Puerto Sherry, Cadiz & Seville. June 2014

   

  SANTA MARIA  

    There was a lovely long walk from Puerto Sherry along a promenade between a beach and pine trees into El Puerto de Santa Maria, part of the Sherry triangle of Spain. It was a tired old town obviously with plenty of history and was great fun to explore and imagine what might have been in days of old. The renovated merchants houses were magnificent and the old Moorish Castle was splendid with beautiful script on the towers. Santa Maria was a useful stopover point with rail connections to Seville and ferries to Cadiz. We also found a lovely old restaurant that the locals frequented and which was to serve us very well with delightful food.

Santa Maria, Avenue Of Orange Trees Behind A Sherry Bodega. 

Santa Maria, Renovated Merchants House, Casa De Leon.

Guy Strolling Past Santa Maria Moorish Castle.

CADIZ

    

      It was a short ferry ride into Cadiz and then we were to spend an exhausting day strolling around all the tourist routes that can be seen on the very good map below. It is a very beautiful city with an enormous amount of history and as a main gateway to the Americas, plenty of wealth. The fortifications that have been built up over the centuries are amazingly strong. The Cathedral is stunning, especially the crypt underneath the altar which produces a wonderful echo to a whistle. The wooden carvings of the choir stalls are a work of sheer beauty. Overall, Cadiz with its narrow streets, open squares, large buildings and history make for an exhausting but enjoyable place to visit. We finished the day with a well earned drink while a religious procession came past followed by a band of over 100 playing very sombre music. 

Cadiz Main Square With Fountains Playing To Music.

Cadiz Map & Excellent Route Guide

The Statue To Liberty.

Guy Imagining Drake Attacking Cadiz!

One Of The Many Narrow Streets Of Cadiz

Caleta Beach From Old Fort Of Santa Catalina

Cadiz Cathedral Crypt.

Cadiz Cathedral Altar.

Cadiz Cathedral Choir.
Stunning Carved Woodwork.

Cadiz Cathedral & Square

A Religious Procession Negotiating A Sharp Corner Out
Of A Narrow Street Into The Main Square (8-10 pt turn)

     The trip to Cadiz exhausted us so much that we decided to have an admin and rest day during which time Guy took the opportunity to clean the hull and keel which had acquired mud from resting in the silt while moored in Ayamonte. The wet suite was useful as it allowed him to spend longer in the water while polishing Kisti Two's bottom.

Guy In BDSM Outfit!!
About To Clean The Keel.

SEVILLE

      We walked in to Santa Maria and caught a lovely Renfe train into Seville where we were to spend one night in a delightful old hotel full of paintings, a grand selection of tiles and other old collections of artifacts, statues etc. We felt quite at home!! We attacked the tourist route once again armed with guides, camera, maps and our Seville Tourist Card which was to provide us entry and travel around all the wonderful tourist traps of Seville. The temperature was very hot on both days and was to test our endurance and humour to the full. The city is quite large divided by the River Guadalquivir which we enjoyed a short boat trip up and down. The city has also been host to 2 Expos, one in 1929 and the latest in 1992 both of which have resulted in plenty of lovely large buildings being constructed by several countries, especially the Americas all with their historical architectural style. We saw most of these on an open air bus trip which was just as well as they covered an enormous area. 

The Torre Del Oro On The Bank Of The River Guadalquivir.
Gold From The Americas was Stored here On Arrival.

Seville Cathedral.

Ginny In Seville, Cathedral Square Beside One Of The Many 1HP Taxis.

Narrow Street Of Santa Cruz With View Of The Giralda Tower

The Lion Gate Into The Alcazar.

Guy In Alcazar Palace.

The Detail Of Alcazar Palace Golden Roof Work.

Alcazar Palace, Tiled Courtyard With Cooling Water Feature.

Alcazar Palace Room.

Ginny At Alcazar Palace Pool.

     We then honed in on the three main buildings, The Seville Cathedral, The Alcazar Palace and finally the Plaza De Espana. They are all magnificent buildings, quite stunning and powerful. The Seville Cathedral is the third largest Church in Christendom and has a lovely tower, The Giralda Tower built on the original minaret with a slope inside to allow the Sultan to climb to the top on his horse! It provided excellent views over the city. The Alcazar Palace with all it Moorish influence has plenty of stunning rooms, amazing ceilings, intricate tiling and plasterwork, pools and gardens. The Plaza De Espana is a beautiful and enormous building surrounded by delightful gardens and statues. The evening was spent watching a very energetic and powerful performance of Flamenco Dancing at the Flamenco Museum after we which we went for Tapas at midnight, normal for Spain. Seville was a wonderful experience but it was two shattered old sailors that returned to Kisti Two to spend another day recovering! This tourist life is exhausting.

The Flamenco Dance.

Excellent Flamenco Show At The Flamenco Museum.

Seville Cathedral At Night.

Ginny At The Cathedral Square With
The Giralda Tower.

Seville Shopping Area With Avenues of Trees For Shade.

Ginny (Can You Spot Her?) In Seville Cathedral

A Seville Cathedral Chapel Roof.
Chapter House.

The Sarcophagus Of Christopher Columbus Said
To Contain His Remains.

View Of Cathedral, Orange Tree Courtyard & Seville
Bull Fighting Ring From The Giralda Tower.

Our Hotel In Middle Top Third Of Picture
Down Wonderful Narrow Streets.

View Of The Alcazar Palace & Gardens From The Giralda Tower.
Plaza de Espana In The Distance As well As The River Guadalquivir.

Ginny At The Spanish 1929 Expo Building.
Plaza De Espana

Guy At The Enormous Spanish 1929 Expo Building.

Ginny At The Front Of The Spanish Expo 1929 Building.
Plaza De Espana

    Puerto Sherry has a silted entrance which has created a bar with a limited depth so we went out late evening and anchored off the beach just around the corner to enable us to depart early for Gibraltar on 5th June 2014. Guy spent most of the evening working out the tides and currents for entry into the Gibraltar Straits. It is possible to get 10 hours of tide with you and as usual, this meant an early 0500  hrs start again. This provided us with a lovely sunrise over Cadiz Cathedral as we motored round due to a lack of wind which failed to materialise all day. It was a long 70nm motor to Gibraltar but with a positive tide and current the whole way, only took us 12 hours. We then had the fun of doing our first Med mooring 'bows to' at Marina Village which was made more difficult due to a cross wind. We are now moored 50 metres from the Gibraltar Airport runway, under the Rock of Gibraltar behind a few Gin Palaces (enormous motor boats).

Horses On The Beach At Our Anchorage Outside Puerto Sherry.
The Walk To Santa Maria Is Behind The Beach.

Sunrise Over Cadiz On Departure For Gibraltar.

GIBRALTAR AND THE MED. (AT LAST)

Approaching Gibraltar Straits.
Europe To Port, Africa To Starboard.

Guy Happy To See Gibraltar & The Mediterranean After 13 Months!

Kisti Two Moored In Gibraltar At Marina Village

   These two chart pictures taken from our chart plotter show our entry into the Gibraltar Straits with all the ships showing up on our AIS system. The second chart shows our route since leaving Lagos a month ago. It has taken us 13 months to get to the Med!! Who cares, there is so much to see and visit en route and we have the time to do it. Plus one of the crew armed with maps and guide books is keen not to miss out on any tourist visits ashore and she must be obeyed!!

Kisti Two On Chart Approaching Gibraltar Straits.

Kisti Two's Route (Black Track) From Lagos To Gibraltar.

     Now its into the Med. Do come and join us if interested. There are plenty of airports and cheap flight connections. You can also follow us on marinetraffic.com and see our latest position.