Day 84 ~ Cadiz, Spain

“Cadiz rhymes with Gladys.”

No joke. Our tour guide pronounces the name of her city as if it rhymes with Gladys. She said she realizes Americans call it “kah-DEEZ” but when locals say it, the town rhymes with my DH’s aunt’s name.

But it didn’t really matter because we weren’t staying in Cadiz for our excursion anyway. We were off to the countryside to the Real Escuela Andaluza Del Arte Ecuestre (Say that three times fast!), otherwise known as the Andalusian Riding School. We saw the Lipizzaner stallions in Slovenia.  Now we were ready to see one of the foundation breeds that went into developing the Lipizzaners.

I expected snowy white creatures. To our  surprise, we learned that they can be many different colors. If they are born brown, they’ll stay that way, but if the foals are black, anything can happen. Over time, the horse's coat turns white, dappled grey, or black.

In addition to the beautiful horses, we toured the palacio on the grounds. It wasn’t furnished, but it whispered of days of former glory.

Then we headed for the Gonzalez Bypass Wine Cellar, home of Tio Peppe (AKA Uncle Joe). I’d never heard of the dapper little sherry bottle, but apparently, he’s a well known marketing icon here.

Unlike a regular winery, there aren’t usually vintage wines produced here unless they have an exceptional year for their grapes. Instead, they develop sherry, a fortified wine product developed through a dynamic process that takes several years. In the photo below, casks (which are made from American oak) are stacked with the oldest wine on the bottom. Each year, 1/3 of the contents of the bottom casks are siphoned out and sold. Then the 1/3 is replaced by the same amount removed from the 2^nd row and so on.

Some of the stacks of casks are developing into their dry product. Others are sweet, but they are both made from the same grapes. To make the sweet sherry, the grapes remain on the vine a couple weeks longer than the ones destined to be dry.

  

Lots of famous folk have visited the wine cellar and many have signed casks—Orson Wells, Cole Porter, Lana Turner and Erte to name a few.  I couldn’t resist one signed "Diana" since my real name is Diana, though I’m not sure which Diana this refers to.  Not Princess Di since the signature was dated 1948.

Charming street but note the bars on all the windows. When asked if it was a dangerous area, our guide said no. The bars are there because residents open their windows wide in the summer without worrying someone might decide to climb in.

On the way back to the ship, we saw flamingos feeding in marshy land, their color so pale as to be only a hint of pink. We passed a deserted shipyard, a relic of poor economy that has thrown a number of people out of work. Our guide told us that fishing, agriculture and tourism formed the economic basis for the area.

Not a billboard. Get a load of that "bull" board!

This was our last European port of call on this trip. Our noses are pointed west and we’ll only have two more stops before we sail into Fort Lauderdale on the 27^th. The voyage has both flown by and stretched into forever. I feel as though it will take months for me to make sense of all the experiences we’ve had. Maybe longer. In so many ways, it’s been life-changing.

My apologies. I had about 8 photos picked out to share, but the internet is so s-l-o-w, I can't get them uploaded. I promise to add them when I can. 
(As you can see, promise fulfilled. The internet is better today.)