tarnhop’s barhops – Spain 29

OK, Ive neglected this travelblog up until now but I pledge to keep it fresh with useless stories and amateur photos, going forward.

Ive been visiting my sister, who lives in Madrid, with my mother and a couple of her friends. Ive also travelled around the country to Toledo, San Sebastien, Bilbao, Cordoba, Granda, Gibraltar (not really Spain but a self-governing British colony), and Algeciras. Tomorrow I go to Tangier, Morocco via the ferry.

Madrid is as cool as I remember it but unfortunately I fell ill and missed several days of would-be, inebriated fun and folly. San Sebastien, a resort for Europes monied, is beautiful even in the rain.

Bilbaos greatest attraction is the Guggenheim. Although the building is pretty monstrous, it is somehow at the same time sexy and the museum has some great exhibits. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take photos inside but you can see this shot from the outside featuring the giant, flower puppy and my smiling mom. I tried to get a shot of a large photograph of a man in a santa suit taking a photo of the viewer while exposing his genitals, but alas security was making rounds and I may have been profiled as a trouble-maker after snapping a photo here and there.

Cordobas big draw is the Mesquita, a mosque converted to a church. Pretty much every mosque in Spain was converted to a church. Here it looks like Candyland and here a discoteca courtesy of a stained glass window.

The Alhambra at Granada, the last stand of the Moors, wasnt very photogenic but this wall is.

And today I hiked around the top of the Rock at Gibraltar which has a great cave and plenty of wartime tunnels. Posted everywhere are signs advising not to feed the Barbary Macaques and warning that they have come to associate plastic bags with food. OK, I should not have fed them but I wanted to get a picture of one on my head after seeing a tour guide coax a monkey from the head of one willing German tourist to another. All it took was the sound of the crumpling of a plastic bag in my pocket for this giant to pounce. I think she is the mom and her kids followed suit. Anyway, I tossed the food to save myself and now I have a picture of a monkey on my head. Gibraltar is cool because its not quite British (maybe more like London in the 60s–a little bit Austin Powers and a little bit The Prisoner) and definitely not Spanish. Its the kind of place where you can find on the front page both a story about the areas internationally contested governing status and a piece on a local choir performing this month.