Yesterday’s tours were in the Andalusia area in Spain. Our ship docked briefly in Almeria to let us off and we met back up with it in Málaga. A bus took us up to the Alhambra. I wish it were better preserved. (The palace, not the bus). It reminded us a lot of the harem we saw in Istanbul. The gardens were the best part in my opinion. But then, they usually are wherever we go. It’s amazing to me that the Moors lost Spain, considering their superior technology and better standard of living. We were treated to a great lunch during which traditional Spanish musicians serenaded us. I love seeing parts of the traditional culture of the places we visit.
We strolled around Málaga briefly before having dinner on the ship. It had some nice areas but I am always amazed that some of the suggested city walking tours bring you through such ugly, crummy areas. In Málaga the cruise arranged a Flamenco show for us. It was wonderful! It felt really authentic. There were no gimmicky tricks like most other tours. The best part of the day was that they invited Elisa up on stage. That would be my dad or brother’s worst nightmare but it was perfect for me! She shook her stuff with her Spanish partner. Everyone in the audience loved it and hooted the whole time. I didn’t know everyone was enjoying it as much as I was. Everyone was commenting to me in Italian and French so who knows what they really thought. 🙂
Morocco was the stopover this morning. We are very excited that we got to go to the continent of AFRICA! We are just as happy to leave. There actually wasn’t much to see in Tangier, where the boat docked. We walked through some bazaars and rug shops, kind of the standard stuff that you see in all Mediterranean port towns. This hotel did a show involving a fire swallower and a belly dancer and horses. It was like traditional folk circus acts. A highlight was definitely when they had the horse show. Five men came riding up twirling their guns over head. They all skidded to a halt right in front of us and BANG! I wasn’t expecting actual gunfire right in front of me. The shot into the ground sprayed some of the dirt up at us and I screamed. I do not ever scream so this was quite a funny experience. Maybe you had to be there. 🙂
One of the evenings we got invited to the captain’s table at a “gala.” Some passengers dressed in formals, and some got all done up at the spa. The maître d’ wanted to get us a seat at the captain’s right hand, I guess because they still want to be so nice to Sea Diamond passengers. We can’t complain about the service.