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| Rota, Spain |
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| Population 28,516 and 1 creepy dog |
Rota is on the bay of Cadiz. 13th Century castle is now home to Town Hallalong with Baroque Caridad or San Juan Bautista Church and San Roque Church home to the town's patron saint. I can't wait to get there, I love history and looking around old cities so Rota will be a great trip. Driving To Rota was about an hour and a half countryside drive. It looked like Lancaster Pa. It was great and clean. Allot of the countryside was the grapes from the beautiful wine we drank all week.
The base is impressive, they are putting us up in a hostile... At first, I was like "What?" but the hostile is what we consider a Bed and Breakfast. I could not believe how amazing this place was. The actual view made me think I was on a set of a movie- everything was crisp and vivid.
A quick history of what I understood:
Rota started sometime in the Bronze age. The Romans have been given this city called "Astaroth," and they changed the name to "Speculum Rotate" later- taken by the Moors and became "Rabita Rutta."
The Moors left Spain, and the Christians took it over in 1297. Because of its great location for Coastal defense being near the entrance to the Mediterranean sea and great port for trade with North Africa, This city has always been part of Spain's great history.
We are across the alley from a fantastic pastry shop, and we partook in a siesta.. what a great Idea. Coffee and pastry than a nap in the middle of the afternoon. I am adopting this into my life.. wait, I already do that.
As we are enjoying a coffee next to this church all of a sudden, a bunch of little kids dressed like kings and princesses come walking out of the old castle. It was adorable and amazing. This tiny square in Rota has so much beauty happening, and we spend maybe 2.5 euros on such a beautiful afternoon. We decided to nap then explore, there is a lot to explore. This city is wonderful.
We have a Naval base here, which I mentioned the importance of location. It is known as "gateway to the Mediterranean" Its also the halfway point of the US and middle east. We also have a small Army and Airforce base near.. We could say its a very fancy gas station for jets.
The Navy base is a kind of support system for US and NATO ships. Its kind of like the general store for the region providing cargo, fuel, passengers, and ammo for anyone who may need that in the area of the world. It is also an excellent stop for soldiers going into or out of the danger zones.
The walk was so amazing, The old Castles, architectural genius and beautiful beaches. The significant part about traveling with these guys is we talked and took in everything for hours. I love traveling with such great people. Every tour I have done with Armed Forces Entertainment has been with great people.
I love these Spanish Tiles, I really would like to do this if I ever own a house.
The history of tiles has a great Spanish feel, but even further back is an Arab influence from the 11th century.
When the Arabs invaded Spain, they brought the ceramic making technology. Due to Christian pressure by the 15th century, the factory that made the tiles became more efficient at making these "Spanish style tiles" and started being shipped all over the world by the 20th century.
I can't lie- this was the craziest thing I think we did. We did a show for 30 kids in the age bracket of 5- 13 years old. Mostly girl scouts. We went through so much together this trip we figured ya know what- we can do it and did over 45min show for them. They were a ton of fun and after the kids went outside and we did another 45min for the parents. We had a ball with these folks. Craig did a lot of stuff with his voices and telling everyone how to develop these great characters.
