Chipiona

Chipiona was the town we lived in when we first moved to Spain.  It is only a few miles up the coast from Rota.  

     This is a pic of the house we lived in.  The house was really nice with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths.  It was somewhat big by Spanish standards and our neighbors were terrific.  The only thing it lacked was a yard for the dog and that is why we moved into base housing.  We learned quite a bit of Spanish while we lived there by talking to our neighbors all the time.  The neighborhood kids would call out our names when we came home each day.  We played games with them all the time and they loved Bishop.  Since we moved on base we have forgotten most of our Spanish but we still get by.

     This is the beach we used to walk Bishop on.  It was only a couple of blocks from our house.  The lighthouse in the background works and we can see it from our house on base.

     This is a closer view of the castle you see in the previous pic.  We never could find a lot of info on this castle.  Many Spanish towns have old buildings like this.  It is right on the boardwalk of the beach.  When dad was here we ate lunch a little bit down the boardwalk from here.

     While walking though the streets we snapped this picture of one of the side streets.  There is a bar and a hostel down there but also some homes.  These are small local residences, but the Spanish people keep them looking so nice.

     Here is the "boardwalk".  As you can see from the most of the pictures, Spanish buildings are made of stone, not wood.  The same holds true for the boardwalk.  This goes back to the days of the mighty Spanish Armada, when most of Spain's trees were cut down to help build the Armada.  Whole forests were cut down, and over the centuries have had trouble growing back.  Hence it has become Spanish culture to use stone for most things.

     Here is a picture of us having lunch on the boardwalk.  I'm not in the picture because I am taking the picture.  We had bocadillas (subs) and dad got his first taste of Sangria.