A Rock On The Rocks

I left off in the last post as the 4 of us were heading to Spain.  We took a lovely (sarcasm) RyanAir flight direct from Eindhoven to Sevilla.

Although RyanAir may not be the most comfortable airline to fly, it was pretty great to have a direct flight to exactly where we wanted to be.  We arrived in the afternoon in Sevilla and headed to our hotel to drop our things and put on cooler clothing.  I think the temperature hit around 90 with full sun that day, which was amazing.  Our hotel was fantastic and in a perfect location.

The view from one of our rooms.

Lunch was the first item on the agenda, and it began our 4-day binge of eating almost nothing but tapas.

The food in Spain was incredible throughout our trip.  And we were shocked by how reasonably priced the food and drinks were.  We were hard pressed to find a liter of sangria that cost more than 11 euros.  Needless to say, there was a lot more sangria and tapas in our future.

After refueling, we hit the town to discover what Sevilla had to offer.  What a cool city!  The architecture was definitely my favorite part.  Every turn offered a new tiny street or an amazing church facade.  Here's some pics from around town: 

The main cathedral, Catedral de Sevilla.

This sucker was massive.

The boys along the river.

Believe it or not, this was a candid shot, not a forced pose.

The Torre del Oro, an old military watchtower.

Our planned activity for the day was a visit to the Alcazar.  The Alcazar was originally built as a Moorish fort, and then was converted and expanded into the royal residence for the Spanish monarchs.  Ferdinand and Isabella lived there in the 1480s.  The building is incredible with amazing intricate mosaic tile work throughout.  And the sprawling gardens were equally as impressive.

In the garden maze, trying not to get lost.

After touring the premises, we stopped to enjoy some sangria at a cafe located in the gardens.

For dinner, we walked around for a long time, checking on a few places that had been recommended, and for one reason or another not settling there. So instead we just picked a spot with a nice location.  We landed at a place located on a narrow street that was quiet and peaceful.  And the table next to us was a bunch of Dutch women, small world.

After dinner, our evening got even more interesting. I should mention here that after just one day in Spain, we were already on local time.  We didn't begin dinner until 9pm and finished up at 11pm. At around 11 we headed to a bar that had free flamenco dancing shows. The dancing was very interesting.  None of us knew what to expect, but the show consisted of one dancer, one singer/clapper, and one guitarist.  It was amazing, and had us practicing our claps for days.

The bar itself was off the beaten path and down an alley, and it wasn't the most glamorous of places, which made it feel that much cooler.

Following flamenco, we weren't quite ready to call it a night, so we headed for the discoteca.  The place was called El Santuario, and it offered up some great music for dancing.  Here's a few shots of us getting down:

All in all, a highly successful and incredibly fun night.  The next morning came too fast after getting to bed a tad late, but we were excited to hit the road and head for Nerja.  Nerja was a 2.5 hour drive, so Todd again showed us his superior Euro-driving skills (this time complete with a stick shift and mountains to drive through).  Nerja is a smallish town located on the Mediterranean Sea.  It was where we spent our next 3 days.

Upon arrival, we took a walking tour of the city and the beach. The pictures hardly do this place justice.   We thought it was the perfect vacation town.  It has mountains, beach, cliffs, and a cute village to spend time in.

Mainstays.

Taking panoramas via iPhone were Todd and Cam's favorite thing.  You can see Todd's hands taking his own here too.

But just when we thought this place couldn't get any better or be more memorable, this happened:

Yep, that's a shot that Todd snapped of Cam's proposal to Jamie!  It happened before dinner on our first day in Nerja.  Jamie and Todd had run down to the lobby of the hotel to get on the internet, which gave Cam and I a moment to scheme about the logistics of the proposal. He had scoped out a spot during our walk earlier in the day, and knew where he wanted to do it.  Then it was just a matter of getting Jamie there.  In order to get them out the door of the hotel first without Todd and I, I pretended to be napping when Jamie and Todd came back to the room.  I then pretended that I needed some time to get ready, so Cam asked Jamie to go on a walk and have them meet us 20 minutes later.  Jamie put of a bit of fight saying they should wait for us (she's that nice), but Cam held his ground and got her out the door.  Todd and I then waited a couple of minutes and snuck out behind them.  

We creeped our way through the town, and I'm sure I looked like a weirdo with my eyes darting around making sure that Cam and Jamie didn't spot us.  Todd had to tell me calm down.  But it worked out perfectly because C and J had already made their way down to the water, and we had a good viewing spot from above on the Balcon de Europa.  Todd and I actually thought we were well hidden from their view, but we later discovered that the bush we were hiding behind didn't provide all that much coverage. Luckily, Jamie didn't look up!

Cam popped the question, Jamie said yes, and then I basically rushed down the hill to go and hug them. It was difficult for me to contain my excitement.  Here's the after shots:

Oh so special. And I am so grateful that I got to be there to witness it!  These 2 are going to be very happy together, and we couldn't be happier for them.  My little bro did a great job.

Dinner following the proposal was one of the best of the trip.  What a great way to celebrate!

The next day, we were pretty much beach and pool bums.  We went to the Burriana Playa in the morning and then the rooftop pool at our hotel in the afternoon.

Our lunch spot, with unlimited paella!  

Rooftop pool, baby!

That night, we opted for Italian food with a view:

And ended the night with some delicious gelato:

What a great couple of days.  With only one day left in Spain, it was at this point that we all felt like pushing the pause button so that our stay would continue forever.  I'll continue with the final installment of the recap in the next post, including our last day in Spain.  I'm just not ready to "leave" Spain, yet!