Rain in Cadiz

 TSH and Diva had already cancelled their coach tour, as they decided that they would enjoy walking around Cadiz on their own.  After a good breakfast, TSH sat on the balcony in the sun for a while. By the time they got to the gangway, the sun was gone and the heavens had opened. They only made it as far as the terminal building before they returned to the ship. The weather improved in the afternoon, so they took a short walk to the cathedral. A carnival was taking place and there was a lot of street theatre and people dressed in the sort of crazy costumes that the British reserve for Christmas and hen parties. 

TSH and Diva have mostly been impressed with the hygiene arrangements on the Spirit of Discovery. There are sanitisers everywhere and compulsory hand-washing on the way into buffets. All of the security staff have so far managed to scan their ship cards without needing to touch them. But one woman grabbed Diva's card and said that was the only way she could scan it. She looked totally blank in the face of Diva's protestations about the spreading of disease. In the unthinkable event that Diva catches norovirus, there will be a formal complaint.

TSH has started to take photographs.

Across The Bay

The notoriously choppy Bay of Biscay is smooth for TSH and Diva. Everyone now has all their bags - some guests had to have their first dinner in their travel clothes because the luggage had not been distributed. TSH and Diva were lucky to have had their clothes bags in time for their first major appearance.

The Spirit of Discovery is up-to date and has a button by the door to indicate 'do not disturb'. Next to it is another button saying 'make up room'. Diva was very excited and thought that this was a special place for applying her cosmetics. She had read the emphasis wrongly - it was an invitation for the cleaner to enter.

The day was leisurely - walks around the promenade deck, a lecture about Cadiz and another about the geology of Madeira. Both excellent speakers. The third talk - also excellent - was different from any other cruise ship talk. It started with a trigger warning about the violent and upsetting content.  The speaker was a Geographic Profiler who worked with the police to solve serious crime. The basis of the work was concerned with correlating the locations important to the criminal's life with the locations involved in the crime. He discussed several well-known crimes that he had worked on. Some police officers think that this work is more helpful than that of criminal profilers. 

TSH and Diva confirmed that Saga, like Silversea, will offer other complementary wines if the wine of the day is not acceptable to a guest. They were very impressed when the people at a nearby table tried to order 'paid for wine' and the waiter dissuaded them by offering a wide range of alternative complementary wines. 

TSH has so far taken no photographs.

It must be 5 o’clock somewhere

The excursion from Cadiz included a drive round Cadiz itself and then to Jerez. Part way through the drive, some guests required an urgent toilet stop, so there was an impromptu stop at a random bar. There were flamingos in the water by the roadside. Then TSH and Diva were taken to the Osborn winery (the original owner was from Exeter). First there was the technical explanation of how sherry and brandy is produced. Then a visit to the tasting room, to test the various sherry types and consume tapas. Diva does not normally drink sherry in the morning but here is a picture of what was offered to her (she did not drink all of it):

Malaga and Cadiz

Both cities were explored on foot without benefit of a guide. Malaga has a lot of interesting-looking museums which would be useful on a re-visit. TSH forget to put an SD card in his camera so the earliest Malaga photos had to be retaken using his emergency spare. Cadiz has a very enjoyable sea front walk. The market in Cadiz was extremely impressive. Four long aisles of fish and shellfish which would put anywhere in current Britain to shame. It is difficult to believe that one city eats so much fish. The market also had several kinds of snail and one place selling live insects.  In both cases, the weather was pleasant without being too hot but in Cadiz TSH and Diva were very lucky to return to the ship just before the torrential downpour.

In Malaga, Silversea held an evening reception for the 50 or so guests who are staying on until London (rather than disembarking at Lisbon). Diva met another writer – a self-published writer of children’s books from Chester.

Diva’s smartphone has set her a target (without any consultation with her at all) of how many steps she should walk in a day. Every day on this holiday has reached the target and in Cadiz twice the target was achieved.

In Cadiz, there were also present the Regent Voyager and the Costa Magico

Referendum notes: The most recent lecture was: ‘Portugal from empire to EU’. At the reception, a guest was heard stating that the UK is the only place in Europe which follows the rules properly.