Tales of Spain: From Down Jackets to T-Shirts

Hello hello! I am currently on my first Norway cruise and freezing, so I thought I would recount some of the warmer moments from my last cruise when we stopped in Spain!

Be prepared for a ton of pictures.... enjoy! :D

Ibiza

25/2/2019

My castmate and official exploration buddy, George, and I disembarked to enjoy a coffee practically on the water of Ibiza. We only had an hour or so, but what. A. View.

Cadiz

27/2/2019

George and I explored Cadiz today. We got off the ship around 8:45 am and immediately found ourselves in the main part of Cadiz, complete with a statue, palm trees, and some government building.

Hello, Cadiz! You are my favorite and I want to move.

Cadiz was one of the original Spanish ports; it is basically a little peninsula off of the Spanish mainland, so you can walk the length of the main city section in about half an hour. It is a super accessible city and I instantly fell in love with it.

We were exploring the little streets and found a coffee shop. I got a chocolate flauta, and George got an espresso and a pistachio donut, all of which were outstanding. Next, we came across the original open-air Mercado, featuring beautifully arranged fruit stands, jamón Serrano by the leg, sampling plates of cheese and meat, gallon buckets of olives, and dried salami hanging from the ceiling. In the seafood aisle, there was a swordfish head whose sword was as tall as me. It was gross but intriguing.

We stumbled upon El Gran Teatro Falla, decorated for Carnavál, and the beautiful Parque Genovés, complete with a duck pond and a gigantic waterfall. At this point, we were on the coast opposite from where Cara was docked, so we began walking along the water.

We viewed the Castillo de Santa Catalina, which is a 16th century castle/military base that was meant to protect the Santa Catalina Cove. The coast was beautiful! We passed two ginormous magnolia trees and walked onto a path built on top of sea rock to see another original city castle/military base. It was closed, so no more info than that. But, once again, beautiful!

George has a thing about outlook points, so our next stop was the tallest watchtower in Cadiz, Torre Tavira! We climbed up to the observation deck and took in the 360-degree view of Cadiz.

It was gorgeous! I also learned that because Cadiz’s port was so vulnerable despite it's powerful location, watchtowers were built all over the place; there are still 133 original watchtowers standing!

The other cool thing about Torre Tavira was that it had a camara oscura, which I took an illegal picture of, featured below:

A group of German Cara tourists, some Spanish tourists, George, and I were crowded into a dark room with this bowl-shaped table. A woman fluent in German and Spanish turned out the lights and uncovered the camera, which is a mirror and lense situation that creates a periscopic view of the city. It reflected onto the bowl-table, and the images were incredibly clear! The guide was able to focus in on people walking in the plaza 5 blocks away. When she focused in on the water, you could see the reflective ripples perfectly. It was like watching a television screen!

Finally, we viewed the Cathedral, which was beautiful. It had a whispering gallery in the crypt, which seemed appropriate. We came back outside to a chanting circle of women and toddlers all dressed in red. No idea what it was about, but it seemed fun!

George and I wanted tapas for lunch, so tapas we had! Then, it was time for me to return to the ship because we had to set the choreo of Rhythm, the ballroom show, on the pooldeck before sailing for Lisbon that evening. All in all, it was a fabulous day in Cadiz and I absolutely want to return!

*** Full disclosure, we sailed to Portugal after Cadiz. I will post about Lisbon and Leixoes later! To complete my Spanish blog post, I am skipping to La Coruña in Northern Spain!

La Coruña

3/3/2019

Ah, La Coruña. A Spanish city that is so very, very different than all of the other cities I have been to in Spain. I could immediately see the Northern European influence on the architecture; it was more clear cut, decorated with glass, I noticed more blue tones as opposed to yellow and red.

It was Sunday, so everything was closed. There was a storm headed our way, so it was w i n d y! Heading into town, we walked into a deserted square with some beautiful buildings! There was a desperate need for coffee, so we sat down in this attractive café with great looking pastries:

Über satisfying.

We continued walking through the town, admiring the architecture and art!

Eventually, we made our way to the Paseo Maritímo, which is a pedestrian road that lines the coast. It is eight miles long and is decorated with orange lampposts, which I approve of.

From the Paseo, we made our way up to the Hercules Tower, atop a w i n d y mountain that looked out onto the bay. Views! This part of La Coruña seemed very "British," for lack of a better word. You know the countryside where the kids in the movie version of The Chronicles of Narnia are sent during the war? Where they find the wardrobe? It reminded me of that.

Next we visited the Domus Museum, which George will tell you I was PSYCHED FOR! It is a museum that exhibits genetics, evolution and humanity. The perfect Evy museum. The actual building was beautiful! However, the museum was very kid friendly, outdated, and basic, if I am being honest. A bit of a letdown. :( I would advise visitors to just admire from the outside.

The rest of our visit to La Coruña was a lovely tapas lunch, our walk back to the harbor where Cara was docked, a visit to a coffee shop for free wifi, and then staying in the dock overnight to avoid a hurricane!

And that was Spain, never to return! Well, at least not on this contract. I know I will be coming back in the future...hasta pronto, España!