Day 52 ~ Cadiz Rhymes with Gladys

 March 2, 2022

62 degrees, sunny, level terra firma and a fascinating city to explore! 

NAUTICAL TERM OF THE DAY ~ As the crow flies

When a ship was lost in coastal waters, the captain released a caged crow, knowing it would fly toward land. And appointed sailor watch the bird's progress from the tallest lookout on the ship, which came to be know as (drumroll, please!) the crow's nest. (In case you've forgotten or missed the post when I explained I where get these jargon lesson, this info is fresh from the Viking Daily)

Well, here we are on the 52nd day of this epic voyage and we have finally reached a familiar port. We called on Cadiz, Spain in 2018 when we sailed around the world on the Pacific Princess. Back then, we skipped the city and ventured out to visit an Andalusian riding school and Tio Peppe's Sherry distillery. Today, we girded our loins and joined a walking tour of the Old Town. 

And when I say "old," I mean it. Our guide Lola told us Cadiz is the oldest, continually inhabited city in western Europe. It was founded about 1100 BC by the Phoenicians, those enigmatic early sailors and traders who gifted the world with one of the earliest alphabets.  However in those 3000 years of Cadiz' existence, the city was built and razed numerous times. Because of that, it is home to a number of impressive ruins and archaeological sites.

This arched entryway is part of a defensive wall around a medieval town dating back to the 1300's. Today, people live around the old ruins and take them in stride.   

In addition to medieval ruins, there is a Roman amphitheater that once seated 12,000 people! 

But most of the Old Town dates back to the 1700 & 1800's. The layout is confusing, a rabbit warren of narrow lanes and twisting byways. 

One of the things I love to do when I travel is have a "connection moment" with a local. In the time of Covid, this is a challenge. But I managed it with the fellow on his balcony. I waved to him, then gestured to my phone to get his permission to take his picture. He gave me a big thumb's up!  I have no idea who he is, but it was clear he welcomed our tour group. 

That's been a recurring theme. Our tour guides in almost all our ports of call have thanked us for being courageous enough to travel in this time of pandemic, and now war. Honestly, this world cruise has had many strikes against it, but we keep swinging and our experiences continue to sail over the fence! 

In addition to making sure we wear our masks and carry our contact tracers with us when we go on excursions, I also have be careful about my footing. (Once while walking my little dog, I broke my ankle tripping off a curb!) But it's a pleasure to watch where I step when the cobblestones are laid out in such ornate patterns. (The safety tip is: STOP before you try to take a picture!)

One of our tour's points of interest was the Cathedral of Cadiz, a monumental neo-classical structure that dwarfed all the previous cathedrals we've seen on this trip. Lola explained the size and ornateness of the building was a combination of religious fervor and the city father's way of projecting the wealth and power of Cadiz in a tangible way.

Notice the two different colors of marble on the facade. This has caused much trouble as the congregation tries to maintain the century's old structure.

Our guide Lola seemed almost apologetic about the lack of decoration inside the church and it's true that in some cathedrals every square inch of space is embellished within an inch of its life. (If you want to see more of the inside of the cathedral, the DH has included several photos in his montage, including one of a 7000 pound SILVER sarcophagus!) But I found the soaring ceilings to be very uplifting without any further filigree. 

When we ducked down into the crypt, along with long dead famous Spanish people, we found a group of children on a field trip.

It may seem a little gruesome to take children into a crypt, but when you think about it, a lot of the most visited tourist sites around the planet have to do with how we treat our dead--the pyramids, the catacombs of Rome, the Taj Mahal, the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor to name a few. 

The Palace of Mora

Then we walked down a fashionable street where we came upon the Palace of Mora, a spectacular private residence from the early 1800s. In the Georgian style, the ground floor is rather plain but the first floor (Americans would call it the second floor) is quite ornate because the family lived there. It boasts columns and curved railings for the Juliet balconies. The next floors are less embellished because they are used by servants and as you move up in floors, the windows become progressively shorter. This is to fool the eye into thinking the upper stories are farther away and the house is even taller than in appears.

By the time we made it back to the cruise terminal, Percival's battery was beeping, so we stopped to change it out for a fresh one. When we know we'll be on uneven ground, the DH carries my smaller POC in a backpack, along with spare batteries, umbrellas, rain ponchos, water bottles, sun glasses and all the odds and ends we might need when we're on an excursion. God bless the man, he never complains.  

(But I sometimes do! Unfortunately, the Star's internet seems no better than before we arrived here, the port where the parts and the specialists were suppose to fix the matter. As I try to add photos, I'm spending a lot of time watching the computer chase its tail, and even then, when a photo materializes, it may or may not be the one I selected. I know, I know...first world problems.)

Here's the DH's photo montage. You have no idea how long he labored on this!

Tomorrow we call on Gibraltar, another place we visited in 2018. But as we learned today, once is never really enough to explore a port of call. There's always more to discover. We can choose different excursions so we aren't repeating ourselves. The place may have changed since we last saw it. It's certain we have changed, so our perceptions are likely to be different. We both decided we'd welcome a third visit to Cadiz someday! 

(Kristy snapped this picture of saints praying for the world in the cathedral. Oh, Lord, how this world needs Your touch right now...)

More soon...