Cadiz, Spain March 2, 2022

 

After a day at sea we arrive in Cadiz.  Again we are lucky with the weather,  rain had been forecasted but we arrive to a sunshiny day, albeit on the cool side.   The high for the day was 62.  Cadiz is located in the southwestern part of Spain.  It’s one of the oldest continuously inhabited city in Wester Europe.  It was founded in the 17th century  by the Phoenicians.  It boasts about a population of about 120,000 and is very densely populated.  It has many archaeological remains dating back to the 12th centaurs BC.  The old part of the city consists of narrow winding streets connection large plazas, while the newer part has wide Avenues and modern buildings.  It was a major trading sea port with goods from the Americas in the 18th century.   Today it is still a major sea port and tourism of course plays a major role in its economy.  

It is a clean and busy city, small cars and lots of scooters and motorcycles.  It’s many pedestrian zones are lined with quaint cafés and shops.  We  were docked an easy walking distance to “Old Town”.  Mask wearing was required as it has been in all of our ports, though we observed that people wore them primarily when inside.  


View from stateroom balcony.  Only a short walk from the ship to the town. 

One of the many narrow streets in the “Old  Town”

One of many churches
The fish market was quite a show.  This had to be the ugliest fish I ever saw.  There was such a tremendous variety of sea food, much I had never seen before in my life.  
The Vegetable markets are a feast for the eye.  Everything looking so fresh and the size of some of these items was unbelievable.  
This is the Cathedral whose tower I climbed, some 140 ft high. 
One section of the Cathedral’s interior
The view from the tower.  WOW
The view from the other side of the tower.  Just breathtaking.  
It was a whole lot easier going down than up.  Rather than steps its a spiral ramp.  Ramps were used rather than steps as in the older days the bell ringer would ride a horse up to the top of the tower.  Horses don’t do steps!! I was glad for neither would I have been able to do that if it had been steps. 
Back down walking towards the water front.
The waterfront.  


A very strange looking tree with spikes all over it.

Sailing away, a lovely sunset.  Tomorrow Gibraltar 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Montevideo, Uruguay. City tour and La Rabida Working Farm

Image
 We arrived February 13th in Montevideo and will be staying overnight, as our port of call to Punta del Este was cancelled due to sea conditions not being favorable for tendering.  And, Punta del Este is a tender port. We were greeted with, while cool temperature, bright sunshine and fair winds.  We booked the 7 hour tour to the La Rabida Working Ranch for the first day.  The tour started with a brief glimpse of the city which did not impress me at all but then proceeded for an hour and half through the lovely Uruguayan countryside, which was absolutely gorgeous, even though generally flat.  The gentle rolling hills and its varied vegetation with blue skies and puffy white clouds just was such a pleasant site after many days at sea.  We arrived at the ranch and were greeting by some members of the family on horseback.  We were directed to a large pasture field with many huge shade trees and open-air buildings where we were given a brief history of the ...
Read more

Scenic Cruising Amalia Glacier and El Brujo Glacier

Image
 February 6, we awake to very cold, overcast and low hanging cloud day and wonder will we actually see the glaciers.  The ship was gliding through the fjords ever so slowly and as we got closer and closer to the Amalia glacier more and more ice chunks and mini icebergs floated around.  And then miraculously the low hanging clouds lifted and allowed us to see the majestic glacier.   This glacier skirts the northern rise of the Reclus volcano located right behind it.  The ice flow goes all the way into the water.  This area was once the world’s largest continuous ice field, the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.  Today it is merely a fraction of it’s former self.  Though still very impressive.   There we were also blessed with a glimpse of  some marine otters.  The ship did a 360 to make sure everyone was able to view the glacier.   We continued at a slow speed to the next glacier the El Brujo glacier even more impressive than Amalia...
Read more

Istanbul, Turkey April 18-19, 2022

Image
 Istanbul,  what an incredible city, one that deserves a second visit, but not when it is in the 40s, rainy, windy and a real-feel temperature of the 30’s.  The at-sea-day before already was an indication of the miserable weather to come.  We could not see anything of the passage through the Dardanelles Strait, Sea of Marmara and Bosphorus Strait due to the heavy mist.  I truly had seconds thoughts of getting of the ship and going on our tours, but as Margit reminded me, you have never been here and who knows if you ever will be again.  So I mustered all my energy and braved the cold.  I am glass I did.   Part of Istanbul (formally called Constantinople) is on the European continent (60%) and the other 40% is on the Asian Continent with the Bosphorus Strait between the two sides.  It’s the only transcontinental city in the world, which alone makes it unique.   Depending on which tour guide you believe there are about 15 to 18 million inh...
Read more