World cruise 45

April 19

Cadiz, Spain is an interesting and very clean city. Its streets, beaches and public areas are constantly being cleaned. In the past 20 years numerous civic projects have been undertaken to improve the lives of the citizens and restore the sites reelating to the city's history. Our guide, Carmen, detailed all of this and attributed it to the Mayor they've had for those 20 years ... a woman. Anyway, it's a lovely city to be constantly lost in, especially the old town area with its narrow, twisting streets and traffic circles of every shape and design ... sometimes even including round.

Margaret's and my tour was only a half day "panoramic" one which designation pretty much means just riding around with a very few stops. But we went all around the city viewing fortifications, beaches, parks, statues and historic buildings.

Then the tour went to the nearby town of Jerez de la Frontera widely known as the sherry capital of the world. In fact, the town's Moorish name, Sheris, gave the drink its name. Again we drove around this town which still shows some Moorish influence. Then we stopped at one of the wineries that makes several well-known brands of sherry including Harvey's Bristol Creme. We toured the place and learned how sherry is produced.

Then there was a tasting session in a wonderful courtyard (now enclosed with a glass roof) that was originally a part of a convent built on that site in the 12th or 13th century . One wall was covered in various colors of bougainvillea that are constantly in bloom.

Others tasted liquids from a variety of bottles. (You can ask Margaret about the raisin wine.) There was a store where other unopened bottles could be purchased. I passed on both activities and went outside to enjoy the winery's lovely gardens.

After lunch on the ship, Margaret went walkabout in town, exploring some of the little streets and squares (which were often not at all square) of the old town that we had seen in the morning. An example is this two-toned cathedral which we only had a glimpse of in the morning, but which Margaret got this photo of in the afternoon. It's two-toned because the original builders ran out of money and could no longer afford the darker stone. They had to switch to limestone which is softer and presents problems for today's restoration efforts.

It was, overall, a very pleasant tour of a very pleasant place on a beautiful day. Of the places I've seen in Spain (admittedly only a few and those around the edges), I think Cadiz would be the one I would enjoy visiting for more than just a day.

April 20

At sea en route to the Azores. We are out in the Atlantic and feeling some of the swells of a big ocean. We're also headed into some less than wonderful weather. For today it was only partly cloudy, but the swells were getting up pretty good by dinnertime.

April 21

Still at sea with mostly sunny skies, a brisk wind and significant swells coming at us from the low pressure depression ahead of us. So we have one last itinerary change ... or at least I hope it's the last.

Our last stop before striking out across the Atlantic was supposed to be Horta, Portugal in the Azores. The approaching bad weather makes getting passengers ashore safely from anchorage using tenders at Horta nigh impossible. So. We are still headed for Porte Delgada, Portugal in the Azores which we should reach tomorrow morning a few hours after the weather reaches us. There we will dock and remain for a whole extra day before setting off again. Thus we hope to wait out the worst of the weather at dock. I think we must now be dealing with Plan L or M ... at any rate well beyond dealing with Plan B.