Cadiz, Spain

We arrived in Cadiz, Spain around 7:30 AM this morning and the ship was cleared by the local authorities at 8:00 AM. This port of call was added in lieu of Casablanca. Cadiz is considered to be the oldest inhabited city of the Western World and is estimated to be 3,000 years old. Cadiz has a long history of having been ruled by various forces. The Phoenicians ruled this area in 1100 BC and by 500 BC the Carthaginians became the rulers of this area until the Romans captured this city two hundred years later. Ultimately, this city became part of Spain. Many years later Christopher Columbus set sail for the New World from Cadiz.

We began today as we normally do by waking up early and having breakfast in the Lido Café. We spoke with another couple who we always see in the morning and we each talked about what we had done in port the day before. After breakfast, we worked out in the Fitness Center for about ninety minutes and as we worked out we spoke with two of our fellow passengers who also workout at the same time we do each day. While working out we had a beautiful view of the harbor as we arrived in Caldiz. At around the time our ship docked, we saw one of the Windstar ships arrive in port as well.

After our workout, we got ready to go ashore. The nice thing about this port is that we did not need to take a shuttle to reach the town. As soon as we walked off the ship we headed for the old town area. We arrived at around 9:00 AM and at that point there were very few tourists or locals in the streets so we walked all around the old town. We visited a church that dates back to the 17th Century and then later on in the morning we visited the Cathedral de Cadiz. This baroque cathedral was built in the 18th century and is capped by a golden dome.

We continued to walk up and down many streets. The streets were not wide and each street was lined on each side with a variety of shops, and cafes.. The architecture was quite beautiful.

We kept wandering around the town and ultimately found a market which contained various stands selling fruit, vegetables, meat and cheese. We then worked our way all through the market until we came to an enormous area that contained all sorts of fresh fish. When we first arrived to the fish portion of the market there were lots of men bidding on seafood. We suspect that they were making purchases for their respective restaurants.

We then walked into a couple of grocery stores and also into some local clothing and jewelry stores. We walked by several shops that had beautiful wedding dresses and other clothes for wedding parties in their windows. The dresses and other attire were very impressive.

Later in the morning the streets became more crowded with both tourists and locals. We began to run into more and more people from the ship. We ran into the ship Rabbi and his lovely wife so we took them around the town and showed them a jewelry store that we had seen earlier in the day that was selling a variety of menorahs and other Jewish items. Later on we took them and another couple from the ship over to the fresh seafood, meat and produce market that we had walked around earlier in the morning.

We had a wonderful time walking around the town. The local people who we spoke with in the stores were very friendly and very helpful to us. While most of them spoke very little English, we were able to get assistance from most of them between the Spanish that Anne Marie knows coupled with their limited understanding of English.

On our way back to the ship we walked through a very nice park. We arrived back to the ship at around 1:00 PM and had lunch in the Lido Café. We then spent the afternoon taking care of some errands.

This evening we dined at the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant. We had a nice conversation with the Headwaiter Bruno. We have posted a picture of us in Prego with Bruno. He always gives us wonderful recommendations on seafood entrees.

This evening all guests were invited to the Palm Court for a themed party called Space Station Crystal to enjoy music, dancing and complimentary cocktails.

Tomorrow we will enjoy a day at sea as we cruise towards Oporto, Potugal.

We hope that you have been enjoying the Blog and as always please feel free to post comments.

Keith & Anne Marie