There are 2 "Laws of Life" that will always be true...
1. You don't know what you don't know- and there's a lot you don't know that you don't know.
2. What you don't know will always cause a change in your plans, so always plan to be very flexible.
We are currently traveling Portugal and Spain. We planned for part of our travels to include Gibraltar, but that plan fell prey to the above Laws.
Let's start at the beginning. All went fine on the Italian side. We made it to Portugal and Bryan rented a giant van, in the hopes that the kids would have enough space to not get on each other's nerves. (Spoiler alert-that didn’t work.)
Aforementioned giant van would have ruined an Italian trip because it would be too big to fit anywhere, but it hasn't caused much trouble in Portugal or Spain. (A little trouble parking, but not a ton.) However, the giant van is quite barebones, including the fact it does not have a seek function on the radio and one must turn the dial increasing the search by .05 at a time. Who designed such nonsense?
We rented a house in the hills/mountains, which appeared quite nice online. While it was too cold to swim, there was a pool, incredible views, room to roam, a fountain/ fish(less) pond, and an orange and lemon orchard.
The house was fine, it's the little things you don't realize that can be a bit annoying. For example, there is no heat in the bathrooms, and the temp dropped into the 20s at night. That sure does make for a cold shower experience (and we won't even go into the size of the showers.) Then there's the fact that we packed planning to do laundry, having made sure there was a washer. Well, there was a washer, but it was only as deep as my hand. And there was not a dryer. Needless to say, when we left Portugal we were all far more dirty than normal, as was our clothes.
From Portugal we headed to Spain, where we had reservations at the US Navy Lodge. I'm happy to report after the adventure of driving around a bit, we managed to get passes and gain access to the base. The base is (like ours in Italy) governed by the host nation, not the US and so we must have permission to enter.
When we got to our hotel, having not had dinner yet and the current local time being 8pm, we found the hotel was without water.
Lucky for us, dinner doesn't start until 8 or 830pm in Spain (even later than the 7 or 730 that is true of Italy!) So we managed to have a great meal (the best of Europe so far, I'd say) and returned to the hotel to find the water restored. Praise the Lord, I was praying the whole time we were at dinner, what with us and our clothes being in rather questionable status and all.
We awoke Saturday morning and I managed to have laundry washed and DRIED before 0930! It was actually the best washing experience since leaving the US, as the "American" washer and dryer we have courtesy the Army as incredibly inefficient and it takes about 6 hours per load- still better than the European counterpart, though.
Feeling like things were going pretty well, we headed to the huge (comparitively) NEX, wehere we spent an hour finding some great treasures- American clothes on clearance and a few other necessities like contact solution and good (American) hand sanitizer. (Germ-x, of you're wondering. The Portuguese stuff we bought is slimy.)
After such excitement over our treasures (mostly me, because I've had little luck finding clothes in Italy! Another story for another day...), we proceed to the checkout only to be asked for our military ID and then to be informed that you can only shop there if you are STATIONED in Spain and have some kind of documentation or emblem on your ID. Wait, what?
After some discussion, it was made clear that yes, it is indeed a store for American service members, but service members who are not currently stationed in country cannot shop there. No, being stationed in Europe does not count.
Well, then.
We proceded to the Commissary to grab the necessary contact solution, etc...only to be informed once again that we could not shop there.
We can, however, shop in the shopette. Okay. We proceed there and find...yes, we can shop there but they do not sell any of our needed items.
Swell.
At the little mini store in the hotel we managed to procure contact solution, so there was that win.
We then enjoyed an afternoon (because half the day was already wasted with the attempted shopping) in Cadiz. We then returned to base to watch the sunset from the beach and took a chance and grabbed takeout from the bowling alley. Luck was on out side and we were not asked for proof that we could indeed purchase food there.
Sunday was planned out quite elaboratelywith a trip to Gibraltar. Gibraltaris a tiny English colony on the tip of Spain near Africa (15km away, actually.) Mass on base was not until 0945 (and who knows if those who are not stationed there are allowed to have their Spiritual needs met there), so we got up and out early with plans for Mass in Gibraltar. We left just late enough to not have time to walk to the church from the parking lot, so we found another church (amazingly, the town of 30k English citizens has multiple Catholic churches in addition to being the head of the Anglican church) and enjoyed the drive discussing the interesting things we would see in Gibraltar. The Rock of Gibraltar, full of war tunnels and covered in little wild apes, as well as a cave used as a hospital during WWII, was to be our first stop following Mass and a lunch of fish and chips.
We arrived at the border, where we were asked for our passports and then told cannot enter because we don't have an entrance stamp in our passport- as if we illegally entered Europe from AMERICA of all places. After some discussion, we gave our Soggiornos (Italian residency documents- like a long term visa) and he still said no but then called someone and finally said okay. At which point I handed him Noah's passport and military ID and he said no. He cannot enter, turn around. We stared at him and he waves us toward the turn around and said no, go.
Wait, what? Why can he not enter? We argued for a minute and he didn't budge so we entered the customs line to leave the city we hadn't actually entered, hoping they wouldn't deny our return to Spain since we didn't have a stamp in our passports and this was just how things seemed to go.
The good news is, that trip up the Rock of Gibraltar would have cost us almost $400, nevermind those fish and chips that i hear are overpriced and not any good. I figure we saved a good $600. However, we had driven 2 hours to get here, so it was pretty frustrating.
After being granted access to return to Spain (whew), we debated our options, including leaving Noah at the McDonald's while we did a quick drive to the southern point of Gibraltar and came back. Ultimately, we decided it was not worth the risk, seeing as how while researching we learned that Spain has a history of being a pain with service members re-entering from Gibraltar-including a Mavy GENERAL who was denied entry because he, like Noah, did not proper documentation in his passport, as he was in the EU on NATO orders and didn't need a passport. Why? That is unclear. However, of note, relations between Spain and Gibraltar are not the friendliest, seeing as how Spain wants Gibraltar to become part of Spain, and Gibraltarians have voted over 90 percent to remain English. So the reality is that they would have allowed us entry into Gibraltar and then denied us returning to Spain.
We decided this wasn't worth the risk for anyone and we then left for the southernmost point of Europe, Tarif. After some research and perhaps some Dovine Providence, we also managed to find Mass with 5 minutes to spare. We enjoyed the rest of the day eating crepes and Jamon sandwiches with freshly squeezed juice and XXL italian cappucino and then visiting a castle (originally Moorish, from the 10th century!)
The drive home was full of beautiful views and WILD FLAMINGOES! Who knew?! Our morning drive gave us a wonderful sunrise- at 0830! (Turns out Spain has been in the "wrong timezone" ever since the Second World War. No clue why they haven't fixed that.)
Adventures we do have. I hope to post pictures and details of Fatima, Nazare, and Obidos when we return home. No promises, though. Life just seems to get away from me.
We just reentered the base, having to show ID and passes for people and the vehicle and I'm just actually ready to be back in. Italy where things seem comparitively simple. Perhaps only because we're used to it there.
Did I mention the stores aren't open on a Sunday and we need diapers? Right. What fun.
