La Espadana Aparthotel Rota

... size of a penny on my forehead! But I wasn't alone! The train was smooth sailing and we arrived by mid-day. We walked the short walk to our hostel, which we at first passed (well, twice haha) and went through the long check-in process. But during check-in, we got to take in the amazing hostel that we would be staying the night in. Sadly, I can't think of the name at the very moment, but once I do I'll fill in the blank for the both of us. It is ...

... and Cameron Diaz in it. I hope they get a part! Lunch was interesting and kind of like eating in a Chinese restaurant as the plates just kept coming! After lunch we said goodbye to the sons and continued walking and finally ended up back at the ship but not before taking a rest in the Plaza DE Espana across from the ship. When we were there the park cat ladies came by and fed the wild cats who were pretty friendly. Great ending to a very nice day!

Today was the second and last excursion we did through Holland America. Jacqui had wanted to see the Andalusian horse show, and we could also get in a sherry tasting with it! <br><br>First off was the tour of the Gonzales Byass winery. I'm not a big fan of the normal sherries, but I love the sweet sherries. And it was cheap. I got a ...

... something to see. After the show we headed to another white village town called Arcos de la Frontera. This was another cobble stoned hillside town set among 2 churches and a convent. We had a nice lunch and walked around the town. The streets were narrow and tiny and mike did a great job of navigating through the narrow roads (he's getting much better)...we left and started our 2.5 hour drive from there to Nerja our destination for the next 7 days ...

... streets at night. There might have been several million of the carnaval people in Cadiz that night, I think.<br><br>By the way, the most original and interesting costumes were of Lego; there were also a few people dressed up as Mario, the pope or Heineken bottles, but my personal best was a guy dressed up as Facebook. He was unbeatable.<br><br>Our train was scheduled for the evening, when it was already dark, and when the festival was actually about to begin. I ...

... zijn met z'n allen naar ons app gegaan en hebben we tot laat in de nacht Uno liggen spelen. Ze hadden er ook niks beters op gevonden om mij Froni te noemen, want blijkbaar wordt er in Duitsland de bijnaam "Froni" gegeven aan de naam Veronica = Veronique. Ik ben daar natuurlijk zwaar beginnen protesteren, maar het heeft ni veel geholpen, ik hoop dat ze het ondertussen terug vergeten zijn, maar ik vrees ...

... vertrekken. Ik heb daar mijn twijfels over, temeer daar de doorloop van de vloed bijna drie uur heeft geduurd (eigen waarneming). Hoe zit dat dan met het begin van de vloedstroom, kan hij dan ook eerder beginnen, het is immers net springtij? Echter als de vloedstroom later start, dan is het absurd 3 uur voor laag water te vertrekken, want dan moet je nog de delay van de vloed erbij optellen en dan zou je meer dan 4 uur met tegenstroom bezig zijn. Wat is wijsheid ...

... of May. Personally i'd rather take the money and run, but really any chance to dodge the work is relished. There is only so much interest i can feign in gerunds, auxiliary verbs and perfect tenses. Life here is very good though and very easy, and there are more adventures on the way, both in Spain and beyond. The most frightening one of all though is a probably journey home at the end of August, on the one year anniversary of my leaving with Andy for Chile. How long ago that seems!

I woke up with a bit of a sore throat and realized that I am on the verge of a sicky. Noooo! Not now! So I pretty much rested and worked. I tried to keep as low profile as possible and even skipped the walk on the beach. It gets really really windy here so I know it would just make my ears hurt. Later on, I made Bananas ...

... and toast, I met some more travelers. We shared our trip experiences and plans before I knuckled down to get some more work done. The rain started becoming pretty serious and people were coming in with stories of entire streets flooded in two feet of water. I was going to go sightseeing but I guess not. The power in the hostel ended up going out a few times and I ended up missing a conference call. I guess I am starting to ...