A day in Tangier is not like a regular day at work. Despite serving as a gateway to Africa, with all the tourist traps associated with that, for a European it's a step into a different world. It can be very culturally educational with a couple of open eyes. The semi-Spanish, semi-Arabic guide leads the group through the Kasbah - the old city center, resembling a maze, with seemingly no order or logic. But we do get to a number of interesting locations, and at least the itinerary seems to be planned. A Moroccan pharmacy is nothing like a European pharmacy. [View Full Entry]

---

---

The place reminds us not so little of the place in ”From Dusk Till Dawn”. For those of you who didn’t see that movie; it’s a rather large building with no other buildings surrounding it, outside the city. My friend met this Spanish guy who insisted that we come. Not so much out of friendliness towards strangers, more a faint hope of some action with my friend, a very pretty, very blond little girl. It turns out to be a nightclub, a very large one. It’s location, it’s size and it’s equipment would probably make it an excellent rave party spot. [View Full Entry]

---

---

The port of Barcelona is huge. Probably the largest in the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, it is only fair that they also have the biggest buildings in the port. The aquarium is big, and very good. The new shopping/entertainment center next door is also huge. Huge arcade hall. Huge shopping mall. Huge terrace. Miniature golf in the middle of the roof. Nightclubs and bars surrounding it. Outstanding concept. Something for everyone. This is a good place for post-game analysis... [View Full Entry]

---

---

Nou Camp or Camp Nou. Whatever. It's huge. Probably the largest soccer stadium on the European continent. Once able to hold some 120,000 people at soccer games. The night of the game against the Swedish team it's not exactly packed. "Only" in the neighborhood of 70,000 in the crowd, scattered all over the seats. When the Swedes score in the first minute, there is complete silence. Even the 2,000 or so Northerners following their team cannot grasp that the little club from the North Pole would dare to put the ball in the net in the lion's den. Then Barca wakes [View Full Entry]

---

---

On the top of the mountains surrounding Malaga there's a nice restaurant with a wonderful view over the city and the sea. What would then be the optimal way to reach this restaurant? Helicopter would be one option. Fast, easy, but quite expensive. Car is another very rational alternative, since there are actual roads leading there. For the sportsman a climb or a trek would be good exercise. For us - Tim, Lisa, Miguel, Nico, and me - the mean of transport is - horse. Horses are very useful animals in many fields, but for climbing a mountain...? At the foot [View Full Entry]

---

---

Had the time of my life in Malaga, Spain. Not so much because of the city, but because of the people. We didn’t have much contact with the outside world, so the news that spread concerned each other. True or false, news was spreading with the speed of light. Picked up by all. Contested by few. Towards the end of the first semester, a couple of rather shy Swedish girls come up to me at a party, ask me a strange question: “Have you ever been in a movie?”. “Eh, no, what makes you think that?”. “Well, somebody said so”. The [View Full Entry]

---

---

It's not very entertaining, this southern Spanish landscape. Crop fields, some hills, a few trees. Totally ok with us, if the car would stop, it might not start again. The small airplane at the horizon is pretty much the only thing to observe. It's cruising at a notably low elevation, and it's not climbing. In fact, it disappears behind a hill. Then smoke. Did anyone else see the same thing as I did? The three companions in the car did. Did we just witness a plane crash? Adding the facts up, there is a pretty good chance that we did. What [View Full Entry]

---

---

The Rock of Europe is a mighty sight. Ancient people knew it as Hercules’ pillars. The gateway to the big ocean, where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic. James Bond raced a car down the rock while fighting an evil dude. A major accomplishment, considering the roads are rarely no wider than the car. The combined length of the roads and tunnels inside the rock are as long as the combined length of the roads outside it in the territory of Gibraltar. Interesting fact. Not as interesting as the monkeys though. They are cute. They bite. And they steal peanuts, from your [View Full Entry]

---

---

What do you do when you have a weekend off on Costa del Sol and want to get away from it all...? Easy - you go to Portugal. A most spontaneous trip it is. Initiator Miguel - in close co-operation with me and my car - do actually not have to excert a lot of influence to convince the two Swedish guapas Ida and Ullis to come along. Off we go. Via Seville, where a friendly police officer escorts us out of town and points us in the right direction, the road to Algarve is wide open. Of course with the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Cruising through the clouds in an airplane is pretty cool. Doing it by car is much cooler. Going back towards the coast on the mountain roads from Ronda, that is exactly what we do. A magnificent sight. So amazing we have to stop and wait for the sunset, and take pictures. Watching the sunset from above the clouds, in the redish mountains of southern Spain...can hardly beat that in beauty. A true Kodak moment... [View Full Entry]

---

---