twoforthepriceofone: Càdiz and Drydock

The Cathedral

Typical Cadiz street

Cadiz is my very favourite spot so far. It is a gorgeous little city on the south-western cape of Spain and is one of the oldest in Europe. The city is a beach resort town to some, and has stunning crescents of yellow sand touching bright blue water.

There is a part known as the “new town”, and it follows that there is an “old town” too. Old town is what captured my heart; the ambling and winding narrow streets filled with vendors of every service and item imaginable and of course dozens of small and wonderful eateries.

Our watering hole- El Candil

We found a favourite spot with good free internet, cheap Sangria and excellent tapas, which we nicknamed “the watering hole”. The waitress grew to know us and would bid us “hasta manana” as we left each day (see you tomorrow).

The sides of the town are walled to the ocean and make for a gorgeous waterfront walk. We enjoyed many a pleasant sunset in Cadiz and were fortunate enough to spend a week here when the ship was dry-docked.

This was a routine renovation that occurs every four years where the ship is taken out of the water and overhauled to keep her spankingly beautiful and up-to-date. What was interesting was that all of the crew remain onboard the ship, which becomes a sort of hotel. Many of the crew cease to have normal duties and it allows for a kind of holiday. The entertainment department were lucky enough to have “fire-watch” duties, which entailed wearing overalls and personal protection equipment and standing by any hot-works occurring with an extinguisher to prevent fires.

This work was somewhat mundane and mind-numbing, but Sam and I were fortunate enough to get three consecutive days with no fire-watch or port-manning (compulsory ship detainment to keep minimum emergency numbers up), and escaped to Seville (more to come!).