers and windsurfers. We went to the beach today and Dad and I snorkeled and saw a huge fish. This is where the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean meet - two oceans like in Cape Town. It is called the Straights of Gibraltar. I am looking forward to going to North Africa, but think Spain rocks! Top Three Best Things ...

... We go through the various food markets winding through the Kasbah. My favorite. Mounds of beautiful vegetables, exotic spices, confections, flowers, and prepared foods. The butcher stalls have in-your-face displays of their animals hanging. KTs favorite. On top of being vegetarian, this is where dozens of cats are roaming (she's allergic). We see the Kasbah museum and visit the American ...

... by a polite smile and direction to move along. It could have just been my imagination, but it´s awfully hard not to think that the whole interaction was underpinned by a mutual desire to avoid any trouble. We certainly did not want any first-hand experience with the Tunisian legal system. And the officers did not seem to want much more to do with citizens of a country whose current foreign policy can, at times, be summarized as ¨Go ...

... got the hell out... despite the fact that Anna and Kurt got desperately pukey-sea-sick during the lumpy crossing,we were all festive feeling and relieved. We said good-bye to Morocco, and Lucie spat in the water for one last time- making a mental note of how good it will feel to NOT have to spray spit at all the rude-agressive-insulting-sleazy-presump tuous-pervert-Morocca n-men anymore... shameful but true. Good Bye Morocco.

... and chilling in the Medina calls. Bought some Converse Chucks before I left Tangier but their pretty ****. I'll probably never wear them. Emma doesn't like it when we almost miss the ferry because we forget to get our passports stamped. And when James takes photos of the no photos sign in the border/customes area. No damage done, I collect them you see.

... time was 1 hour late. You have to get your passport stamped again on the way out. We met a really nice group of French Canadians on the tour and we joined them on the top deck for some craic on the way back to Spain. We arrived back to Spain 3 hours later than scheduled. It was a brilliant visit, but we left happy that we didn't include Morocco on our tour...we´ll keep that one for when we have a few more miles on the clock! Or two very big burley men to go back with!