Continued...

On the sea.
First up, Bonifacio, Corsica.

Bonifacio. Awesome, right? Who's with me!
Still not up to much, so I only got this far. Then back to the ship.

Then on to Mahon, Menorca and our first castle. Have I mentioned I love castles?

I did better this time. Managed to scramble around the castle a bit.

Ugh. Upping.

Just a couple of pictures to whet your appetite for...

Ibiza, Balearic Islands

And no, I had no idea it existed until I went there.

I'm woefully ignorant of all things geographical.

A couple of guards at the gates.

Have I mentioned I love photographing hallways?

And stairs...

And cannons?

And now on to Motril, Spain. From there, a bus to Granada and the World Heritage site: The Alhambra! (Long number one on Husby's to-see list!) An amazing palace and gardens that once housed the Sultan and his household. Became the home to Granada's homeless, now restored to much of its former beauty.

Remember when I mentioned gardens?

Ditto

View of the city wall from the Sultana's rooms.

One of the amazing courtyards.

And another.

And on to Morocco!

First stop, Safi. 

From there, we took a bus to Marrakech. We sang 'Marrakech Express' along the way. Most of the passengers didn't get it...

 Amazing countryside in Morocco. Hot and dusty. Plenty of donkey wagons. And each family had their own little compound with high, cement walls, usually a little mud-brick home with a satellite dish on the roof. Unlike any place I've ever seen!

Another palace.
With the *ahem* Sultan and Sultana. (Hey, I can dream!)

Marrakech market!

More market. And lots of bargaining.
They now call Husby the Canadian Bandito...

They know gates in Marrakech!

Then bus ride back to the ship and on to Casablanca. Morocco.

To prepare for our visit, the ship showed Casablanca, the movie.

Sadly, Casablanca was a bit of a disappointment.

Apart from the absolutely beautiful mosque, the third-largest in the world, the city itself was rather run-down and dirty. Many, many beggars.

A city of wildly varying contrasts. The utterly poor and destitute compared to the most stunningly beautiful building I've ever seen.

And the Rick's Cafe they took us to?

Not the real one. Just FYI...

Wait for it...

Seriously one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen!

Right?

...

......

From there, on to Tangier, Morocco.
A beautiful city. Very progressive and on the move. Restorations in every quarter we saw.
Beautiful!

My next home.

Ali Babba at the gate.

One of the local streets.

And markets.

I loved Tangier. A little sad our visit was so short!

From there it was back to Spain and Cadiz, where we went to a sherry-making plantation.

And to see the Andalusian horses train.

These guys are serious about their sherry.
25,000 barrels in this storage room alone!

Sadly, the only horse I managed to photograph at the Andalusian training school.
Photos of the real thing were prohibited. Sigh.
P.S. They were AWESOME!

And then it was back to the ship and on to our final port, Lisbon, Portugal.

We said a sad good-bye to our shipboard acquaintances and headed into Lisbon for the final three days of our holiday.

Doing what we do best.

Hallway. Why do I love them so much?

Castle hallway. Ditto.

Monastery. Catch your breath beautiful!

Lisbon city street.
And an elevator built around the same time as the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Amazing. 

View from the top of said elevator.

Another view...

Typical city street

Typical delicious food.

Out in the country. (Sintra. The most amazing place!)

 

 And home.

We had the very best of times. Great company. Great food. 

And tons of site-seeing.

We packed a lot into a few weeks, but crossed many, many items off the bucket list.

My only problem now is... where to next?!