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A little place from home.

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  Yesterday we went into, not so much my Mind Palace, as my Attic of Historical Artifacts viz Algreciras. Why stop there.  As today we will be mainly trooping round a very well tended suburbia, lets have a Gib preface.  Enter Tangiers. When France and Spain were carving up Protectorates in Morocco in the early 20th century Tangiers was not quite dealt with. Eventually it became an International Zone and so it remained till 14th June 1940, when Franco  took advantage of a distracted world to occupy the place. Given Blighty hadn’t caved in to the Nazi Menace, in November 1940 it was agreed that the city could be occupied if Spain didn’t fortify the place and British rights were respected. It is believed that the general shenanigans  in Tangiers was the model for the film Casablanca.  In October 1945 Tangiers reverted to being an International City until Morocco gained independence in the 1950s. But this isn’t the point of today's lecture. By the 1660s England...
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Forts and the knowledge of forts

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  Generally all of life is on one spectrum or another. Take knowledge.  At the one end are people who horde it and use it to bludgeon people who clearly are dullards because they didn’t know what reform movement Pope John X supported - the Cluniacs, but you know that. On the other end is the free sharing of the stuff because it is more joyful to have people to share with that King George I divorced his misses in 1684 - which makes him the third English monarch to be divorced, I think.  Footnotes are available. I say all this because we are nearing but will never go to Algeciras.  Algeciras first appeared in my consciousness as a conference venue [1906] in GCSE answers.  I know you want to know this, so this was sorting out the issue of which European powers were going to nab Morocco.  The French got most of it, Spain got a bit and Germany got the hump.  I think it was only when we stayed in Malaga I found out it was near Gib and only when writing this ...
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Gibraltar: Bane of Andorra and confusion on Liechtenstein

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  Of we go to the end of it all.  We will pass the Ibrahim-al-Ibrahim Mosque, which was inaugurated in 1997, and so on to Europa Point.  It has been reviewed 161 people who reckon, as bits of geography go, it deserves 4.4 stars.  Michael came here a month a go and gives us a very full account [and four stars]. ‘Europa Point Scenic Spot is the southernmost point of Gibraltar, renowned for its spectacular panoramic views across the Strait of Gibraltar to North Africa. Highlights include the historic red-and-white striped lighthouse dating from 1841, the Ibrahim al-Ibrahim Mosque, the Sikorski Monument, and Harding's Battery. This windswept vantage point offers a unique blend of maritime history and breathtaking natural beauty.’ We are turning back. I wanted to go up the east side but you can’t walk round it and we aren’t going to break the law by nipping along road. Thus we will wander back the settled, western side, and get a really good idea of just how crowded this ...
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The best duck, the eldest cod, the youngest pork

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  It is a bit of a day. Google says we can walk down the A-7.  Generally I would advise against it. It is a day for the straight road but I will get lost at one point and end up on a strip development and nip across the road to look at a fort. First things first, the Restaurante Venta La Choza. https://www.ventalachoza.com/   From the website you will see it is one of those places which is bare wood, tiles and elaborate chairs.  It is closed on Tuesdays and on all other days opens from 12.30am to midnight.  4.5 stars from over 1200 reviews suggests it has something going for it.  The biggest review word hit was oxtails - followed by paella.  So, we will go there. Helen gave such a review we will stick with hers.  ‘Just had  a fantastic meal  only thing but totally important if you like us, goats cheese is a no, no the oven cheese with honey is baked goats cheese with honey drizzle. The asparagus with parma ham and a cheese sauce is delic...
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