Cadiz

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Was surprised to learn that Cadiz, Spain is the oldest continuously occupied city in Western Europe. The Phoenician merchants set up shop here in 1100 B.C. We had a five hour excursion planned that did a little tour of the city and then headed out to Jerez de la Frontera to see the famous Spanish Andalucian horses and drink a little sherry. A lot of Spanish towns in this part of the World have the suffix de la Frontera. When the Spanish Kings were trying to reclaim Southern Spain from the Moors, every time they pushed them out of a city, they added the suffix to indicate this was the new frontier.

Jerez is a beautiful area, clean and very picturesque and famous for it's bulls, horses and Sherry. The horse ranch was in a park setting and although there were no shows on Wednesdays there were plenty of horses being trained and being put through their paces. We got a tour of the stables and show arena and were able to get close enough to actually pet the horses. The place was loaded with beautiful Jacalonda Trees that were just peaking with their purple blooms. The weather was in the low 70's and big black storks were circling overhead so there were plenty of great photo opts. Our next stop was the Tio Pepe ( Uncle Joe ) Wine Estate that is the number 1 producer of fine Sherries and Brandies including Bailey's. You can spot the place from down the road because they have the biggest Wind Vane in the World according Guinness. After a nice relaxing afternoon, we headed back to the ship to begin packing!

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