Mission area, revisited

It's been 12 years since I returned from my mission to so Spain.  In many ways it's hard for me to believe that so much time has passed by.  We started out in Malaga, a place where I labored for 7 months and made some of my dearest friends.  Going back, brought back a lot of happy and painful memories.  I'm so glad I went on a mission but really would never want to repeat the experience.

 We stayed at hotel Barcelo, which was inexpensive and surprisingly stylish.

A demonstration by one of Europe's finest comforts

This little hang out spot in the hotel's lobby deserved a special kind of shot.

 The best thing about this hotel is the slide that takes you from the second floor to the first.  We totally love slides and took full advantage.

 Old town

 At the Picasso museum.  Little Pablo was born and raised in Malaga.  The museum had many of his lesser known works.

From Malaga, we were off to Granada which is one of my favorite towns in Spain.  The city is in the Sierra Nevada mountains and is stunningly beautiful.

We stayed at the Casa 1800 hotel which is located in a beautiful 16th century building.

Think bleached white houses with tiled roofs and wrought iron accompaniments

One of Europe's downfalls in the pathetically small drink sizes people are forced to deal with.  First, it's small drinks then it's revolution, I say.

Citrus trees are found all over Andalucia, love that

The Alhambra, the last bastion of the Moors in Spain.  Another wonder of the world, I believe.

We walked up to the Alhambra at night.  It was a really surreal hike that kinda felt like Narnia.  Walking up this hill surrounded by forest, the trickling sound of the aqua ducts that surround the path and the faint light emitted by lampposts.  Below are more pics of the Alhambra.

The Moors created tons of fountains within the Alhambra.  It was amazing to me that they did this using water pressure and primitive plumbing!

Steam vents at the public sauna and bathhouse.

Next stop: Ronda, Sevilla

Morocco

Holy Crap, Marrakesh is so rad.  We had an unforgettable experience in this beautiful north african city.  The first thing I will think of is all the smells, such a fragrant place.  As you cruise down the street you smell spices, natural bath and beauty treatments and fruit.  You will also catch a whiff of two stroke exhaust and tobacco smoke, for good or bad it's very nasally oriented.

 We stayed in this palace called Palais Sebban that has since been converted into a riad, which is a traditional hotel in the old Medina.  The Medina is this maze like city that reminds one of the neighborhood where Aladdin grew up.   

This was our hotel room at Palais Sebban.  These pictures don't do it justice.

The above pic gives you a better idea of the old world craftsmanship displayed in our room.  Tons of hand carved stone all over the place.

The bathroom door in our room, amazing!!

Outside our front door you can see our private courtyard.  There were courtyards within the palace.

Door to the room

The whole hotel smelled of roses thanks to the rose pools that abounded.

Kickin' it by the pool

One of the wonders of Marrakesh is the many fresh squeezed orange juice vendors hawking their large glasses for 50 cents.

Within the Medina, unless you're a local, plan on not being able to find anything.  We had to hire this little kid to help us find our riad.  This is the outside door of the palace.  One would have no idea that behind it, there is a luxurious palace.  Outside looks are not always what they seem.

Eating prickly pears 

Our first night we had a true moroccan feast.  16 courses of amazing food.  There was this little band jammin out local music.  These pics really don't do the whole experience justice.

Candice can't resist dancing, ever.  Here she is working it moroccan style.

My tagine of beef, grapes and walnuts.  Such old world flavors.

Belly dancer having her way with Candice.  Thankfully for her, I wasn't invited to the mini dance party.

The second door that leads directly into the riad.  After the first, you have to walk down a long hallway, then you go through this second door.  How do Moroccans find anything?

The first snake charmer we went to was okay.

 I've handled cobras before in Egypt and also seen some in India.  The first snake charmer we went to wouldn't let us get that close to the snakes.  After walking around a little I met a snake charmer who used to work at Disney's Epcot center as a Moroccan representative.  He was a cool guy and I told him that I wanted to be able to handle the cobras myself.  He accepted and told me not to be scared, I wasn't.  As he was getting me ready and explaining how to hold them etc, his co-snake charmer protested stating that it was too dangerous.  People started to gather, you don't get to see a dumb american get killed just any ol' day.  The snake charmers argued with voices raised as I knelt down not 3 ft. from the cobra I wanted to handle.  Finally, the protesting snake handler walked off and I was free to hold a fully venomous black cobra.  The guy who was letting me do it was visibly nervous, he had told me that they can bite you so fast it's not even funny.  His friend had a jacked up finger that he showed me as a warning.

"Don't squeeze too hard but also don't be too soft either, those fangs come fast"

They also had puff adders a type of viper.

Kissing the cobra is good for your sex life, an unknown fact that the snake charmer swore by.

After cuddling our venomous compadres we decided to wash off all that reptilian at Le Bains de Marrakech.  The nicest traditional bath and spa house in the city.  It was an amazing experience, definitely one of the best spas I've ever been to.  We had three hours of treatments and it cost us $60 each.  Yeah, I'm going to miss that.

Muslim art never depicts anything that has eyes.  As God or Allah is the only one who can create things will souls (to have a soul you have to have eyes).  If you do create art that involves something with eyes, that particular piece will come to haunt you in the next life.  According to that doctrine, the guy who created the care bears will get it from every care bear from rainbow cheer bear down to pink power bear.

 We went to Jemma el Fna square for an evening of craziness.  Many of the citizens of Marrakech are poor.  They don't have a lot in the way of electronics to rot their brains and pass time.  For many, evenings are spent in this huge square where you can witness spectacles and imagery straight out of the bible.  We saw: professional story tellers, magicians, snake charmers, dudes with trained monkeys, amateur boxing, henna tattoo artists etc...  To understand it's wackiness, you have to see it firsthand.  There is no one regulating what goes on which really adds to it's appeal.

I love this picture, this monkey is using my wife as a lazyboy and loving it.

Getting all sorts of tatted

Bargaining like a shrewd arab camel trader-there's a lot of really cool things to buy.  Moroccans are really into organic and natural products, you can buy really high quality goods there for cheap.

Hotel at night, candles everywhere

Candice wasn't impressed with her henna, oh well, it's temporary right?

The kitties in Morocco are so loving this one followed us around and just wanted tons of love.  This wasn't the first time we got some kitty love in Marrakech.  The most loving cats in the world?  Yes.