January 23, 2019 - Granada Blog Correction, Uruguay Beaches and Tanya Cruisin' Europe - Alicante, Spain - Day 12

Elisa's Daily Scoop 
Covering Long Island & NYC Boroughs 
CURRENTLY IN: LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK
​NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 24 DAYS: DISNEY WORLD, FLORIDA

Tanya's Daily Scoop 
Covering the West Coast & the World
​CURRENTLY IN: ALICANTE, SPAIN   

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Granada Blog Correction, Uruguay Beaches

Good day guys,
I'm not going to lie - I'm a bit confused with the days here.  Yes, it's Wednesday, but it feels like - I don't know - all I know is I forgot it was Wednesday and didn't put my recyclables to the curb last night lol.  So, I've got even more for next week's pick up.

Before I go any further, I want to apologize for a MAJOR typo in my Scoop yesterday.  Throughout my blog, I inaccurately spelled Granada (Spain), with an "e" making it Grenada, as in the island in the Caribbean.  Of course, my posting was featuring GRANADA and the wording went back and forth between GrAnada and GrEnada in the text.  Many apologies.  

Here is the corrected post from yesterday, for those of you who picked up on that major faux pas.

January 22, 2019 - 12 Interesting Facts About Granada and Tanya Cruisin' Europe -Day 11 - Granada, Spain

It certainly sounds as if Tanya had a fun filled day roaming around Malaga, the Granada (Spain) port and Gibraltar, UK.  Take a gander at her Scoop for the low down.

As for me, well, I received a very good read today via email from Gary Axelbank, publisher (and friend) at ThisIsTheBronx.info.

On the Road to Uruguay’s Barely Known and Beautiful Beaches

Punta del Diablo in Uruguay is the last significant beach town before the Brazilian border.CreditCreditTali Kimelman for The New York Times

This article, featured in the New York Times by the Frugal Traveler, provides a great deal of insight into this "off the radar" and laid back South American country, as well as the inside skinny on why this destination is ideal for budget conscious travelers.

According to the article, "As of September, the government has discounted restaurant and rental car bills by 22 percent when paid with a foreign credit card (foreign travelers don't pay the country's added tax, or IVA).  Foreigners don't pay the IVA on hotels either."

But, you do need to move a bit quickly if you'd like to take advantage of this great deal, as this regulation is in place only until April. So, if you have been thinking of a very relaxing and peaceful beach vacay, you might want to investigate Uruguay!

As for me, I'll be getting my day going now, but I'll be back tomorrow to tell you all about Alicante, Spain, the last port of call on Tanya's Cruise this week and where she is roaming about and exploring today.

-Cheers!
Travelin' Elisa
xoxo

Tanya Cruisin' Europe
​

​Hello, Buenos Dias and Greetings from Alicante!

This happens to be our last port on this cruise and I’m excited to get on out there and explore. 
​
Which of course does mean that you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to read all about what it is I’m gonna get on out there and do. It will all be right here in tomorrow in the Daily Scoop (your favorite blog of course).  Patience isn’t my best attribute (either), as you can probably tell. 
But all good things come to those who…wait! 


And you’ve waited long enough to read and see all about how my day went while I was out exploring from the Granada port (which is actually in Malaga), yet was I even in Spain???

Nope, we decided to go to Gibraltar, UK.
​Yup crossing borders yet again.

I’m not sure exactly how long you’ve been a follower/reader/subscriber but you might recall that when I was last out here exploring Spain with my little gang back in 2016 it was on my itinerary to go visit Gibraltar. ​

Read more...
Skipping Gibraltar to spend more time in Guadix

(c) travelincousins.com

However because I was so enthralled with Guardix, I decided to extend our time there and to postpone Gibraltar to another time - now is another time and so we left early morning yesterday - so early in fact that the restaurant wasn’t even open for us to have breakfast before we left and we had to resort to going to the buffet. 

The only good thing about that is it is only at the buffet that they offer fresh squeezed juices and I always miss my freshly squeezed and freshly pressed juices while I’m traveling.

After about an almost 2 hour coastal-ish drive through the Andalusia region from Malaga which was mostly done in the dark, we had arrived at 2 borders. One for Spain and one for the U.K. and I’ll tell you something. These officials don’t make it easy on the other. I also found that our tour guide in Spain was rather bitter about Gibraltar. He wasn’t a very good tour guide and was actually quite annoying. 

FUN FACT: Malaga translates to Salt

DID YOU KNOW: Malaga was founded over 2000 years ago by the Phoenicians

DID YOU KNOW: The Andalusian region is twice the size of Switzerland (one of my favorites)

Once in Gibraltar we were on our own for a while just sightseeing about, shopping, snapping shots and stopping in a local pub for some chips.

We had wanted to take the cable bar up to the top, but it was just our luck that the cable cars get an annual maintenance from Jan 21-28. Bummer. 

Another bummer was that although I’ve read that the resident monkeys stroll about in town, I didn’t see any and I was quite a bit disappointed as this was the REAL reason I wanted to visit Gibraltar in the first place. Monkeys just seem to make any day a good day…unless they are throwing poop at you!

But regardless it was time to take a tour Gibraltar style and with a much better tour guide - thank heavens. This guy was from Gibraltar, his parents were from Gibraltar, his wife from England, his kids from Gibraltar and his friends from Gibraltar. He knew his stuff about Gibraltar and was happy to share and point out as much as possible to us Ladies and Gents. It was quite refreshing to have a good tour guide, especially after the crappy one we had in the morning,

Our first stop was to the Puenta Europa Lighthouse and at the very edge and last point of Europe! 

(c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

DID YOU KNOW: There are 32 miles of road built inside of the rock - that’s more than in the city! 

DID YOU KNOW: There is a city built inside the rock, with stores and sleeping quarters that can sleep 18,000!!

We continued our drive up the rock, eventually arriving at St. Michael’s Cave and guess what we saw… 
​A small group of monkeys and then we saw more and more monkeys. Monkeys jumping on our vehicle, monkeys climbing on people. A monkey on the roof eating an ice cream bar. A monkey climbing on my head! I was in monkey heaven!

(c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

I spent so much time paying attention to the monkeys that I ran a bit short on time once in the cave…which btw was HUGE! The main cave is so freakin big that it was turned into an auditorium in which concerts are held.

(c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

​A lot has happened in, on and around this rock.
​There is a lot of history that has taken place on these grounds. But for us, we just had the day and eventually it was time to head back to Malaga and back with the bad tour guide and annoying other tourists. You know the type that have to state the obvious… Ugh, I tried to just zone them out and to doze off.

(c) travelincousins.com

Luckily it was a success and the next thing you know we were arriving back to Malaga and our cruise ship was in sight.

It was quite windy in Malaga and we still had a little more shopping and picture taking to do.

(c) travelincousins.com

But to tell you the truth I really didn’t care about anything else as long as I got to see my monkeys!

Although there will be no monkeys today, I still have a feeling that we will still enjoy ourselves…

Catch ya back here tomorrow with more scoop,
-Travelin’ Tanya