. July 2019 .
Jake headed South to Barbados (again). Sam headed to Gibraltar. Michelle and Dave headed to Southern Spain (and Gibraltar).
Lots of pics this month, but you can see even more if you click on the various FB links.
Brace yourself, you can do it!!
Without further ado, read on!
CCCAN - Barbados
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| Jake and the Cayman Team for CCCAN |
Jake headed to Barbados for the second time this year. This time it was for the CCCAN swim meet where he'd be swimming against a bunch of other Nationalities, not just Caribbean countries. CCCAN stands for Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation, believe it or not....
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| Looking serious, pre-race. |
We didn't get a lot of pics from this meet as the timing clashed with other travel plans and we were unable to send one of the usual photographers (Michelle or Dave).
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| Relaxing poolside |
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| Jake and Corey |
Jake swam the 5k race as well. It was the same course that he won Gold in at Carifta in April. Unfortunately this day wasn't going to be a repeat, but a good experience swimming against a wider group of swimmers.
He swam pretty well overall and made finals in most events, so the Coach was reasonably happy with progress as they look forward to the ISCA meet in St Pete's (Florida) at the end of July.
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| The team at the 5k venue - Barbados |
Meanwhile, Michelle and Dave headed to Spain for a week prior to being in Gibraltar for the Island Games, where Sam would be competing.
Sam was leaving for Gibraltar on the same day as Jake would return from Barbados. They managed to cross paths at the airport briefly. Just enough time for a hi-five and hand the house keys over!
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| Crossing paths at the Cayman Islands Airport. |
(More on Gibraltar a little later.)
Espana
While Sam and Jake were crossing paths, Michelle and Dave had been in Southern Spain, checking out a few of the sights on offer around there.
After the flight from Miami - London (with a breakfast stop at Heathrow), Malaga was the next stop. They arrived early afternoon, hooked up a rental car and headed to find the hotel, and then explore the city.
Malaga
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| That's a rather large organ |
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| View from the tower of the Cathedral |
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| This is up on the roof - where they collect the water, when it rains. |
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Dinner at El Pimpi! A popular spot!
We weren't going to run out of wine.
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| Malaga at night, with the Cathedral in the background, just around the corner from our hotel |
We wandered around town, and explored a few streets and buildings and came across the Alcazaba, fortress palace, Gibralfaro Castle and grounds which covered some real estate.
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| Michelle's Art Gallery, Centre Pompidou - which was actually just a cube above ground, and no art was on display that we could see when we were there. |
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| Tourists above Malaga |
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| Malaga City - with Bullring being renovated on the left. |
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| Local inhabitant |
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| The morning after the night before... |
We only spent the one night in Malaga, but had an afternoon and the following morning to explore. Then it was on the road to Granada.
Granada
It took us an hour or so to get to Granada. We could do decent speed on the motorways so covered the ground in pretty quick time. The struggle was getting to the hotel and finding a park. We manage to shoehorn the car into a matchbox size park on the third level underground next to our hotel, and there it stayed until we left for the next town.
We did a 3 hour walking tour of the Alhambra, which is huge - a fortress, Nazrid palaces (Charles V Palace, Royal Palace, Comares Palace and towers), battlements (Alcazaba) and gardens (Generalife). It was pretty impressive in size as well as all the history that comes with it.
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| The Olive industry is massive here. It used to be grapes, but Olives seem to be the way to go these days. |
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| The fortress at the Allhambra |
View of the Cathedral from the Alhambra
One of the Palaces
Downtown
Next stop would be Rhonda, but with a little detour on the way for a small hike, Caminito del Rey near Parque Ardales.
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| There were a few tunnels about. |
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| Up and up and up we went! |
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| Made it to the top! Great views! It looked down on Caminito del Rey and out over the surrounding lakes |
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| Looking back up to the top. |
After that effort it was time for a beer and some lunch at the local in Parque Ardales!
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| BBQ Rabbit! |
Ronda
A romantic tile feature on the wall down the main street
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The Bullring was across the street from the hotel. We did a tour of the place to see what it was all about.
Pretty interesting, if not a bit tough on the El Torro!
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Each Bull gets his own dressing room to get ready in.
The exit is out into the arena.
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| You will have to imagine this as a big circle |
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| Looking straight down from the edge of town. We went for a walk down the track that took us almost to the bottom, and then back up again - we were pretty hot and bothered by the time we made it back up! |
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| Looking up from the water supply |
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| Siesta time? |
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| Banos arabes de Ronda - the Arab Baths (or what was left of them) |
Wandering around the rose garden built in terraces on the side of the cliff
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| Puente Nuevo - the "New Bridge" into town - very impressive |
We went for a drive to several nearby villages but came across one where all of the buildings are painted blue (Juzcar). This is in contrast to every other town in the Andalusian region where everything is painted white. They even brought the Smurfs in to do some promotional stuff!
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| Here's a white one! |
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| Hanging out on the balcony |
Sentinel de las Bodegas, Acinipo, Grazalema, Zahara de la Sierra
Back on the road again. This time heading to Grazalema, with a couple of short stops on the way.
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| Sentinel de las Bodegas is a very interesting place. Many of the houses are built into the overhang of the rocks, utilising the rocks for walls and a roof. This was not just the older houses - we saw some still being built that way |
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We didn't get to go into the back of one of these places.
It would be interesting to see how the homes were laid out.
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| A river must have flowed through here at some point |
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| We found some Roman ruins a little way down the road at Acinipo. |
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| A modest castle on the hill amongst the Olives |
Grazalema
Grazalema was a cool little town. We mainly explored by foot and found a few of the local hiking trails.
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| Choose your water! |
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| We hiked up to the dam (town reservoir) and found this guy surveying his kingdom |
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The town water supply
(had a few fish in it).
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| View of Grazalema from the Dam. We also walked across town and up the other side as well. |
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| This is up the other side opposite the Dam |
Found this critter hanging out in the ruins.
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Our hotel was a couple of kms down the road.
This is the view of town from the balcony of the hotel
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| The standard attire for guests |
This hotel was pretty cool.
The hallway reminds me of the Movie "Get Smart"
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| Heading off from Grazalema, we did one more hike in the surrounding hills |
Just down the road a bit we came across the castle that we had spotted up on our hike in the hills. It was at Zahara de la Sierra which was a small town that looked interesting. We stopped and wandered about until we found our way up to the castle.
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| The town square |
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This is looking down on that same square from the castle.
It was a bit of an effort to get up!
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| Great views from the top |
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| Back in town |
We had lunch at one of the many outdoor cafes and then continued on our journey.
Seville
We arrived in Seville in the mid afternoon on another scorching hot day. We found our hotel (which, again, was pretty awesome) and were lucky enough to find a park on the street outside for the car...and it was free! It's not often you get free parking in a city in Spain, let alone a large one!
Since it was stinking hot, we did the only sensible thing....we went out into the hot sun and walked for miles down to the Gardens, Parque Maria Luisa and Plaza de Espana….this city was a bit bigger than the others we'd been to and it took a lot longer than expected to get to each tourist spot - we certainly walked a lot of miles on this trip!
Both were quite impressive though (as were the cold cervesas after all of that!).
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| We even found Lord Farquaad hanging about! |
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| Plaza de Espana |
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| Torre del Oro |
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| Dusk in Seville |
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| View from our chosen dinner venue |
We paid a visit to the Real Alcazar, which is another royal palace complex filled with history and some impressive buildings of different styles from the different kings and royal families that lived there over the years. It is also where a number of scenes from the Game of Thrones was filmed. GoT fans may recognise a couple of spots, especially the garden areas.
After that, it was a tour of the Cathedral and a climb to the top of the tower.
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| Views of Seville from the tower |
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The Biggest and Meanest Matador in all of Spain...
(well, the biggest and meanest one that we saw)
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| We went to a Flamenco Dinner and show. The whole thing was pretty impressive, but you weren't allowed to take photos or video (sorry). The dancing was great although the singing was a bit hard to love at times (you had to be there). |
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| Breakfast (Desayuno) at our lovely hotel in Seville |
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| Breakfast tapas! |
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| Metropol Parasol - it's actually made of wood. |
Next stop:
Cadiz
Yet another Cathedral! We walked up the tower which had great views of Cadiz
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| Apparently the longest street in town |
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| Looking back at the church and the tower we were up. |
After a quick bite to eat it was back on the road and heading for Gibraltar.
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| Plenty of wind turbines in these parts |
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| A large Bull! |
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This is a very popular beach. It was very big, with massive sand dunes at the far end.
It was very windy though.
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| The sand dunes are poluar |
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| Must be constantly windy. This is near Tarifa |
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A little further down the road, we spotted this large rock.
They call it Gibraltar
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You have to drive or walk across the airport runway to get from Spain to Gibraltar.
This is where they stop the traffic when a plane is landing/taking off.
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| View down one half of the runway from the 'road'. |
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| There's a few tunnels in Gibraltar - and very few carparks... |
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| The Swim team before their departure in Cayman |
Island games cover most of the Commonwealth Games-type sports. Cayman was represented in Swimming, Squash, Track, Shooting, Tennis, Beach Volleyball and Basketball and maybe a couple of others.
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| The majority of the Cayman Team |
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| Sam warming up under the watchful eye of Coach Bailey (no relation - it's his first name). |
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| Race time |
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The crowd goes wild!
This must have been during a quiet time at the pool to be fair.
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| The brand new pool - roof not finished... |
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| Some of the locals get an elevated view of the pool |
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| One of Sam's IM races |
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| Pre-race focus |
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| Backstroke start |
The swim meet had Prelim heats in the mornings and was usually finished by about 11 am. The evening finals went from around 5 - 8.
Sam had a pretty good meet, making the finals in all of her events and a few PBs. She got close to the dais with a few 4ths.
Between sessions we did a bit of exploring around Gibraltar. With the lack of available parking, we left the car at the house and either took the bus or walked.
One day we took the cable car up to the top of the rock and explored that.
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| View from the top of the rock looking down at the Airport, and Spain |
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Local - Barbary Macaque to be precise.
The other locals just call them Apes.
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The monkeys seem pretty much free to wander where they like, but most tend to stay up a bit higher on the rock. Having said that, they do appear at random spots all over.
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| Michelle gets the nits removed |
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| The Fire Brigade is hi-tech |
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| Looking down on the athletics track, and also the pool (at bottom of pic). |
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Finally found our dream boat.
Just for comparison, those "small" boats moored up would be a minimum of 20 - 30 feet in length.
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| We visited the Limestone caves which were popular. They have a bunch of coloured lights that change colour every minute or so which we thought was a bit odd and didn't do the caves justice, turning them into a bit of a gimmick really. |
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| Mum and Baby |
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| Sam went up there with the swim team and met some friends |
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Standing on the Sky Walk, which is a glass platform with a large drop below.
One of the sections was cracked which was quite concerning!
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| Just chillin... |
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| A pint with lunch (as you do, especially in an Irish pub)! |
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| There is quite a strong military presence in Gibraltar. The Gun is well polished! |
Gibraltar done. Sam and the team head to Malaga, then Madrid before the flight to Miami.
We head to Jerez for a night.
Jerez (pronounced "Hereth/Herez)
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| The hotel had some interesting art work |
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Wine seems to be a popular theme around here.
This is an advert for an upcoming concert or something.
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| You can't go to a Spanish City without seeing a castle/fortress or a cathedral! |
Alcazar of Jerez de la Frontera
Across the street from the Alcazar we found the Bodega Tio Pepe where they do Sherry Wine and Brandy tours. We enquired and were placed on the next 'english' tour which was to start in about 10 minutes. The guide (Diego) duly arrived and we jumped into a golf cart (we were the only English speaking folk on the tour - bonus!) and away we went.
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| This big barrel holds 33 barrels! |
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| 120 year-old grape vine. Still fruiting! |
They have a little tribute here to one of the original security guards who used to leave a glass of Sherry for the mice, and a ladder for them to get to it. It wasn't clear if this was how they caught them or just kept them sedated...
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| Look close |
After the tour we were deposited in the tasting room and presented with a couple of tastings. After those we decided to try a few more...It was pretty well set up - several different bars with loads of Tio Pepe art as well as a huge gift shop which sold wine as well as loads of souvenirs. The whole place was impressive and right in the middle of the city.
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| Impressive tastings! |
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View from the tower
We also made one last trek around town
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| The rather large "Minotaur" Sculpture |
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| This fountain is a tribute to the wine industry. Those long things with the little cups on the end are the same as the instrument used to sample the wines or sherries when still in the barrel. |
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| Try the liver, it's great!! |
The next morning it was a quick drive to the Jerez airport, then a flight to Madrid. Sam and co left Madrid about an hour before we arrived.
We had some lunch and a cervesa before we caught our flight to Miami. We overnighted in Miami and then flew back to Cayman the next morning, with Sam and co arriving there about 30 minutes before us. Then home to the state of the house after Jake had been in charge. It was surprisingly tidy!
Randoms
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| A Sunday at the beach |
At the end of July, both Sam and Jake headed to St Petes (via Tampa) in Florida for their end of season meet (ISCA - International Swim Coaches Association). It was a qualification meet so they had to meet qualifying times in order to attend. Both had made the times earlier in the season.
They traveled as with their Club (Stingray) as opposed to being part of a National Team.
The meet was massive with hundreds of swimmers in each event, so lots of heats!
The weather also interrupted a few sessions, as the pool is outside and it is storm season just now...
Despite that, both had a few decent swims to finish off their season.
Now they get a break for a couple of weeks!
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| Modeling the new club travel shirts |
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| The Stingray Team |
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Coach with the four swimmers who are moving off to College.
They'll leave a big hole!
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| Sam and Jake at a Government Reception for Carifta and Island Games Athletes. |
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| Jake's in good company! |
Click here to see Michelle in some Gaelic Football action
So, that's it for July!
August will pale in comparison.
Sam heads off to College at Athens, Ohio this week.... Michelle and Jake head up with her and Dave will go up a few days later.
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Off to be a Bobcat!
Good luck Sam!!
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