Cadiz, Spain

 During the night, we sailed by the Rock of Gibraltar again at around 1:30 am.  Michael happened to be up to visit the bathroom and saw it.  Just to be sure, he turned on the TV with the map to confirm our location.  Unfortunately, they don't light it up all night anymore - they turn off the lights at midnight to save energy.  So, except for the two lights at the very top, it was just a big black spot in the middle of the town below.  Not exactly riveting - can I go back to sleep now?

Cadiz, which as best I can figure, can be pronounced as ca-DEEZ, CA-deez, or even ca-DITHE, depending on who is speaking, is best known as a port for Spain.  Columbus sailed from here on his second and fourth voyages and it became a major port at that time and has remained so, although not quite as much as before if I understood our guide.  She wasn't the best we've had.  We did a little drive around town and the most impressive thing was the beach.  It looked very nice and clean.

We drove out of town to the Royal Andalusian School for Equestrian Art.  It is a beautiful facility with lovely grounds and gardens where they train the horses and riders.  We attended a show and I really enjoyed it, although it could have been just a bit shorter.  But the horses were beautiful and so graceful.

The venue was very nice, if a bit warm.  I was glad I'd remembered my fan.

You can see that the two brown horses are in perfect sync.  The two in front, not so much.

This almost looks painful.

These 8 performed like a ballet.

This was the money shot.  Michael says it makes him look like a carousel horse.

After this show, we went to the Gonzalez-Bayass company for a tour of their facility.  They are a huge producer of sherry, wines and spirits.  The company has been around since the early 1800s and is still in the original family with the 5th generation running it now.  They make Tio Pepe sherry and ship to 115 countries.  There aren't any vineyards here, they are farther north, but they age their products here.  It is a beautiful facility with many buildings of aging sherry at this location.  One of their rooms had row upon row of 500 liter barrels of aging sherry.  There's a special section where they have had "celebrities" or people of note sign the barrels.  Here are few we saw.

I picked this one because it's the year Michael was born.  It translates to: "I entered here "serene" and left as President of the Council of Ministers."  Sereno is one of their wine labels.  Not sure who M. Dicenta is, but he must have been the President of the Council of Ministers.

I chose this one because it's the year I was born and because, you know, it's Lana Turner.

And this one was signed by Guglielmo Marconi and his wife in 1928.  I happen to be reading "Thunderstruck" by Erik Larson now and Marconi features prominently in it.

When the founder died in 1887 (?) they left his "office" just as it was.  The dust on the bottles is inches thick.

Just a random part of a castle in the middle of town.  And we think buildings that are 200 years old are "really old".  Hmmph.  Just babies.

We got back to the ship with just a few minutes to spare for Trivia.  Parick and Lois decided not to come, so Carl, Sarah, Michael and I braved on and came in second with 11/15!  Wow - two whole Regent points!  

The ship put on a wonderful poolside barbecue tonight.  These are just a few pictures.  Again, Patrick and Lois didn't come, but we had a table for 6 so we invited another couple to join us.  Ally and Don from Walnut Creek rounded out the table and it turns out they are in the cabin next to Carl.  They were very nice and we had a good time.  They got on in Amsterdam and will get off in New York.  On their excursion today they went to Gibraltar (a 2 hour bus ride each way) and climbed down the Rock.  "Climbed" is a bit of a misnomer because apparently it was a trail, but it was down and it was long and it was in the full sun, so kudos to them.

This pork was delicious.  There were other meats too, of course.

No show tonight, and we turn our clocks back one hour - yay!  We can use the extra sleep.