Viva Espana!

Viva Espana !

We arrived in Spain at 7.30 am on Wednesday - all the students were out on deck so excited having had 12 days at sea (never seen so many students at breakfast so early in the morning!) Cadiz is a wonderful city to visit & rated the oldest city in Europe. (See 2 pictures)

It's a maze of winding narrow cobbled streets, lovely restaurants & shops. Christopher Columbus set sail several times from Cádiz en route to the Americas. We did a city orientation tour in the afternoon - visited the Cadiz Congress Palace built in 1741.

Walked through some botantical gardens - bright red and pink cyclamens growing everywhere (I always thought they were an indoor plant!) Found a great restaurant in the evening although it's quite hard to find a restaurant serving dinner before 9.30 pm. The following morning we drove up to Seville(2-hour drive). Gus & I both agreed we could have spent a month in Seville - it's the most beautiful city with all the streets lined with orange trees laden with fruit. We had a tour of what is supposed to be the largest Cathedral in the world & saw the tomb of Christopher Columbus (apparently the contents of this tomb were questionable until a few years ago when DNA confirmed that the body/bones were those of Christopher Columbus). We then visited "Alcazar" which is a Palace (built as a fort in 913) where ancient Christian & Muslim Kings lived over the centuries. It is very interesting with beautiful Islamic intricate architecture. We then went onto Cardoba where we spent the night. The cathedrals in both Seville & Cordoba are
quite amazing with a blend of Islamic & Christian styles, both having been built on mosques. Whereas in Seville most of the original mosque was demolished, the cathedral in Cordoba is unique as it was constructed in the C17th in the center of the original, enormous mosque which was built in the C10th. At that time Cordoba was the largest city in Europe (didn't know that!)& the mosque (Mezquita de Cordoba) was/is enormous accommodating 30 000 worshippers at a time. Muslims are now welcome to visit the cathedral but are not allowed to use it for prayer. The Mezquita de Cordoba is most notable for its giant arches & its forest of over 856 (of an original 1,293) columns of jasper, onyx, marble, and granite. (See picture) These were taken from the Roman temple which had previously occupied the site & other destroyed Roman
buildings. We were shown a magnificent mihrab which is positioned to indicate the exact direction towards Mecca, and this is where the imam leads the believers into prayer in front of it, his voice gets amplified from its round shape. The whole cathedral (See picture) was overwhelming when one first walks into the place. It's so incredible to see both Islam and Christianity contributions all under one roof.
After Spain we sailed toward Gibraltar where we re-fueled. The Rock was so clear, although we didn't seen any Apes! Europe & Africa are separated by only 7.7 nautical miles of ocean at the strait's narrowest point. Went to yet another cocktail party last night - each day we seem to meet such interesting people especially some of the "Lifelong Learners". Met a really interesting man last night who has retired from the World Bank - he's traveled all over the world with the bank & continues to travel on educational cruises such as Semester at Sea.
We are now en route to Casablanca, Morocco