Pussycat, Pussycat, where have you been? I've been to London to visit the Queen! Week 1

The main deterrent to blogging in Europe was the difficulty/expense of getting photos onto internet cafe computers. In celebration of being back on my own laptop, I bring you: A Photo a Day–the trip in summary, Week 1.

Hannie and Me on our Madrid balcony Wednesday, 14 May. Terrible hostel; great view!

Thursday, 15 May

Blah — Museo de Jamon, Royal Palace closed, phone card lost

Yay — the Prado was free! also yay: our evening Sangria 🙂

Friday, 16 May — daytrip to Toledo and the biggest cathedral in Spain. This medieval city looked like a party!

Saturday, 17 May — Sevilla

“Hm, everything’s full and expensive. Sorry,” said the unhelpful info lady at the train station. Nonetheless, we found rooms in our hostel of choice, saw a fantastic flamenco show, and ran into this Catholic festival one million times on different winding streets. That’s the Giralda Tour in the background, which has Roman stones at its base, was built by the Moors as part of a huge mosque, and is now part of the cathedral where Christopher Columbus is buried. It’s (by law) the highest building in Sevilla.

Sunday, 18 May — Sevilla

The sunshine lasted through our courtyard brunch, tour of the cathedral, climbing the tour and walking along the riverfront. We bargained a ticket hawker down to a sixth of the asking price and watched this bullfight for about five minutes before being thoughoughly grossed out. And it started to rain when we left–bummer for all those people in the open-air seats.

Monday, 19 May — Tarifa

How beautiful is this place?! Beautiful enough to get TWO pictures on the picture-a-day tour! This is the southernmost city in continental Europe, says the guidebook.

Tuesday, 20 May — Tanger, Morocco (This is before we hated this city)

Wednesday, 21 May — Tanger, Morocco (…aaaaaand this is us after. We’re giving our Moroccan passport stamps a big Thumbs Down, thanks to the pickpocket who stole my wallet and Aggie Ring, the police man who hit on Hannie at the station, the unhelpful fat guy who typed on five sheets of police report carbon paper with one finger for an hour before even asking my name, and the fat lady who threw aside my paperwork when we left to cancel my credit cards instead of waiting for the fat man on lunch break to come back!)