Day 34 - Thursday, 12/12/24 - Cádiz, Spain
Overnight the ship made its way slowly from Tangier to Cadiz, Spain. Around 3:30am I heard the noise of the thrusters and deck machinery, which indicated that we were arriving. Because we were the only ship in port, we got the prime docking position, which is parallel to one of the main streets and right across from the old town of Cádiz. We did our normal morning breakfast routine up in the Lido and then gathered up our things. I had noticed that it didn't appear that our Carnival stock credit had yet been credited to our account so I went to the front desk with the evidence of my submission and they took copies of that and contacted Seattle. I should hear it in a few days that we would have $250 credited to our account.
We then scanned off the ship with our passports in hand and found the bus for group Orange 13, which is our bus for the day. There was some confusion passing out tickets for the Kings Palace (Alcazar) . In fact, we had no tickets. And we were the only two people without them. Our driver took copies of our passports and solved the issue by obtaining online tickets. We then began the our 40 minute drive north to Seville. There were about 24 people on board the bus and it was considered a small group tour. Our driver was Sylvio and our guide was Sergio.
About an hour into the trip we stopped at a gas station mini market for a bio break. I purchased some snacks for our room stewards as a gifts and also a lightning cable to be able to charge my phone on the bus from the USB power that was provided. I should add that no eating or drinking except for water was permitted on the bus. It's a fairly new bus and very comfortable with working air conditioning and a good sound system.
Upon our arrival in Seville, we quickly made our way to the King's Palace (Alcazar). We were let off the bus and then wound our way through the streets in alleyways to the entrance of the palace where we had to show our passport and ticket to get in. Of course, because we didn't have tickets so we had to be handled specially with Sergio showing our online ticket on his phone and us holding our passports. That worked. We also had to have our items scanned to enter. Alcazar was a gift from an Arabian sultan to a Spanish king and King Philip V was one of the later inhabitants. Much of it was built in the style of Arabic or Islamic architecture and design. However, the king did not agree with the absence of people and animal figures, and so according to his wishes, those were added in the design and construction. It's quite elaborate with lots of frescoes and paintings and exquisite tile work for the time. It was extremely lavish, but it is lacking any furniture.
Leaving the Alcazar, we walked a short distance over to the cathedral, which was quite large. Once again we had to scan our bags to get into the cathedral, and there were a number of people there. The altar is reputedly the largest in the world And it is composed of many elaborate wooden carvings that have been covered in gold leaf or foil. What was striking to me was that the whole altar area was surrounded by bars and cages which visually presents a visual anc physical barrier of the worshipers who are supposed to be worshiping God and this barrier is between them and the altar. There was, however, an opening in the gate to be able to get clear photos of the altar area. The church also had a very large pipe organ that had been more recently been replaced with a modern one after the original was damaged due to a partial building failure. The church also contains a burial crypt of Christopher Columbus. Columbus's remains were repatriated from the Dominican republic and in recent years were DNA tested, and they have proved that they are in fact Columbus's remains. That's the good news. The bad news is it only represents approximately 20% of his remains. The location of the other 80% is unknown. Also, Columbus did not want to be buried in Spanish soil and so his remains are in a coffin being held on the shoulders of four fellows who are his coffin mirrors. So he is technically not buried in Spanish soil.
Except for the area surrounding the altar, the rest of the cathedral was fairly plain with a possible exception of a number of stain glass windows higher up and were quite pretty, and I took a number of pictures of them. From the cathedral we walked a short distance to a little square and there, and Angela & I shared a churro and chocolate at the Itamad Bar & Cafeteria before we walked to the bus. We were driven a short distance further to our restaurant stop at the quimera restaurant. It was located on the second floor and they were well prepared for about four bus loads of people. Lunch was a very nice green salad with the main course of chicken and potatoes and very nice wine accompanied the lunch. The wine was so good. I ended up buying a bottle which was only €15. I'd also ordered a small bottle of water with gas and the proprietor comped the water since I thought the wine
Back on the bus, Sergio said that we were going to make a stop and go see something that absolutely said we have to see it was so spectacular. We pulled up in front of a building with a fairly large door and steps. We got out of the bus walked across the street up the steps and into this lavish courtyard with a large moat and exquisite buildings & towers. Here scenes from Lawrence of Arabia and Star Wars II were filmed here. The entire complex was built in 1929 as part of an exposition and this was the Spanish contribution to that exposition to exhibit the wealth and culture of Spain. While we only had 10 minutes here, it was a very worthy stop. Back on the bus we then began our trip back to Cádiz, which is estimated to take about 70 minutes.
Regarding the weather, it was quite wet in Cádiz when we left this morning, and Sergio indicated that he had a good track record of having dry skies in Seville. It turned out it was sprinkling much of the time we were there, but for the drive back, it was bright sunlight, and the roads were dry.
Back in Cádiz, we did a short driving tour of the city before being dropped off at the port. There was the most stringent security there. We had to go through metal detectors and remove watches belts and all metal objects. The port also has a very small gift shop. We scanned back on the ship and no one questioned my wine bottle so we carried it to the state room and put it away Along with our other belongings. We then went up to the Crow's Nest where we had our typical Coke Zero and peanuts and watched the departure.
After a quick Lido dinner, we went to the evening show which was the singers and dancers doing a show they called Rock Britannica, who was all about British rock music of the 50's, 60's, & 70s. It was very good and probably the best of their shows so far.
We gained an hour this night and we watched our current episode of the Curse of Oak Island streaming on the History Channel before retiring for the night.
It's sort of hard to believe that this was our last port stop on this voyage. Starting tomorrow we have 8 sea days to reach Fort Lauderdale.
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