Debbie and I in Cadiz, Spain

Hi there everyone~
I am back on board-had a day or two with on and off internet, so have not been able to jump on here to write about Cadiz...but checking now, it seems to be on, so I thought I better jump in!

Debbie and I were the only ones on duty in this port, so ended up spending a great deal of time together, which was fun! In many of the other ports, I was off on trips and did not have the chance to see her as much in ports, so it was nice to have leisurely days where we were on and off the ship together alot...

All is well in Cadiz, Spain...today is Sunday at 1453 and the sun is shining and the rains have left us...for the past 3 days, it has been mostly on again rain which makes getting around a little more challenging, especially when using one's legs for your main transportation...the ship cleared quickly in this port and folks were off as early as 9am. I found a free ticket for the city orientation at 1330, so a couple of us decided to go and have cappucino's at a local cafe first thing in the morning. This particular city tour was actually more a walking tour of the city-the funniest part was we got on the buses to only go across the street to the main square by 1335 and did not get back on the bus until 1635 and the tour ended at 1700! And because it was a small quaint town, there really was not much to see other than many more churches and one cathedral and lots of city walls and plazas...so here are some shots of them all~no names and places this time, just enjoy the pictures.

That night, Deb, Dwight and I decided to give Mags (the bartender up in the faculty, staff lounge) a chance to show us his wonderful sangria-no other restaurant so far has matched it yet, even here in Spain!

The next day, Debbie and I decided to take the train to Sevilla for the day-it left at 1105 and we were off to what I thought was only an hour train ride, but by the time we stopped in every city in between, 2 hours and 15 minutes later we were in Sevilla. We took the local bus to downtown where we WOULD see the largest cathedral in the world, according to the guiness world record!~more so the square footage-it seemed like conqueror after conqueror just added their fair share of more catedral, which originally was a mosque until the Spanish inquisition..actually has the supposed remains of Christopher Columbus buried there along with the largest pearl in a crown in the world(the body of the little angel)~pretty spectacular! We stopped before this and had a salad-was looking forward to what they called a warm spinach salad, which turned out to be a iceburg with slivers of spinach on top...I have been actually craving salads for some time now and looking forward to a big spinach salad when I get home! These days we are lucky to get even iceburg on the ship-tomatoes and cucumbers have been about the only fresh vegetables that I have had for 3-4 ports now-yikes! From there we actually ran into JB and Theresa and went with them to Alcazar, a fort built in 913 that was also added on over the centuries but today is more like a beautiful palace full of grounds including a maze which we almost got lost in! From there we went and had a snack and then left for the train station to head back on the 2000 train...we got back after 11pm and headed straight for bed!

Got up yesterday to rain and sleet on the streets, but still walked to a Picasso exhibit that was in town for a week~although it turned out to be a handful of charcoal drawings of his at a nice location near the fort on the water in the city. We then walked through town and I had to head back to the ship as the battery ran out on the emergency cell phone. Along the way, I just love the courtyards and doorways in this town...and many others-definitely going to see a myriad of pics of windows and doors that I fell in love with on this trip!
This gave me an excuse to be in my cabin, so I decided it was time to start packing...I pulled everything from out under the bed and before you know it, 2 suitcases were almost full without even beginning to put my clothes and toiletries in~gotta call mom in the morning and let her know that an extra suitcase WILL be needed...even though Steve already took one home for me!!!! I decided to stay home last night, even though some of the staff were going out to dinner to get tapas...the problem here is restaurants do not even open until 2030 and that is just too late for me to eat! It is amazing what one can accumulate in 100 days and I spent the remainder of the evening finishing packing the non-essentials! I had somewhat of a sleepless night last night so slept in until 845 this morning just in time for breakfast.

But today the sun is shining and surely a day to get outside into the small quaint city. We got up to see the crew getting their last bits of paint on the ship before the 10 day sail back home and the 4 of us got an early start and went walking along the Atlantic ocean side of the city. We are hoping that the seas home will be as calm as they have been on this unusually calm seas! Everyone else in the city was also out for a stroll, as it is Sunday here and none of the shops are open today...we stopped across the street from the ocean to have yet another cappucino, which definitely is a favorite pastime both here and in Turkey and Croatia...which I am getting a bit too fond of...just hanging around the watchin the world go by is pretty relaxing!

Theresa and I decided to see if we could find some shops open and wandered a bit in the city to no avail-we decided to head back to the ship! I have spent the afternoon finishing postcards and beginning to write my good-bye notes to folks I have grown close to...I know how quickly these last 10 days will go, especially in my role as the Assistant Dean. With bags packed, notes and reports completed, it will be a lot less stressful and alot easier to be present with those folks for the last time, until we end up meeting up again! As I mentioned several times before, many of these folks will become life long friends and again I feel blessed to think that I continue to make best of friends this late in life!!!

Well, off I go for now-I will try and load some photos so you can get a sense for Cadiz and will write more as we cross the Atlantic starting tomorrow night at 2300! (more pics later-the system is acting up again!)

Stay tuned~10 more days and counting!

Much love from the other side of the Atlantic!

love, ro