Seductive Spain

 

Spain

DAYS 101 & 102 – April 16 & 17, 2011 – Spain reached out and captured my heart the moment I caught the first glimpse of this beckoning, enchanting country.

We explored two different ports in Spain, Cartagena (on the Mediterranean Sea) and Cadiz (on the Atlantic Ocean).  The allure of the flamenco dance and the beauty of the Spanish countryside is world famous…and with my passion for Mexico, Central, and South America, I fell head over heels in love with Spain!

The fascinating history of our Mediterranean Spanish port of Cartagena tells of all of the different conquests that took place here.  Beginning as early as 228 BC, a long progression of kings, Moors, Romans, pirates, Hannibal, Napoleon, and others have molded this city architecturally and in the mining of all types of mineral resources.  As a result there are many forts and naval bases in Cartagena to strategically protect the country’s people and resources.

Cartagena is rich in iron, copper, zinc and sulfur;  it is also known for is olive oil, soaps, wines, dried fruits, and cuisine.  A native son of Cartagena designed and built the world’s first submarine, and the botanical gardens and cathedrals are other impressive landmarks in this city.

We were in Cartagena for only one short day, as we had to depart to get in line for our sailing during the night through the Straits of Gibraltar and into the Atlantic Ocean. 

Below are some photo highlights of our Cartagena visit:

Like so many port cities we’ve visited, the perimeter of the Cartagena bay is ringed with historical forts and bunkers that served to help protect the city from sea invasions for centuries.

The city of Cartagena is filled with private yachts, as the city is a world-wide destination for sailors who love the charm of the smaller cities and the wonderful Mediterranean climate of Cartagena year-round. 

Holland America christened a new ship last year, the Niew Amsterdam, that is twice as big as our flagship, ms Amsterdam, and it shared the Cartagena port with us for one day.  She’s a beauty with balconies on all floors…but we really prefer our ship where we have 1,000 -1200 people instead of 3,000 – 4,000 people…everyone gets to know each other like a family after nearly four months on our great ship.

We visited a lush botanical garden in a small Spanish town named Elche about one hour out in the countryside from Cartagena.  This community was known for its world’s-largest palm tree collections (200,000)…every kind of palm imaginable.  Here is one single palm tree that has eight additional palms erupting out of the sides, all depending on the original palm for sustenance.

  Orchids and other picture-perfect flowers were profuse in the botanical garden.

This pair of unusually beautiful ducks were just some of the wild fowl that lived in the ponds and large fountains in the botanical garden.

Elche is also famous for its medieval religious theatre play called “Le Mystere” that has been playing once a year since the 15th Century…the play is about the life of the Virgin Mary.

  It was the day before Palm Sunday when we were in Elche, and we visited a gorgeous cathedral where the parish volunteers were busily at work decorating lavish parade floats for their next afternoon processions and celebration of this very special day in Spain.

An unusual piece of public art is a focal point of the Elche town center – see a detail below of how this 20-foot high art panel was crafted…

Thousands upon thousands of tiny polished mosaic-type beads were used to create this female face image.

Cadiz is a costal city in southwestern Spain in the region of Andalusia…originally established in 1100 BC.  Like Cartagena, the city has had a colorful past with all kinds of rulers.  Christopher Columbus had a home here and he sailed from Cadiz on his second voyage to America in 1495.

Local flamenco dancers came aboard our ship to entertain us the evening we were in Cadiz – what passion they exhibited!

Winds were up and the wind surfers were out in big numbers along the Cadiz beaches.

Spain is very environmentally advanced…here are solar panels on hillsides, and we saw a lot of huge wind turbines as well when we visited countryside communities.

We traveled to the beautiful white villages about an hour south of Cadiz and again, we were enraptured by the beauty of the rolling hills, fertile farming areas, and pastures with gorgeous Andalusian horses!

Looking through the wonderful archways to the hundreds of white Spanish village homes on many of the slopes in the valleys…it was a perfect setting for a romance movie!

The narrow cobblestone streets went sharply uphill and downhill through all of the white villages…homes, small shops, restaurants, and other places of business were all clustered in these fascinating walled town areas.

We were invited to step past heavy wooden doors into the courtyard entrance of one of the village homes that was really charming…complete with birds in cages and vibrant flowers.

As we wrapped up our half-day visit in the Cadiz countryside we came upon this beach and light house where the surfers were using parasails to catch the wind and fly through the Atlantic surf…a perfect ending to our glorious two-port visit to captivating Spain!

There’s no doubt that the warmth of the Spanish culture, the flamboyant flamenco dancers, and the countrysides rich with horse stables, bountiful farms and sherry wine vineyards all made us truly fall in love with this part of the world.

We now sail on to our last port of call, the island of Madeira, Portugal.  How hard it is to come to this point of our unbelievable world voyage, nearly 30,000 nautical miles from our starting point in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida…almost four months ago…