The First Days in Port - Cadiz to Cartagena

One of the things that attracted us to this itinerary is that with the exception of Barcelona and Monte Carlo, all of the ports were new to us. The one down side was only one sea day, and we enjoy sea days! After enjoying our one and only sea day on Thursday (yes, the first day of the cruise), we arrived in Cadiz, Spain on Friday morning. Cadiz is in south-west Spain on the Atlantic coast, and we had arrived so early that we spent most of Thursday evening, and all night, sailing in circles, which confused the heck out of some people, probably on their first cruise!

Our tour in Cadiz was the Chef's Tour of Cadiz Market and a Tapas Lunch. This ship has a Culinary Arts Center (conveniently located on the opposite side of our deck) where they offer cooking demos and hands-on courses. They also have Culinary Tours, and this was one of those, lead by the Center's Chef Instructor, David. After a brief orientation in the Center, and a short bus ride, we arrived at Cadiz Market. There has been a market on this spot almost since Cadiz was first settled by the Carthaginians, and its current incarnation has not changed much in the last 50 years. While there are stalls selling meat and produce, the emphasis is on fish, a staple of the Spanish diet. Located a short distance from the fishing piers, most of the fish on offer was in all likelihood swimming in the ocean 24 hours ago! We will let the pictures do the talking......

After 90 minutes at the market, we made our way to one of Cadiz' best restaurants for a Tapas lunch. A Tapas lunch consists of a number of courses of small bites, served with wine or beer. Lunch started with a local version of warm potato salad served with tuna chunks, and a crisp shrimp cake, almost like a potato pancake, made with tiny shrimp quick-fried in a chickpea flour batter. This was followed by shrimp croquettes, beef and pork meatballs, pumpkin soup and a braised beef dish in a tomato sauce that melted in your mouth! THEN we had dessert! Lunch finished just before 2:00, and as I said to David on the way back to the ship, the only problem with lunch was our 6:30 dinner reservation in the steakhouse!

On the way to the restaurant we noticed that many
people had hung flower pots on the walls and
filled them with geraniums. They looked gorgeous!

The Shrimp Pancake

A vegetable ratatouille with a quail egg on top

A trio of sweets for dessert

After whiling away the afternoon, and before dinner cocktails, we made our way to the Polo Grill steakhouse for dinner. We had requested a shared table and were seated with six lovely people, including a couple celebrating their 54th wedding anniversary that day! Dinner was great, as was the conversation, but the highlight of our evening belongs in the "Small World" file! There were two older ladies travelling together and in conversation it came out that one of them wintered in Florida, in Boca Raton, and in the same building Monica's parents had wintered for ten years. She did remember them, and in fact, when she heard the name Margret, she said that the two of them swam in the pool together almost every morning whenever they were there! Small world indeed!

We sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar about 1:00 AM Saturday morning, and while we did see the lights of Morocco from our balcony before we went to bed, with another early tour next morning, we didn't stay up to watch. Our next port of call was Malaga, on the southern Mediterranean coast, and our second "foodie tour" was a visit to the Atarazanas Market. Like Cadiz, there has been a market in this location for decades, but unlike Cadiz, this market sells meat, fish and produce in about equal measure. Before entering the market, Chef David assigned purchases to some of the group for the ingredients of the Tapas lunch we would make in the Culinary Center after the tour. The fish market was not quite as impressive, but the variety of meats and produce, as well as dried and pickled product was impressive. We actually did buy a small package of saffron for ten Euros that will probably last for years!! Again, the pictures tell the story........ 

The big glass mural over the entrance shows the fishing
history of Malaga

And the Tapas lunch in the Culinary Center was great too..........

Dinner that night was at Red Ginger, the Asian restaurant. We had again requested a shared table and were seated at a table for five. The other two didn't show up, but we had a very pleasant dinner with a fellow celebrating his retirement. He lives in Toronto, in Leslieville, and while he doesn't know Bruce he knows Bruce's street, and maybe even his house! Again, a small world!! 

Sunday morning found us in Cartagena, and after all the food of the previous two days, we opted for a walking tour of the town. We had been docked in commercial ports prior to this and were quite pleased to open our drapes to a beautiful marina for small boats and a very nice cruise terminal. The apparently get something like 100 ship visits a year, much to Larry's surprise! As the name might imply, Cartagena was originally settled by the Carthiginians back in the second century BC, and was subsequently resettled by the Romans, Phoenicians, Gauls and a cast of what seems like hundreds over the years, mostly  because of its natural harbour, surrounded by hills. Five of them to be exact, each one with its own fort on top, including the one we could see from our balcony, and that we visited on our tour. A brief walk and elevator ride took us up about 300 feet to the castle on the top of the hill and an overlook of the town. The Romans extensively rebuilt the town in their time so there are many ruins, including an amphitheatre that also once served a bullfight ring, Roman Baths and numerous other ruins. And then, or course, the obligatory picture of the ship.

The metal structure at left is the elevator. The original Roman
amphitheatre is the bottom brown bricks; the top 2 tiers
were added when the arena was used for bullfighting.

This is the Roman theatre which is still used for
concerts and other events

The ship photo

After a brief tour of the castle, we returned to ground level and continued our tour. Much like Rome itself, every new construction project seems to turn into an archaeological dig first and there a number of well preserved sites throughout the town centre. One we visited is the Casa Fortuna, a quite well preserved merchant's house and "store" which they think was a bakery. Much of the tile and mosaic work has been preserved, along with a section of the road in front of the house! Later we walked past the ruins of the ancient baths as well as what they think may have been something similar to The Forum in Rome, all of this located within the commercial part of the town. The tour ended with frozen yogurt in the town square and a short stroll back to the ship where we had a lazy afternoon.

Inside one of the churches - sorry, can't
remember which one; there are so many!
After all, about 95% of people in Spain
are Catholic.

Nice facades of the apartments above the shops on the
main streets. The story of the peacock feathers on the left side is
that one of our group members, who always seemed to ask a question
just after the guide answered it, picked these up at the
castle and carried them all over with him, hoping that he
would be able to bring them on board. We don't know if
they actually let him.

Dinner Sunday evening was at Chez Jacques, named for Jacques Pepin, who is the Culinary Master for Oceania. No surprises at dinner, just a pleasant dinner shared with a couple from Los Angeles that we had met briefly on our first tour, so I guess that was a BIT of a coincidence. Trying to make it an early night, with our fist all day tour the next day, we sat on our balcony and watched the full moon rise over the Med!