Sunday May 8th - Happy Mother's Day!

Hot and sunny! Ship docked in Cadiz early this morning - we had been here on a previous cruise, but Bernie had only seen half of the town, as he wasn't feeling well. This time we spent hours exploring all the interesting little areas of the town. The town had been a walled fortress at one time, and we were able to follow the wall all along the waterfront - lots of people fishing from the walls, and people swimming at the beautiful beaches.

The parks are gorgeous, with patterned cobblestone walkways and tiled benches and fountains.

While wandering through narrow laneways, we came across a group of young girls leaving a church after celebrating their first communion - we saw unbelievably lavish white dresses and lacy veils - they looked like little brides, and the proud families gathered around the excited girls. The crowds and activity didn't allow for a good picture.
Another group we came across was a dog fair of some sort - one park was taken over completely by people and their dogs - all shapes and sizes - all very quiet and well behaved, and the walkways were absolutely spotless. Various booths offered dog related foods and services and I have never seen so many dogs in one place. A few blocks further on we saw a woman walking her pet pig on a leash - they weren't heading for the park, which was probably a good thing! We took one last look at one of the many picturesque squares....

.... and by mid afternoon we were ready for a lunch and some lounging time so returned to the ship - the sun was pretty hot so we retired to our balcony in the shade and relaxed until dinner time.


With the time changes, sunset was at 9:15, and we hoped to catch a glimpse of the Rock of Gilbraltar as we sailed through the straits just after 10 pm - and here is what we saw!

On the up side, the chefs put together a late night chocolate buffet that spread out over three levels of the central atrium - way too many chocolate cakes, squares, a chocolate fountain with skewered fruit, chocolate ice cream - we did our best but only managed two levels before we had enough and headed for bed - tomorrow is another port!