Nearly back to Southampton

1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th August.

1^st…Today we did a tour of the City of Valencia and then went out to the San Jose Caves. The City itself is quite big and there are some lovely modern and attractive buildings, as well as some of the older ones. We stopped for photos at 3 impressive buildings, The Hemispheric Building, The Oceanographic Museum and another, the Opera Building. As we left there we came across the Umbracle (I think it was) where there were numerous porcelain ‘pods’ along the front of the structure.  Spain is famous for its porcelain and it is everywhere, on houses buildings and even the noise barriers on the highways.  We also visited the Central Market Square where all the fruit and vegie markets were in progress. The Porcelain decorations here were lovely. After a walk through the streets it was back to the bus for a ride about 40 minutes out of town to visit the San Jose Caves. Here we boarded smallish boats and travelled through these 15,000 year old caves, along the longest navigable underground river in all of Europe. There were some Stalactites and Stalagmites in these caves, but nothing like we have back in Oz. It was a nice trip though and it was lovely and cool in the caves. The days have been very warm to hot on this trip,so far…no rain, which is good.

2^nd… We were in Barcelona that day. Having been there before, we chose to go for a ride over the Port and part of the City in a Cable Car. Finding the right place to board the Cable Car was a challenge, but we finally made it. The ride was lovely and the scenery great. From up the top of the ride, Miramar Gardens, we could see all over the busy City below.  There were 4 Cruise ships in today so potentially around 12,000 extra tourists in the town, and it showed, particularly in the Las Rambles part of town. We enjoyed having another look at this lovely City.

3^rd…That day we were in Palma de Mallorca, Christopher Skase’s little hideaway. This place was bigger than we expected and it was full of Luxury Cruise craft in all the Marinas….plenty of money here.  We could see why Christopher chose here to hide away…it is lovely. Being a Sunday all the shops were shut in the main part of the City.  We drove through the City and out to a pearl and diamond factory, and what we liked best, a Bullring. Here we were able to go inside the bullring and walk all around on the ‘ring’, then climb up into the tiered seating which surrounds the ring. It certainly was high up there and the view of the centre ring, good. There are only a couple of bullfights a year these days as most places have banned bull fighting. They do hold concerts in the Bullring at times though, so it still gets used. We then moved on to the HUGE Cathedral which sits alongside the seaside area really. This structure is magnificent, and beside it was the Royal Almudaina Palace on one side and the Bishops residence the other, both these buildings were also grand. After a walk through the Palace gardens, we had some free time to shop at the few shops open in this part of town.

4^th…...We were in Ibiza (pronounced Eyebeetha) that day. Another lovely seaside town that was bigger than we expected. There are lots of Hotel’s and holiday units here as I suspect that they get a lot of UK visitors on holidays over there. Quite a few Marinas line the Harbour side and the boats are even bigger than in Mallorca. One Cruiser was so big that the deckhands had to have safety harnesses on to clean the top and sides of the boat. This boat apparently belonged to a Russian Millionaire (and we know there are 79 of them in Moscow alone) After a walk along the harbour foreshore, we embarked on the task of climbing/walking up to the top of the Old Town to the Cathedral of Santa Maria. It was a long steep climb and the heat of the day didn’t help at all either. The views from the top of this area, “Dalt Vila”, were really nice though, so the climb was worth the effort. We were sure tired after that day though.  A very nice place, Ibiza.

5^th… A day at Sea today. After a bit of a sleep in, we spent a bit of the day sorting through our many photos, getting started for doing our photo books for when we get back home. We did go to the Ice Skating Show again in the afternoon.  This show was different to the other one we saw, but they were both fantastic.  The costumes and the dances they have to learn, amazing. I could sit and watch all that all day, they are so talented.

6^th…We are in Port in Cadiz today. This town is a pretty place with lots of unusual buildings and some lovely monuments. We walked around the perimeter of the town visiting the parks and seeing the well known beach, ‘ Caleta Beach’, where everyone seems to want to go when in Port. There was a bit of a ‘sea mist’ in so visibility wasn’t the best for awhile there, but the beach looked very nice.  There were a few people already in the water, so it must have been okay in.  As we walked we came across various lovely buildings and of course, the usual Cathedral. But, this Cathedral was probably the biggest we have ever seen!  It was enormous and appeared to be made of marble. We did go inside and have a look and it was very nice, but not as ornate as we expected to be honest. We have come to expect lots of Statues and Stained glass windows, but this Cathedral had none, or very little  of those. It did have an unusual Pipe Organ though. We then walked through lots of long narrow streets full of shops and cafes before finding our way back to the Ship, after 4 hours walking, for a welcome rest.

We have 2 Sea days coming up before we get back to Southampton, when the Cruise will be over. At least one of those days will be spent packing of course. We have really enjoyed seeing the Ports we have been to on this Spanish Med Cruise. They have all been a bit different in their own way, but interesting. We are glad that we did Spain and Portugal by Sea instead of the planned bus trip, as this was much more relaxing, especially after the busy schedule we have had for the past 2 months.

At publishing we are on our last sea day. Will get off the ship at 09:15 tomorrow, pick up the car and start the UK part of our trip.