Castellar de la Fronterra, Spain

November 8, 2014

This town is up a very narrow windey road that probably has the most switchbacks we have encountered in Spain.  The location has civilization marks dating back to the Bronze age with cave drawings nearby. The castle was a medieval fortress that changed hands between the Christians and the Muslims.  Its unique characteristic is that the town is built within the castle.  The castle itself is currently run by TUGASA that has hotels in all historic buildings.  Views from the castle are wonderful in seeing Gibraltar and the Parque Natural Los Acornocales and the Guadarranque Reservoir.  The reservoir was built in the 1960s. A fascinating aspect of Castellar was that starting in the 1960s and completed in 1971, a brand new town was built 7 km away with wide streets and no steep mountains.  In 1983 the Spanish government expropriated the castle from a private owner declaring it a 'historical and artistic monument'.  A ton of money was invested in repairs to the castle and the town within.  As the remaining original residents relocated to the New Castellar the old town became a hippy colony with houses to rent, art shops, and restaurants with tourism as a major industry.

It approximately reads - "Your dog won't pick up after itself"

We purchased the colorful mirror on the left.  

The white and red city on the left side is the New Castellar and then on the right side of the photo is the Rock of Gibraltar.

Month 4

Month 4 now draws to a close.  This month brought us giggles, the most fun at bath time I have ever encountered, and Halloween.  It is so much fun seeing Owen grow and how much more Damon and I love him each day.  

 Skyping with Grandma Ileene

The position of excellence - on the double wide.

November 1

He's a ferocious shark. 

That's the Ob/Gyn clinic that took care of Owen and I.

October 31

Halloween

October 30

Bathtime

You have to look carefully - he is sucking in his sleep.

October 29

October 28

New Toy

October 27 - Owen weighed in at 15 pounds!

                                October 24                                July 10

Crazy how much he has changed in 3 months.

Those hands are tasty.

 Helping in the kitchen.

 Watching the news with Dad.

October 16

October 13

The "Dad" diet coke can in the background was not intentional.

October 7

Domesticated Damon

Cadiz, Spain - Lighthouse

October 25, 2014

The Cadiz lighthouse is built within the San Sebastián Castle on the La Caleta islet.  According to legend, La Caleta was the home to the Temple of Kronos.  By Greek mythology, he was the youngest of the Titans, god of time and the ages, and father to Zeus. The spelling of his name can also be Chronos - hence the word chronology meaning "arrangement of events or dates in the order of their occurrence".  La Caleta is a natural harbor that was used by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Romans. The city has always had walled fortifications that were sufficient to repel raids all the way through the Barbary Corsair raids in the 16th century. The most determined enemy that Cadiz faced was the English beginning in 1587 by Sir Francis Drake. The English did a pretty good number on the city and the attack of 1586 left the city in ruins. New fortifications were built around the entire city after this attack. The castle seen today was built beginning in 1706. In the late 1800s, the island was joined to the mainland by a kilometer-long jetty. The lighthouse was installed in 1908 and is built on the base of a Moorish watchtower.  Before the metal lighthouse was built, there was a 39 meter stone tower.  That stone tower was demolished in 1855 fearing that the lighthouse would guide the US ships during the Spanish-American War. The US never did make any attacks on the Spanish mainland. The present lighthouse is 41 meters tall and was Spain's second electric lighthouse at the time of its construction.  It serves now as the landfall light for Cádiz.

Public market.

This fort was the background for the conversation in James Bond 'Die Another Day' - it was set as Cuba in the storyline.

Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park, Spain - Grazalema

October 18, 2014

The Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park covers 127,740 acres and was declared a biosphere reserve in 1977. Many of the mountain white villages are in this area and we have driven through many times.  Damon went on a hike in this park last year in November with MWR.  Most notably it is a landscape covered with soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum called Karst topography.  These rocks yield many underground drainage systems including sinkholes, dolines, and caves.This park is home to many species of vultures.  This includes the Egyptian vulture which is a seriously threatened species.  Vultures are scavengers that in this park feed on the Spanish ibex, the Grazalema merino sheep, the payoya goat and the Cadiz Iberian blonde pig. There are also several bird and bat species.  There is also a dragonfly Macronia splendins that I'm pretty sure is here in Rota too because about a million dragonflies are up on our roof perched on the clothes lines.  The primary tree is the Spanish Fir that has been around since the tertiary period.  The dense forest also includes the Quercus faginea oak.

Not a bad place for Owen to picnic.

Malaga, Spain

October 10-12, 2014

Another successful road trip with Owen.  We visited the Picasso museum, the cathedral, the Alcazaba, Roman ruins, the bull ring, and the Revello de Toro museum.  The city's history spans Phoenician, Roman, Arabic, and Christian eras.  Remains from each era are still visible.  The Phoenician ruins are in the basement of the Picasso museum, the 1st century Roman amphitheater rediscovered in 1951 is outside the Alcazaba and in between the two is the cathedral. Picasso was born in Malaga, but spent most of his adult life in France.  I don't consider myself any sort of art expert, so analyzing Picasso's work I find rather annoying.  I did enjoy the museum and that we had an audio guide to explain all the pieces.  Our next stop was the cathedral which is built on the foundations of another cathedral then turned mosque. It is a Renaissance style cathedral built between 1528 and 1782.  It is most notable in that it only has one tower completed with the second half-finished.  It is comically referred to as "La Manquita", meaning in English, "The One-Armed Lady". The second tower is unfinished because the funds needed were given to the soon-to-be United States during the Revolutionary War.  Next on our visit was the Alcazaba built in the early 11th century during the Hammudid dynasty.  This is the best preserved Alcazaba fortification in Spain.  It is less famous than the Alhambra in Granada, but I found it more interesting to walk around because of it being smaller and it was more like we were exploring it new than with a million other tourists. Next we went to the Museo Revello de Toro where his beautiful portraits were displayed.  Revello is also from Malaga. The museum is in the home of Pedro de Mena who was a religious sculptor in the 17th century. His works can be found in the cathedrals in Madrid, Marchena, Seville, and even as far as Mexico and Lima. He was born and trained in Granada representing the Baroque style of sculpture.