For today’s adventure, we’re going to Tangier, Morocco. Or are we?   I booked an afternoon city tour and made arrangements to meet the guide at a Mosque near the ferry terminal.   I then booked a ferry leaving from Algeciras, about 2 hours from Rota. I ended up being the last person to board because I couldn't find the right ferry terminal.   After dozing for most of the 1.5-hour crossing, I awoke feeling refreshed, and joined the line of passengers on shore, only to be sent back to the ship because my passport wasn’t stamped.  I passed thru security when I left Spain, I thought they stamped it. OK, whatever, I headed back up the ramp to find the passenger door closed.   I walked back down the ramp and was waved into the car bay and told to wait till they unloaded the cars.   Eventually I made it upstairs where I found an empty ferry.  After wandering around, I found a few people milling about; evidently they also needed a st...

My next stop was Rota, Spain. There's a naval base there and it's possible to catch a military flight back to the States, so I thought I would scope it out. One of the benefits of being retired military is that I can fly on a space-available basis for free or near free. I had also heard quite a bit about Rota; that there were a lot of interesting places to go in the area like Tangiers and Ronda.           As I always do when I’m on a military base, I was excited to go shop for American food. After walking almost 1.5 hours, I was super disappointed to find no Taco Bell, which is at almost every base I’ve ever been on. I know, don't judge, it's my favorite fast food and almost no where do I see it in Europe. Oddly enough, Liverpool has one, but that's so random. All they had to offer was Subway. By that time, I was so tired and hungry I happily scarfed it down. After I did a bit of shopping I splurged on a cab ride back home. I had hoped ...

I'm happy to say that by the time I got to Lisbon my knee was so much better. I found this city much more to my liking; its just felt more friendly, vibrant, and walkable. I decided to stick with the tourist bus until my knee was back to 100%. In Lisbon some of the places that I wanted to see we're pretty far away from City Center so the bus worked out even better here.   One of the must-see places is called Belem Tower, which, according to Wikipedia, is a 16th century fortification that served both as a fortress and as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon. It’s on the northern bank of the Togas river and a bit far away from the city center, but well worth the visit.   There are a few cafes and restaurants nearby and the walk along the river is very nice.   Also on the northern side of the river is the Padrão dos Descobrimentos or Monument of the Discoveries. This impressive monument is said to celebrate the Portuguese adventurers who departed Lisbon to explor...

I had a wonderful summer in Scotland staying with my good friend Eva. I spent a lot of my time processing photos and uploading everything to various photo websites.  It’s a long slow process, but I'm beginning to see a few more sales.  I did take some time off to enjoy Scotland of course, with trips to the Isle of May, Glasgow, the Trossachs, a road trip through the Highlands, and an awesome road trip with Eve on the North Coast 500.  I also went down to England and dog sat for a very handsome labradoodle named Valentino. I found time to visit my friend Terri in Liverpool before a great trip to Iceland, which you can read all about in a previous post.  I was a bit limited in what I could do because I was struggling with some lower back issues as well as ever present knee problems. I have come to the realization that I really can't put off knee replacement much longer. But first I'm off to Portugal. This is long been one of the countries I wanted to visit so I ...

Next up was the Hafragilsfoss waterfall.   This one was kind of interesting in that you could see the waterfall from the top of a deep gorge called Jökulsárgljúfur canyon.   The waterfall is from the glacier river Jökulsá á Fjöllum.   What was interesting was to see two distinctly different landscapes.   Before the waterfall, the river flowed through a flat grassy plain.   At the bottom, the canyon had very deep cliffs on either side, as if the land simply fell away at some point in history.   The canyon is much too deep to just be simple erosion from the fast-moving water.   Further upstream you come to the massive Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe.   As mentioned above, both waterfalls are fed by the glacier river Jökulsá á Fjöllum , and it flows from the largest glacier in Europe, Vatnajökull.   The road to the two waterfalls was 15 miles of bumpy dirt roads in and out.   It was filled with potholes and wash...