Dan and Pam arrive in Europe

This week we were entertaining once again. but instead of sticking to somewhere we knew, we decided to meet Scott's dad and stepmom in the Southern coast of Spain. We all met up in Malaga Spain for the first half of the week; then on Wednesday Dan and Pam flew to Ireland for a couple of days while Scott and I stayed in Malaga. As with many of our trips this one was full of mis-adventures. It started out that Dan and Pam almost didn't make it to Malaga. Their flight was never comfirmed by Travelocity so when they arrived at the airport in London (after an over night flight from the US) there was no seat for them. They scrambled to find a flight but did not arrive at the condo in Malaga until around midnight. Even though they were jet-lagged we headed to Gibralter the next morning. Gibralter is an island owned by the UK which is famous for it's apes. Ever heard of the "rock of Gibralter"? One other thing, to get to the island you literally have to walk over a live runway!

We took a cable car up to the top of the rock where the ape habitat was. When we got there I was thinking to see some cute monkeys in a cage but oh no, they were all running around free! They were very friendly and photogenic though.

The next day trip was to Granada were we went to the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a huge palace and fortress built by the Moorish Monarchs of Granada. This was lived in by the Muslim kings and their court. Since we didn't book ahead (who knew?) we could only walk through the grounds and not the palace. Below is a picture of the grounds.

The next day we decided to hit the beach and tour Malaga. It was a day full of mis-adventures. First off in the water (which felt like 60 degrees) I was hit by a jelly fish which stung my knee, then it also hit and stung Scott's leg. We had lunch on the beach where no one spoke English and we all ordered something without knowing what we would actually get. Later that day as we were driving back from Malaga Scott blew a back tire on the highway. We pulled off and called Avis. Scott was all set to replace the tire until he opened the trunk and found there was not spare. When the highway helper came he wouldn't do anything because we didn't have a tire. After an hour of arguing through a translater the car was towed back to Avis for a new one.

Later in the week we only made one more road trip which was to Sierra Blanco. It is a small town filled with your typical white pueblos. Although the weather was nice and it was great to be at a beach, both Scott and I rank this at the bottom of all the cities we have seen in Europe so far. It was a nice relaxing week but a place we don't need to see again.