One Way Ticket

It was a bit difficult leaving Portugal and heading towards Africa. Not only did we have an all night bus ride, a train to catch to get the to that bus station and then once arriving in Spain finding a different bus station. The bus we got on to take us to Tarifa went back the way we had come into town. We did not know if we were on the right bus as it was heading to Barcelona. What happened was we were on our way, unbeknown to us, to pick up stranded passengers in a brokendown bus. Our 15 minute, two euro bus ride took us about an hour and a half. Once arriving in Terifa, we had not gotten any communication from our host. Therefore, we didn’t have any place to put our luggage or to check in until 5 PM. It was a very long arduous transition out of Portugal.

We did observe some differences being in Terifa, Spain in the city itself. The city was exceedingly clean and white. We saw city workers hosing down the recycling collection area with a soapy solution. We saw street sweepers on the main square and walking down the narrow streets collecting small bits of debris and oranges that had fallen from the trees that seemed to be planted everywhere. We also saw many people walking their dogs and often more than one dog at a time. We hardly saw any dogs at all in Portugal in the six weeks we were there.

We took an unexpected tour of Tarifa Island. The southernmost point of continental Europe is now connected by a causeway to the landmass. The history of hundreds, if not 1000 or more years has somehow settled on this island. We got a glimpse of that history. It was hard to take it all in.

The World War II gun inplacements and defensive positions were put in place in order to thwart a possible allied invasion of the area. the island has been a strategic military place. The Moors from North Africa built substantial defensive structures. Over the centuries there has been continual building of military structures and fortifications to fit the technology of the era.

Our view of Tanger Morocco from the ferry as we arrived today.