As you can see that I skipped yesterday’s entry. It turned out to be a very busy day from the get-go. Mary got up about 630. I got up about 715. The goal was to get up, eat breakfast and get off the ship by 830. We went upstairs for breakfast. I had toast and a muffin. I also had some juice. Mary had eggs and bacon. We wanted to get some food in our system because we knew it was going to be a long day. We were done with breakfast on time but it took us about 15 minutes get off the ship. We went to where we thought we could disembark but we needed to go to a different floor midship. Once off the ship we had to walk about a quarter of a mile or more to the actual port entrance. It was a beautiful morning. It had to be near 80° and sunny. You could tell though it was going to be hot. Just outside the Port Authority building was our driver holding a card with our name on it. His name was Manuel. He spoke very little English beyond Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan. He was very personable. Over the course of the three hours we rode with him – 90 minutes there in 90 minutes back Mary was able to get a lot of information out of them. She has an app on her phone which translates English to Spanish. S one example, with this she was able to determine that he runs marathons – seven of them in the last seven years. He averages about four hours per marathon. Mary is able to get information out of anyone in almost every situation. He loaded me up in his van. It was the type of van where I am loaded up in the back. I was not able to see out of the windows very well but I didn’t need to see much. I was able to see the Spanish countryside which is filled with fields of things like cotton and grape vines. We went for quite a while before we ran into the city called Seville. Actually in Spanish at Sevilla. The driver got turned around somewhere and he was trying to find our tour guide so we saw several parts of the city that we would not normally seen. There seem to be several parks and public areas. There were a lot of people on the streets that appeared to be tourists. Many horse-drawn carriages held up traffic. The traffic also had lots of those roundabouts. On the way into town traffic was pretty quiet. In order to get into the historic parts of the city we had to go down to one lane streets that didn’t look passable until we were through them. All along the sides were cars and motorbikes parked one on top of the other. What was left of the lane, not much of, he slowly wedged his way down the street until we got to what I guess you would call the center. There, standing on the corner, was a lady who turned out to be our tour guide. I guess we met her about 1130. We piled out of the van. We made arrangements with the driver to have him come pick us up at 230. I’m not sure where he went for the next three hours.
Rachel, our tour guide, must of been in her late 30s or early 40s. We did learn that she has two kids – nine and 13 and that she’s married. She lived right in the area we were touring. To say she was talkative is an understatement. Without exaggeration – and this is not a negative thing – she talked nonstop. Initially, she offered to carry our bags. Mary and I both carrier bookbags that have the essentials for the day in them. We didn’t expect her to carry oir bags all day. I carried mine on my lap and Mary carried her is on her back. She asked us what we wanted to get accomplished. Did we want to see the monuments? Did we want to shop? What would we want to do during the day. Mary and I really didn’t have any preconceived ideas so we said let’s see the monuments. Neither of us were big on shopping. In this area of the city where we were they have several historic monuments all in one area. We were dropped off outside of the Real Alaczar, which is one of the palaces for the Spanish royal family. Apparently they still use it occasionally. The lines to get in there were long so we decided to walk down the street probably a half mile or more to the Cathedral of Seville. This was a huge building built mostly in the 11th century if I remember correctly. We’ve done cathedrals before and this is by far the largest one. If I heard our tour guide correctly Notre Dame Cathedral would fit inside of this one. The ceilings had to be 300 feet or higher. There were countless smaller stained-glass windows. I guess they had to be smaller because of the way the roof was designed to carry the weight there was not enough room for windows. All along the base were I guess call them rooms owned by prominent Spanish families in history. Very famous people of Spanish history are entombed in these rooms. As I understand it, these rich families donated money which help build the church. With their donations they were able to carve out a space in the base for their family burial or tomb areas. Rachel pointed out several of the more popular ones. Probably the most popular one was Christopher Columbus. She went into the long history of it that basically only part of Christopher Columbus is actually in his tomb. It had to do was something about how he died and it took several years to get what was left of his remains to Seville. His son is buried in the floor of the Cathedral. This is little roped off area that is his burial area. After our guide pointed this out I realize that there were several of these little square areas but they weren’t open off. As it turns out, there are all kinds of these burial areas throughout the floor the just walk on. Obviously there was a ton of history on this building. We were in there for about 90 minutes and I would say that Rachel had a story about almost everything we looked at. The building was so huge you could probably spend an entire day and only see half of it. There was a ton of history and several little side rooms that contained even more history. For example, we saw these huge tapestries. There was one of the map that had to be 50’ x 50’. It was a map but it wasn’t understandable until you were told that it was upside down. Then all of a sudden it makes sense. Throughout the entire day Rachel would point out things that you would never thought of if she hadn’t brought it up. In many rooms she would stop and say look at the ceiling. And the ceilings were amazing. The artwork that they contained was probably missed by 95% of the people that walk through the room. Despite it being a ancient, dark and not necessarily clean building it was something to see. The architecture of the building shows the technology of the time. All of the history that is buried at building literally is a whole other story.
From there we walked the quarter of a mile or whatever back up to the Royal Palace. The lines were still long but Rachel had prearranged a priority entrance for us. We stood in line for about 15 minutes before she came back and said that she had it all figured out we went straight to the head of the line. Some of those people will probably in line for an hour or more. By now it was in the 90’s and sunny, but not too humid. We scooted right to the front. Much like the Cathedral, the Royal Palace was filled with architecture and history. We went to one area which was the main Palace which is actually three different palaces connected together. I don’t remember the exact dates but it was like the first one was built in 1000, the second one in 1300 and the one in 1500. The first and third were very Gothic architecture. The second one was very Arabian influenced. I’m not sure Arabian is the right term. It was influenced by the Muslims which might be more North African. Either way, it was very interesting to see the very different architectures all in one building. The various kings who built these separate palaces were influenced by the people of their time. We made short journeys into each of these palaces. Again, we were filled with the history. More importantly, again, were the details. There had to be without exaggeration 1 million ceramic tiles on the walls. Each one was hand done in the 14th century. Rachel went into some of the mechanics of what it took to create ceramic tiles back then. All of a sudden you had a new perspective and respect for these tiles. The surprising part is there over 700 years old and for the most part they look pretty new. Again the ceilings of the rooms were important. One of the last rooms we stopped in contained the Spanish Royal family crowns. Obviously, they were grand. Before leaving the complex we wandered through several garden areas. If it wasn’t for the thousands of tourists wandering around these would be very peaceful areas. A lot of water and trees and open skies. I can envision being a royal person wandering through these gardens.
We were running a bit short on time by now. It was nearly 1 o’clock. We were supposed to be picked up at 230. Rachel, our tour guide, and prearranged a place for us to go to lunch. It was a good 20 minute walk from where we were. Most of the streets were pretty good but there were some cobbled ones that made the going tough. Even Rachel pushed for a while. My smart drive helped in certain areas. With all these avenues we did make it up to the restaurant. Along the way Mary stopped at a currency exchange and exchanged American dollars for euros. I think the exchange rate was $1.16 per euro. I don’t remember the name of the restaurant now but Mary got a picture. In my mind it was a true Spanish restaurant. From the entrance there was a long while way back to the room there were about six or seven tables. There were families on three of these tables. Keep in mind this was Tuesday afternoon. The looked a little odd that there were families having lunch at 2 o’clock in the afternoon on a Tuesday but that might be a Spanish thing. Rachel talked with the waiter to make sure that he understood that we needed to be in and out in an hour. We were given menus which were in Spanish for the most part. Under the Spanish explanation were cryptic English versions which helped us understand what they were but didn’t really tell us completely. So we kind of guessed. Mary had some kind of him which turned out to be what I would call pork shank. It was very good because I had a piece. I had some type of fish toast. I’m pretty sure was tuna, but either way was very good. It could be my place because it had a two page wine list and the most expensive wine on there was 3 ½ euros or about four dollars.. I had some type of white wine that was very good. Of course I don’t remember the name of it now but it was good. While we were having lunch, Rachel went to the grocery store for Mary to try to find her some of her sweetener. She was successful. She returned in about 30 minutes and by then we were nearly done. We paid our bill after figuring out how much to tip and the total came to €35. That’s probably an average amount of money for lunch for us. We walked out of that building and went two doors down to a another shop that was selling various souvenir kind of things. Rachel was suggesting that we buy hand fans which were nice. But neither Mary nor I were thrilled with that. We ended up buying tiny little plates for our mothers. We did buy a little plate for our souls and Mary did buy a fan for herself. That was our souvenir shopping that took about a half hour or so now we were really up against the time. We quickly walked – or as quickly as we could go – up a few blocks to where the driver was waiting for us.
Could not have asked for a better tour guide. Rachel was amazing. It boggles the mind about how much history she knew. She literally knew the history of just about everything. She made the tour very enjoyable. She asked us what we wanted and she accomplished it well. We gave her a tip. We exchange goodbye hugs and she was off. We did get a picture with her before Manuel loaded me up into the van. The trip back in the van was pretty quiet. Mary and I were tired. She napped for most of the trip. The traffic was a little bit heavier but nothing to be concerned about. We pulled back into Cadiz a little after 4 o’clock. I was very mildly concerned that I’ve misjudged the time. Part of me wondered if the ship left at 430 instead of 530. I was thankful to see the ship sitting there as we pulled up to the port. Mary got several pictures of a bridge the driver called the Little Golden gate Bridge. I don’t know it’s exact length but it had to be a couple of miles of suspension bridge. It looks very modern so it hasn’t been there very long. It is probably the highlight of Cadiz. We didn’t spend any time in the city itself. By time we got back to the port the ship was leaving within the hour. Manuel pulled up to the spot where he picked us up. He pulled me out of the van. He helped us to the door. Mary gave him a tip. We got his card. We set our goodbyes and he was on his way. We had to go through security at the port building. From there we walked back to the ship. I guess it was about 5 o’clock by time we got back to the ship. It was an amazing excursion. I don’t remember exactly what I paid for it but it was worth every nickel. The history and the architecture and just the experience of a whole different city and country was worth it. Manuel and Rachel made it successful. If our future excursions are even half as good will be successful.
Back on the ship, in the room, I cashed in my certificate for five bottles of beer. Before the crew to say took advantage of this special. About 15 minutes later I had five cold bottles of Heineken. I opened one and drank it all almost immediately. Mary lined up the second one. It took longer to drink this one. We went out onto our balcony and sat there while the ship pulled away. We were out there maybe an hour. We set out there until the ship was gone for about a half hour. While we were still docked a larger crucial point by us. We were amazed at its size. Out on the balcony it was beautiful. The sun was high but the wind off the water kept it nice and cool. The beer helped too. After about an hour we decided to get cleaned up and go to dinner.
We headed down to the dining room. I ordered that special Cabernet that was offered at the wine tasting for 50%. Pine Ridge Estates I think it’s called. For an appetizer I had seafood antipasta. From an entrée I had a shrimp and scallop dish that was very good too. Mary had Caesar salad and pot roast. We both had tiramisu for dessert. It was a nice dinner. We were seated in the same area as we have been seated every night. We ended up talking to the same couple we talked to the previous night – Bob and Barbara I think they’re named. After dinner we walked up to the casino. There was a guy sitting there waiting to play poker so we joined him. We ended up playing for the next 2 ½ hours or so. I think I made about $35. Mary lost some. It was good to play. There are a couple of players that were obviously new to it. There was one guy who said he was new to it but he played pretty well so I’m not so sure all knew he was. Anyway that was pretty much it. By this time we were pretty tired. What manner way upstairs and went to bed. It had been a long and successful day. Day four complete. 24 more to go.