Regio 2 Cádiz

... size of a penny on my forehead! But I wasn't alone! The train was smooth sailing and we arrived by mid-day. We walked the short walk to our hostel, which we at first passed (well, twice haha) and went through the long check-in process. But during check-in, we got to take in the amazing hostel that we would be staying the night in. Sadly, I can't think of the name at the very moment, but once I do I'll fill in the blank for the both of us. It is ...

So today we didn't have an excursion because we had our own private tour guides in Rachel's host family from three years ago. They met us at the pier and were so happy to see Rachel it was great! They took us on a walking tour of historic Cadiz and we had breakfast at one of their places they like and we had churros an coffee with milk. Loly knew everyone we walked by it seemed and although they spoke no English and we speak little Spanish we were ...

... set up a little ladder so that the mice could drink the sherry out of a wine glass!<br><br><br>Then we went to the horse show. Very similar to what the Lippanzaner Stallions do. It was&#8230;an experience&#8230;but I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ll ever go watch something like that again. But I can at least say that I've seen it.<br>

... something to see. After the show we headed to another white village town called Arcos de la Frontera. This was another cobble stoned hillside town set among 2 churches and a convent. We had a nice lunch and walked around the town. The streets were narrow and tiny and mike did a great job of navigating through the narrow roads (he's getting much better)...we left and started our 2.5 hour drive from there to Nerja our destination for the next 7 days ...

... of rock formations that looked sort of like the Flatirons. There are trams and cable cars to the top but we drove in our bus which was pretty sketchy. At the top (5,000ish feet up) there is a famous monastery that we had lunch at and saw a famous boys choir sing. After lunch we went back down and headed back to Barcelona. We napped again and then went to our dinner, which was at a Flamenco club/restaurant. The food was great (buffet style) and we had a ton of fun ...

... the left and right side of the castle walls were big round gun turrets from WWII.<br><br> I wanted to stop up the coastal road at Cape Trafalgar, site of Lord Nelson&#8217;s famous 1805 naval battle that sent him home in a spirits barrel &#8211; preserved. I read a pocketbook about the battle about a year ago. Nelson&#8217;s ships-of-the-line aggressively attacked the superior French fleet after ...

... history from the point of view of our own country. We learned at school that Nelson won the battle of Trafalgar. The Spanish are obviously taught that the French lost it for them. Nelson, of course, lost his life and his body was shipped back to England pickled in brandy. Most of the others who died are buried in a nice little graveyard, which we saw, by the city walls in Gibraltar. I am not sure if Villeneuve survived. Perhaps he ...

We've been 2 days at sea so far, and all is well.  We experienced some weather that woke me up last night.  Nothing terribly scary, but there was some major sliding around of the boat in the water, and some noticeable UPS and DOWNS.  Matthew got up and put everything down on the ground for fear of things falling off (nothing did).  I guess I'm getting used to ...

... it was made of two different materials. The top part was made of limestone because it weighed less and was less expensive. However, by now it has started to crumble, so there are nets on the top half of the Catedral so nobody gets knocked out by the limestone. There is a crypt at the bottom of the Catedral, where there is a statue of the Catedral's saint, Santa Victoria, as well as her blood. We walked through ...

... buildings. We visited a few churches and a castle. The view was incredible, and the town was very quaint. We spent the entire day there, it was a lot of fun. The next day was our last in Spain. I decided to venture out on my own again. I walked up and down the Streets of Cadiz. I spent sometime getting ice cream with friends in the Cathedral square. Walked in and out the little shops, explored all of the back streets, and just hung out. I went to dinner with some ...