Prague, Czech Republic

November 27-30, 2013

The capital of the Czech Republic. We found the language to be total gibberish but thankfully most people spoke English.  Prague has a 1,100 year history and in that time has either been a main city or significant city in many empires.  There is still Soviet influence visible.  The city appears to be doing very well.  Prague is where the original light beer was originated.  It was cheaper to buy beer than coke. The food was very dense with lots of meat, potatoes, and sauerkraut.  Our favorite part was seeing the astronomical clock that is still functioning.  We also got to see a changing of the guards at the main building in the old city.

Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park, Spain - El Salto del Cabrero Canyon

November 23, 2013

Damon went on a hike with MWR to el Salto del Cabrero just within an hour of Rota near the town of Grazalema.  I didn't join because I wasn't feeling so good and the hike was described as "moderate to difficult" and took 7 hours.  I much prefer sleeping in! Damon really enjoyed himself and getting up into the mountains was fun.

Gibraltar, UK

November 16, 2013

Gibraltar and Ceuta create the Strait of Gibraltar.  Gibraltar is a British territory and while Spain asserts a claim to the territory, the people of Gibraltar don't want to be associated with Spain.  It would be bad politically if one country had complete control of the Strait of Gibraltar.  And there is no way that Spain would give up Ceuta.  Thus, we are at a standstill.  It is very obvious in Gibraltar that you aren't in Spain anymore.  Gibraltar is very clean and organized.  They do not drive on the left side of the road because it became too expensive to get right-sided cars.  Most of the streets are one-way anyway so it would not have been difficult for us to drive in.  Walking through the customs booth is much easier and faster than driving.  we had some excellent fish and chips.  The Rock is very cool.  The British built a fort with cannons in the rock, first in 1779.  Pretty much to defend against Spanish attacks.  A main resident of the Rock are the Barbary macaques which show no fear of humans and will even take food out of your hand.  This did not happen to us thankfully! Much of the rock is a nature preserve so the apes are fed better food than what they are given by the tourists.  Another cool feature is a series of caves that has remarkable acoustics so they converted it into a concert hall.  The British Navy has a pretty big base in Gibraltar too. Evidence in the caves were found from between 128,000 and 24,000 BC of the Neanderthals, the last known location of habitation.  Then in 950 BC there is evidence of the Phoenicians.  Then the typical sequence of Greeks and Romans.