BLOG # 6:  FROM CADIZ TO BARCELONA

 

We had two sunny, warm days in the beautiful city of Cadiz (from where Columbus sailed to the new world on voyages 2, 3, and 4).  Upon arrival we took a taxi tour of the city (much cheaper than a ship’s bus tour) and got oriented.   The city is very walkable (at least for Ron) and a great place to window shop.  At least half the streets in the old city are pedestrian only.  Our two favorite places so far have been Bruges and Cadiz.

On Saturday we awoke in Casablanca (White City) in Morocco.  I had been excited to visit this city made so famous by Humphrey and Ingrid.  I am not certain what I expected, other than for the city to have a little more charm and romance than what we found.  Casablanca has about 7 million people and mostly it is miles and miles of white block low rises.  We did pass Rick’s Café, which is obviously a fake as Rick’s Café only existed as part of a Hollywood set.  In fact, the entire movie was shot in Hollywood.  I suppose we could have had a drink in Martini’s before dinner and asked Oleg to “Play it.”  A bit of trivia:  Humphrey said “Play it Sam” not “Play it again Sam."

In the evening show a comedian made fun of the age of the ship’s passengers.  At one point he asked who had been married for 50 years.  Lots of people had.  He then commented that “for this crowd it must be like a first date.”

Our Sunday stop in Gibraltar was most pleasant and the scenery is quite spectacular.  One of the interesting things we did was drive across the main runway of Gibraltar’s airport.  Space is at such a premium that one of the main streets crosses the runway (there are stoplights, of course, in case a plane is landing).

In good British tradition we had a stop at a hotel for high tea, complete with scones, jam and clotted cream.  The ship also has high tea each afternoon but Betty and I rarely attend; after all they don’t serve clotted cream.

On Monday, which was our last full cruise day on the Marina, we had a sunny morning in the beautiful city of Cartagena.  You can see from the first picture that the City Hall is a bit more interesting than the Town Hall in Antigonish, and the buskers are certainly better.  Betty spent the morning in the Spa but I went shopping for a small gift in an attempt to cheer Betty.  Despite the fact that we have 3 more weeks in Europe we had to leave the Marina early Tuesday morning.  Betty has been known to burst into tears when being forced to disembark.

 

In our last evening on the ship we were invited to a cocktail party hosted by the Captain.  At least some of the guests are younger than the comedian implied.  Certainly this guest made me feel distinctly underdressed.