Ken and I just returned to the ship after our time  in Spain. We had a great time with one of Ken's partners and his wife, Milt and Betty Waldron. We arrived last Sat. into Cadiz which is one of the oldest cities in the West dating back to 1100 BC.  Columbus left from this port in two of his three voyages to the new world. The first day there we walked all around the city visiting many of the sites; from the old cathedral, fortress, beautiful gardens, and the beach to name a few. The weather was hot so the beach was packed with people and was so pretty with all the different colored umbrellas.  The entire beach was filled with people.  What we marvelled at was that  the entire family was present from the little babies to the grandparents. A true multigenerational event.  You can see by just walking around the town that family is very important.

 

On Monday the four of us rented a car and went on a road trip to some of the "white towns" which were a few hours from Cadiz. They were beautiful and did not disappoint us.  We stayed at a paradore which is an old castle, fortress or some old historical place that the govt. have turn into a hotel.  One of them was on the edge of a cliff with breath-taking views of the "white" city below. We heard numerous cathedral bells ringing every half hour as well as the dogs barking and roosters crowing in the morning. One of the days we went to Sevilla which is a city that has had a long history of many peoples inhabiting it from the Moors, the Muslims, the Christians and others I can't remember right now. The big Catholic cathedral was built on the ruins of an earlier mosque and the main tower is actually a part of the original turrets of the mosque. All was very intriguing.  A sidenote is that Columbus is buried there. The church dates back to around 1200 AD.

 

One of their customs that we had a hard time with was their eating patterns.  The stores and cities don't become awake until 10ish in the morning.  Then they are open until 1-130 in the afternoon after which they all have seista time until 530pm.  Resturants in the evening don't even accept reservations for dinner until 9pm and only when their arm is twisted. Most of them don't show up for dinner untill 1030-11pm.

 

We had a great time and now as I write this are sailing to Morocco and will arrive at approx. 12noon.  Then onto another adventure. I won't have my computer when we are  exploring but that wont be still Saturday.  Hope you are all doing well!  Think of you and miss you!!  Hopefully soon we we have some extended time on the ship I hope to learn how to download pictures on my blog for all to see. So maybe with my next blog I'll have a surprise for you all.  Till them take good care of yourselves.

 

Love you,

Marty