ATW in 45. #39

Travel day. Again.

One hell of a travel day, I might add. We got up at 7. Did our morning thing. Ate breakfast at 8. Marika came down and informed us that Michael had diarrhea all night long. Not good news when we are spending the day in a car or boat. And being sick is no fun on vacation.

We were in the van on our way to The Port of Tangiers by 845. Cool. Fast boat to Tarifa at 3. An hour on the boat then a bus to Algeciras. Taxi to La Linea, 30 mins and we are there.

The drive to Tanger was uneventful. Except for the stop every 30 minutes or so for Michael to throw up. Made it out of the van every time. We had a couple rest stops for him to do a sit down. Not much fun to be sick on the road in a 3rd world country.

When we finally got to Tanger I had to meet up with Hassan. He is a friend of our guide Youssef. I needed to pay for his serevived. I wanted to use my credit card and the only way to do that was to use his friends credit card machine. Hassan met me to take me there to use the CC machine. Crazy. Hassan and I booked it up the hill into the Tangier medina to Amranis shop. I got the payment done. Then we quick stepped back the van. Grabbed our baggage and went to the boat. Well, we went through the process and got into line for the boat. And waited.

This time we are taking the fast boat to Tarifa from here. Only one hour and cost is same as slow ferry. The fast boat is far less crowded and much easier transit than the ferry as well. We had a table to sit at and plenty of room. Of course, we had to free shuttle to Algeciras port when we got there. Then taxi from there to La Linea, whichnis next to Gibraltar. Our hotel is in La Linea only one mile from the border.

Upon arrival Michael camped in the bathroom for awhile. A long while. Then he went to bed.

The other three of us went out looking for dinner. We asked at the hotel and were directed to an area of town with lots of choice. We ended up at a Tapas place a mile or so from the hotel. Food was not great, sadly. The Sangria was awesome. We had 2 pitchers. Best part of the meal. And, I forgot, during dinner Marika ran off to a super Mercado to get ginger ale and soda crackers for her brother. What a nice sister.

On our way back to the room we stopped and got ibuprofen at the pharmacy. Always needed.

We were planning on going to the hotel pool and bar when we got back. They did not happen. Once everyone sat or lied down we were done. Bedtime