Hi everybody. Yesterday we were in Cadiz, Spain and had another fabulous day! We took a morning ship tour to a town about an hour out of Cadiz. This town, called Arcos de la Frontera was built on the top of a hill, which allowed the people there to build protective walls and have a good view of potential predators. This might have been necessary in the olden days, but it sure causes this town a lot of headaches in this day and age. We had to walk up about 200 steps from the parking area, because the roads are too narrow and steep for busses. We then walked through the town (all uphill), through the narrow cobblestone and pebble roads. There were wonderful views from the top of the hill and the tour also allowed us to see the farming countryside in Spain – mostly crops of olives and sunflowers, so needless to say, they make a lot of vegetable cooking oil in this region.

In the afternoon, we walked around the central area of Cadiz. It is a beautiful city and we both felt that it would be nice sometime to come back to Spain to spend 3 weeks here, just checking it out. The city had a large central square area with sidewalk cafes, flowers everywhere and a very European flavour. It was a hot day and it couldn’t have been more perfect to spend the afternoon walking around.

For dinner, we went to the specialty Italian restaurant onboard and it will definitely be the signature dinner for the entire cruise. We went at 6:30 pm and the ship didn’t sail until 7 pm, so we had a wonderful table for 2 facing into the city. The view of the city was perfect and then when the ship left port, we were able to watch the city slowly disappear, while watching at least 25 fishing boats coming in with their daily catches. There were birds everywhere (of course following the fishing boats) and it was a wonderful evening. (Oh, the food was good too.)

All in all, it was a great day in Spain – probably our favourite port to this point for “ambiance”.

Hope all is well at home,
Luv to all,
J & R