Well, what can we say….we’re spoiled! You’re reading this thinking “what is going on with these guys?” The Madrid Spain Temple was closed for its’ semi-annual repair/cleaning period (12-26 January 2009) and during this time we were allowed to see a few of the sites in our Temple district.
On Monday, 12 January, we departed Madrid on a train headed to Valencia, Spain (east coast of Spain). The train ride was great, almost a three and a half ride, but it was very comfortable. We arrived there early afternoon, located our hotel, drug our luggage through part of the busiest part of town. The rooms were not quite ready so we waited in the lobby getting some additional information about the city. We then walked to a bus stop and picked up the bus headed for the Lladro factory.
This is a world renown ceramic figurine factory, back when I was in Spain with the Guard about 20 years ago I bought about 20 pieces for friends and family. 
Well, since then their money has changed from the peseta to the Euro (everything doubled in price overnight) so consequently, the Lladro pieces are extremely expensive. This little piece now sells for over $7,000 Euros. We toured the factory and saw how they made the figurines…we now understand why they charge so much so each piece, particularly those that have a lot of detail or flowers. 
They make each piece by hand, from the conception of the idea to the mold, to pouring the ceramic white stuff, to cleaning each individual piece off, gluing them together, hand painting each and every little detail, then the final preparation of varnishing and firing the piece. You can’t image the time that it takes to make one small rose or the pains they go through to make sure even the tiniest finger is perfectly painted and posed.
After going through the factory tour we went to the store down the street where they sell the “seconds/imperfect” pieces for about half of the cost. Each piece of Lladro has the Lladro stamp, a hole put in the bottom so that it won’t explode during the firing and the factory worker’s name that put it together and painted it. In the end, each piece is inspected, if it meets their standard it goes to the showroom, if it doesn’t they send it to the “Factory Seconds” shop. The individual who made the piece then has a portion of his/her wage deducted for the imperfect piece-wow! I would end up owing them money everyday!
Tuesday, we went on a city tour bus and saw all of the highlights of Valencia (this is located on the Mediterranean Sea and it should have been warmer! One of the most interesting and different parts of the city was the "City of the Arts and Sciences" - all of the buildings were very modern (many windows) and all surrounded by pools of water.
There were workers there vacuuming all of the pools and washing the windows...it seemed to me that it would be a never ending job.
It really seemed kind of out of place, the majority of the city being centuries old and then this new part? Later we walked on the beach collecting sea shells and enjoying the sun (even though it was pretty cold). 
We collected several shells and they will be adorning our bathroom for the remaining time we have here. After dinner we walked through the town enjoying the awakening of the city, after 7:00 pm.
Wednesday, we returned to the Port of Valencia and saw where they store many of the countries entries for the America’s Cup. We ate a Foster’s Hollywood (pretty good American Food, but kind of expensive) and then got back on the train and returned to Madrid.
Thursday, we spent in our apartment in Madrid and prepared for our adventure to Andalucía, southern Spain (Marriott Marbella Beach Resort). We also picked up our car at the Atocha Train/Bus/Metro station. We haven’t driven the streets much in Madrid, so we followed a bus that we knew came back by the Temple (it took a little longer, but we made it). We rented a GPS to help us in our efforts to get around, but it was so difficult to use that we ended up taking it back the next morning before we left.
Friday, 16 January, we took off in our Peugeot Partner wagon,
space for five adults and luggage (but you know that we took luggage for a month trip), but we all fit and off we went.
We headed south and finally arrived in Cordoba, Spain and there we saw the Mesquita Mosque, now a Catholic Cathedral. 
This huge building was built by the Moors in about 785 AD, the archways and pillars are beautiful. There are 886 pillars supporting the roof. When the Christians (Catholics) conquered they simply put their typical cathedral setup inside of the Mosque instead of the usual demolition of a captured building and then building a new one over the top of it. 
It is a beautiful building, but again, it is very cold and you really can’t feel much of the spirit there.
After stopping at the Mesquita, we continued on to Marbella and the condominium. We found the place with a little help from gas station attendants…it is a way off of the road and kind of hidden down by the beach. 
The condo was beautiful, Kristy, Miles, and Jenacee already knew this as they stayed here about five years ago. Three bedrooms, three baths and a very nice living room and kitchen. Our temple President and the Recorder ended up being at the same property, so we had to watch our “Ps and Qs.” The weather during this time of the year is usually about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but this winter has been different, we only had a couple of days in the 50s and the rest were colder. We did put our feet in the Mediterranean for a short period of time, but we had our winter coats on (see the picture). It was a good time and a very enjoyable place to stay.
Saturday was a clear, crisp day so we headed off to Gibraltar. It was a great trip, we left Spain crossing over an active runway to get to Gibraltar (yes, planes actually land and take off and it [the runway crossing] is closed to foot traffic 10 minutes before a plane lands or takes off. 
We there picked up a mini van tour and took off to see the island. The island is three miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide. 
The “rock” as it is called, is not as strong or tough as it looks for within the “rock” there are 36 miles of tunnels. This “rock” was and still is used by NATO for command, control, communication and arsenal storage. Spain has tried to take this part of the Iberian peninsula a few times but were always rappelled by the British. This “rock” is a strategic place for control of the Mediterranean Sea and there are big guns located at all levels of the “rock.” The guns on top could hurl 902 lb shells across the Straits of Gibraltar (about 14 miles at the narrowest point). 
On the far point of the “rock” stands a Mosque, it was financed by the King of Saudi Arabia and is the most expensive in the world (comes from the cost of the land on the “rock” - there is only so much of that).
We visited a man-made tunnel that stretched for 250 meters on a slight angle downward. This was dug in a one year period 1782-83 and was devised by a British corporal who was given the challenge to create a way to combat the onslaught of the Spaniards when they try to take over the "rock." This was necessary because all of the guns that were in position in that day would shoot over the heads of any oncoming army...this tunnel on a downward slope allowed them to place cannons that would shoot downaward at the advancing armies. We went from one end to the other and to the top of the world able to look at both sides of the “rock,” there are only five beaches on the “rock” and they are not very long/big.
We also visited Saint Michael’s Cave from the top lookout. This is a magnificent cave (much like Timpanogas Cave in Utah - stalagmites, stalactites). 
It was first used as meeting place for the higher ups, but the large cavity area has been remodeled and is actually a concert hall…what a view!
This is where we had our first encounter with the monkeys! 
They are little rascals, they are showboats and climb right in the car if the windows are open. They know where there food comes from and they really play the crowd. We fed them and had fun watching them “fight” for a few minutes. I guess they were brought to the island by the Moors and they remained behind when they were defeated. They are five different bands of monkeys on the “rock” but stay to their own domain. One of them was 27 years old (who counts the number of years is what I want to know)?
We ate British Fish n Chips here and were they GOOD!
We thought we were back in jolly old England. The women did some shopping and we walked back across the border to Spain.
Sunday, 18 January found us looking for the Church in Fuengirola, Spain. 
We had spoken with the Elders the night before and they had given us driving instructions from our condo. However, they missed the instructions by one exit and that caused us some problems, but we finally arrived and walked into a Sacrament Meeting that was being conducted in English. This was the English branch in the Marbella area. There was another Spanish ward that was just finishing up its meeting also. There were about 18 of us there in the sacrament meeting, but the two speakers Elder Murphy and President Brown gave excellent talks. There was one large family (five members-TonsilBisquits) from England, they moved to the Marbella area for work, but also because they felt the Lord had sent them there. They have had opportunity to return to England but elected to stay here. They will all be up to the Temple the first part of February, we are excited to see them again.
Later that day we took a ride to Ronda, Spain. This is located in the mountains of southern Spain and is a beautiful ride (but very windy roads) and city. 
The claim to fame is the Roman built bridge over a huge chasm that drops at least 400 feet. 
The bridge has been rebuilt a couple of times but it dates back several centuries. The view is magnificent! The bridge divides the Medieval from the 18th Century part of the city. There are other bridges over the chasm but none quite as breathtaking as this one. 
There are also houses/hotels/bars built right over the edge that look as if they will fall any minute. 
This city also has the oldest and largest bull ring in the country.
Monday we stayed kind of close to home and visited the city of Malaga. We took the city bus tour and saw the important sites. 
There is a huge cathedral and fortress (Castillo-Alcazar) that is several blocks long. Included in the area is a Roman Theater built centuries ago that is still used today. 
There is a large port here and appears to be a pretty modern city with all the amenities. On the outskirts of town there is a large Factory Outlet Mall that has a fantastic Food Court. We ate Mexican food here for the first time in Spain.
On the way back to the condo we stopped at the little mountain village of Mijas. All buildings are white, very narrow streets, thousands of geraniums and bougainvilleas cascading from the balconies. This village has the only Square Bull Ring. There was a Central Plaza of stores with many leather shops. Check out the house built under the rock. 
Also, look at the Church built high on the mountain (wonder what their attendance is?). 
Later that night we walked on the beach again with our winter coats, this time we found a few sea shells worth keeping….boy, the wind was really blowing cold air and the water was just as cold! 
Tuesday, we went on a tour offered by Marriott, it was a day trip to Tangiers, Morocco. We left the condo bright and early on a bus and drove to the port of Tarifa, there we loaded onto a “Super Fast Ferry” and made the 45 minute crossing to Tangiers. 
The sea was pretty calm and all went well. We were loaded on a tour bus again and started our tour. Tangiers “Kasba” of fortress was established is 1315 AD and is called the “Gateway to Africa.” It is where the Mediterranean and Atlantic Oceans meet. 
It is a Mediterranean and Africa city, there are consulates, residential areas, schools, factories, shops, libraries and much more for each of the groups that are there (Arabic, French, American, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Moroccan, British). The American community is called “California” which was established in 1822. The USA established its first “outside of America” treaty in this part of the world in 1787. The primary language of Tangiers is Arabic, second is French. Many of the Royal Families of the Arabic world have there summer palaces here and were very prominent on the tour. Their first and most important export is Fish, second is International Banking (they are truly the “Gateway to Africa”). We didn’t see any, but the wild animals of Tangiers are the wild boar and apes (they say they have been there for 6,000 years?). We were also provided an authentic lunch menu at an upscale restaurant it featured soup (cheese and cinammon), lamb skewers, a wild honey baked pastry, and a drink. It was too bad, but I was the only one in our little group that liked the food. They had an Arabic band playing a typical Arabic number and provided a dancer who was not very good, nor attractive.
We had an opportunity to ride a camel for a Euro! 
It was kind of fun, but also kind of difficult to get on with the saddles that they had put on them. They were really calm and trained for the tourists. 
They are related to the Llama family in South America (when the lands were separated the camels came here, the Llamas stayed there?). They can go for 1-3 weeks without food or water, the natives drink camel milk and eat camel meat. No thanks! We had a good time getting pictures and strutting our stuff. Berkley Lunt looked at his picture riding the camel and he said "Who is that ja thing riding the camel?" We all laughed and had a good time. The robe that Hassan has on is the typical Moroccan wear, both for the winter and summer (during the summer it keeps the hot, hot sun off of them).
We visited an Art shop and saw some of the most beautiful carpets (none of them the flying type), vases, figures, leather and much more that were all created by families/tribe (each family/tribe has a typical pattern that they use). 
They were very, very expensive, but were beyond description and the carpets were all reversible….their joke was that they were only charging for the one side, the other one was free. Some of the carpets had 90,000 knots per meter, the more expensive ones had over 600,000 knots per square meter After we finished our tour of this shop we were taken to a Spices shop. Here they explained to us the various uses of some spices. It was really interesting and we purchased a couple of trial ones to see how they work.
Perhaps the best and the worst of the trip was how we were attacked by the street salesmen
in the narrow, twisting, “no place to go” side streets. When you would enter these sales area it was like you were literally being attacked by several dozen “highly energetic, never take no for an answer” salespersons. They had everything from jewelry, to wooden/stone figures, scarfs, anything ceramic, and anything else you can imagine. They always started high and would lower the price the farther they had to go with you…some followed us for blocks staying right in your face. Mom would always smile and finally one of them said they would stay with us until she quit smiling…of course, he was with us until we got back on the ferry-she couldn’t stop smiling. 
This is just an Arabic "Stop" sign. On the return trip to Tarifa, Spain the ferry ride was horrible, the wind was blowing so hard that it was rocking back and forth and many people got terribly seasick.
Wednesday, we were back in the car heading for Granada, Spain and the city of Alhambra (13th Century). 
It was founded by the Nazari (Moorish) dynasty. 
The Alcabaza (fortress) 
was built first followed by the Palacio Nazaries and later the accompanying gardens, royal bathes, etc.
This area is world renowned for masterpieces and the magnitude of its’ presence in the landscape.
It must be a couple of miles long and almost a mile wide. The area that it covers is mind boggling and you wonder how many years and how many people it took to build something like this.
We started our tour by visiting the Carlos V Museum, 
it has all kinds of artwork and artifacts and some were even pleasant to look at. We then toured the Palacio Nazaries, this is a truly beautiful palace, even though it doesn’t appear to be so from the outside.
The Alhambra is located very near the Sierra Nevada mountains and the mountains were snow covered (there are ski resorts there) and it was cold. It had snowed the day before and the day after, but we caught it on a clear, cold day (6 degrees Celsius with a light wind).
Thursday, we stayed close to home and the women did a little shopping, also prepared to leave on Friday for Sevilla.
Friday, we departed Marbella and headed for Sevilla, it rained on us most of the way there and the wind was blowing very hard. One thing we have to say is that the Spanish have some very good highways and they are kept in tip top condition. This, combined with their outstanding public transportation system, has made me realize how well this country is doing in providing a sound infrastructure for its population. We passed, I don’t know how many hundreds of wind generating power turbines and hundred of solar energy panels.
We arrived in Sevilla early afternoon, found our hotel even though it was well pretty well hidden down a small alley way.
We checked in and asked where we could park our car and the receptionist told us there was a place very close; to just go two streets, turn right and look for it on the right. Well, needless to say, after two hours of not being able to go where we thought we should be going because of one-way streets we were totally lost and couldn’t find where we were on the map. We must have talked with ten different people to get directions on how to get back to the hotel….two hours later we returned to the hotel and our wives were out front looking for us. We pulled up in front, put on the flashers and went inside to ask directions again, well, the girl had told us to go the wrong way the first time and so we then went exactly opposite of where she had originally told us to go. The parking was an underground lot and you could only enter it from one street….a one-way that we couldn’t figure out how to get to. We put the car in four-wheel mode and were climbing road dividers/islands, going against traffic and traffic signs, having people swearing at us (at least I think they were-in Spanish we haven’t learned those words yet…but if looks could kill, we would have been dead a many times). By the time we cheated death several times and some much needed repentance we arrived at the parking entrance and parked the car! We returned to the hotel as victors! We then proceeded to go to the room to calm down a little and then we hit the road again.We walked about a mile and found the stop for the city bus tour. We jumped on the bus and did the tourist sights. This is a statute of El Cid, he is famous for defeating a Moorish army with several thousand soldiers with his few hundred soldiers.
This is the Tower of Gold on the river that reaches the Ocean that runs through the center of the city. It one time housed all of the bullion that the USA would transport from the European continent.
This was the entrance to the city several centuries ago.
Sevilla was the location of the Worlds Fair/Exhibit in 1992 and many wonderful and beautiful buildings have been built for that occasion. 
They remain in pretty good repair and it appeared 
that many countries spent many millions of dollars in creating a good exhibition. One area in particular that stood out was the Plaza Mayor.
It was a very large building in a semi-circular formation. This is where they held the opening ceremonies of this 1992 event.
This is the city that was closest to Moron Air Base that I had been to with the Utah Air National Guard about twenty years ago. We passed by the bull ring where I saw a bull fight (actually six bulls are killed during each event). The city, of course, had changed much over the past twenty years and it was hard to remember how it looked, the Worlds’ Fair/Exhibition was not far from the bull ring and consequently everything in the area had been given a face lift. Later that night we walked around the little streets and alley ways and were really amazed at how Spain comes alive after dark. We finished the evening eating Chocolate and Churros and, of course, the ladies did some shopping.
Saturday, we left for home (Madrid) and had an enjoyable trip up through the center of the country. It was more hilly/mountainous that we had anticipated it would be but it was very beautiful. I guess in our travels were must have seen over ten gazillion Olive Trees (I‘ve told you a million times not to exaggerate), all planted in beautiful rows. We also saw miles and miles of orchards of Oranges. We passed by miles and miles of Vineyards and also miles and miles of Rice Fields. We were amazed at how much of the country is cultivated and the care that they give their land. In all our travels we covered more than 2,600 kilometers/1,560 miles.
We arrived home about 3:30 pm and found it wonderful, even after seeing all of the magnificent palaces, cathedrals and other places, how great it is to be home and to live within the shadow of the most magnificent, beautiful edifice in the entire country…the Madrid Spain Temple.
We have and will continue praying for each and everyone of you morning and night. We know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is True! God lives, Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. The Book of Mormon is true and Thomas S. Monson is a living Prophet. We look forward to talking with each of you again and feeling of your love and support. We pray the Lord’s choicest blessing to be with each of you now and forever.Love Mom & Dad
