Touring Cádiz

I'd been sharing details from my in-laws recent visit. The last time I posted about their trip, I mentioned going to the gypsy market in Cádiz. We did the gypsy market thing and then decided to stick around the city for a while and see the sights.

We'd asked our base tour guide where to pick up the ferry so we'd have transportation back to Rota since the group we were with would be leaving us. We wanted to purchase tickets in advance so we'd be assured a seat on the ferry. He gave us directions and said it was only about a 20-minute walk. The guy must walk incredibly fast as it was more like an hour-long walk for us.

We saw these ginormous cranes on our way to the ferry. The boys would have loved these as they looked like something out of Transformers.


We needed a break from walking and saw this tour bus, so we ended up getting tickets to ride it around the city. The bus naturally couldn't navigate the narrow streets, but the driver pointed out the main attractions. The ride was relaxing, cool and worth every euro spent... definitely the way to go!


Here are my in-laws on the bus. We rode on top so we could see better... you know, so we'd have optimum photo opportunities.


We passed by the famous Puertas de Tierra, which links the older and newer parts of the city. Cádiz is three thousand years old, which makes it the oldest city in Europe.


The beaches of Cádiz are beautiful! The city is almost completely surrounded by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.


Who wouldn't want to be lounging under one of these umbrellas, drinking something cold and refreshing? Of course it was late-September, therefore tourist season had pretty much come to an end in this area, which is why you don't see more people on the beach.


I'm not sure which beach this is, however, allow me to pass along a little piece of trivia to you... Playa de la Caleta in Cádiz was chosen to shoot some of the beach scenes for the James Bond movie "Die Another Day." I guess the most memorable scene of that movie was when Halle Berry comes out of the ocean and walks up the beach wearing an orange bikini equipped with a knife, looking SPECTACULAR. Ah, if we could all look like Halle Berry, right? It should be a sin to be that beautiful, but I digress.

Where was I? Oh yeah, back to our tour of Cádiz...

The golden-domed 18th century structure is the "Catedral Nueva" (New Cathedral), which took 116 years to complete. Another piece of trivia for ya.


This is the Hotel Playa Victoria, one of the newer, more contemporary hotels, located right on the beach.


You know me and my lighthouses... I had to have a photo! We can actually see this lighthouse and part of the coastline of Cádiz from our backyard.


This is Parque Genovés (Genoves Park), a beautiful garden area on the edge of the city. Squawking parrots are supposed to be plentiful here.


Wanted to show you one more photo from the park. You can see how large the trunk of this tree is by looking at the people standing to the right of it. I'm wondering just how old the tree is.


Every city has its fair share of statues, doesn't it? And of course I take photos of these works of art, only to later discover I have no idea the significance of them. This one is no different for me. Sorry. It's pretty though, isn't it?


I love the various architectural styles. Every building has a certain beauty.


Here's the cathedral from a different angle. It faces a big square with shops, bars and restaurants with outdoor dining tables.


This is one of the massive doors of the cathedral.


I thought this was a really pretty floral display.


Any guesses as to how old this door might be? I don't know either, but doesn't it look ancient?


I have no idea who this is, but I was totally intrigued by her look. I'm such a people watcher!


The ferry travels to both El Puerto de Santa Maria and Rota. We took the Rota ferry and we traveled past our housing area on the way home.


We spotted this gorgeous home during our ferry ride. I would love to get a closer look, wouldn't you? What a sweet location!


We approached the ferry landing and marina in Rota.


We're almost there! The lighthouse is very welcoming, isn't it?


Here's the last scene from our trip. I like looking at the boats in the marina.

We enjoyed our day very much and highly recommend the Cádiz bus tour. My next post will include a few photos taken on the final day of my in-laws' visit. Later...

How can it be October 18th?

Today is October 18th, and I ask you, "How is that possible?" It seems as if I blinked my eyes and over half of the month disappeared. Please tell me I'm not alone in feeling as though time is flying by at warp speed!

I started pondering why this month is getting away from me so quickly and I came up with a few reasons...

1) We have children. Anyone with children is busy. Period. Children require work.

2) Our children are currently playing soccer, which means practices and games X 2 every week.

3) Our children are active in Scouting... one is a Cub Scout and the other is a Boy Scout, which equates to two nights out per week for meetings, plus multiple fundraisers this month.

4) Our 7th grader's homework is taking over our very lives. I'm not kidding.

5) There have been multiple social events this month, to include a Tops in
Blue concert, a hail & farewell, homecoming, etc.

6) I decorated our house for fall.

7) I've been shopping online for Halloween costumes as the NEX doesn't have what my kids want. Naturally.

8) One whole day was recently devoted to the writing of thank you notes for birthday gifts. The boys simply won't do it unless they're hounded. Once they get started, they're fine, but it would never dawn on them to do it without being asked. Will it ever?

9) We've provided snacks for at least three events, and will do so again this week. I think I'll just ask to have my mail forwarded to the commissary since that's where I seem to spend most of my time.

10) I've attended Bible study weekly, participated in a couple of spouses' gatherings, went to stamp club, attended a chapel council meeting, and took the boys to the dentist and the orthodontist.

11) We took a weekend trip to Lisbon, Portugal.

12) We've had some computer issues, which brought about the moving of LOTS of photos (among other things) to another computer.

13) I've been cropping and retouching more than 600 photos from our Portugal trip in preparation of posting some on Facebook and here on my blog. I may need a new glasses prescription before it's all said and done.

14) I've started planning an upcoming event with a friend, as well as my Christmas shopping.

15) I have laundry. Can't forget laundry! I could do laundry every day. We're dirty, filthy people, I tell you! We must be, or else the hampers wouldn't be full every other day.

I guess I should be happy that so much is going on in our lives, right? My mom tells me she misses the days when all of us kids were at home and she was virtually running her own taxi service, driving us from one place to another. She says those were some of the happiest days of her life. I suppose I can understand her point. One day I might feel the same way. That seems reasonable and quite likely. Right now, however, I'd like to have NOTHING to do and NOWHERE to be... just for a while anyway.

Busy! Busy! Busy!

It's already been a week since my last post and I don't know where the time has gone. Time literally seems to fly and I'm having trouble keeping up. I have yet to finish telling you about the remainder of my in-laws' visit and I also have trip details to share in regard to our Portugal excursion over the weekend. We've had some computer issues as well and I have a BUNCH of photos to post.

Fall is here, but it doesn't feel like it in southern Spain with temps still in the high 80s to low 90s. This is normally my favorite time of the year as I always look forward to cooler temps, colorful leaves on the trees, fall decorations, foods that go along with fall (pumpkin, chili, soups, etc.)... If only it were a little cooler.

I've decorated the house for fall and ordered one kid's Halloween costume off the internet since I couldn't find what he wanted here at the NEX. The other kid is 13 and he's going to make his own costume. He's evidently going to some dance at the youth center on base on Halloween night. I need to find out more details as reliable sources tell me he has invited a girl to go to the dance, however, we've yet to get any intel out of him, and it's KILLING me!

Once Halloween is over, it seems Christmas is just around the corner. I've yet to begin shopping, which isn't exactly very smart due to the fact that planning ahead is the name of the game when living overseas. It's very challenging to shop here and the filling out of the customs forms at the post office can be painful. It might be a gift card kind of Christmas again this year. Thank the Lord for the internet! Can I get an amen?

A trip to the gypsy market...

During my in-laws' stay we visited the gypsy market in Cadiz, a first for us as well as them. We joined a group of people from the base and rode a bus to Cadiz, which was the best way to travel. The boys were in school, so it was just my in-laws, my hubby and me. I'd been to the gypsy market in Rota, but the one in Cadiz is probably five times larger.

The gypsy market is set up along the boardwalk next to the harbor. I loved seeing all the boats!


Booths stretched as far as the eye could see!


Our tour guide from the base gives us the lowdown on the gypsy market and advises us to watch our wallets and purses and keep them in front of us at all times.


The fabrics were very pretty and colorful.


Some booths had shoes piled high on tables like this one, and other booths had shoes hanging from poles or neatly stacked. I got tickled listening to the vendors yelling at shoppers to check out their merchandise.


There were scarves galore, in every color imaginable! These are very popular here in Spain.


Underwear anyone? We saw LOTS of unmentionables! In fact, we saw lots of the same kinds of things... underwear, clothing, shoes, jewelry, purses, scarves, fabric, towels, etc. Every tenth booth or so was like starting at the beginning with the same types of merchandise. Much of it was made in China too, just like in the States! Going to the gyspy market was reminiscent of going to most any flea market I've ever been to in the States, only flea markets sometimes have used items and there didn't appear to be any used items in the gypsy market.


People were virtually shoulder to shoulder. I could totally understand why our tour guide told us to be on our guard with our money. Pickpocketing could happen so quickly and easily in a place like this.


I really liked these purses. These seemed more unique in comparison to most of the others I saw that day.


This guy was selling snacks and drinks from a cart he pushed through the crowd.


Olives, garlic and spices were sold at several booths.


This was one of the larger clothing booths we saw... a double decker with clothes hanging above and below.


Aren't the baby dresses adorable? The pastels are so pretty!


Little girls dresses were in abundance. I didn't see lots of clothing for boys except for T-shirts and jeans. In general children here in Spain are almost always dressed up, unless they are at the beach.


See the tall guy in the middle of the photo? That's my very patient husband... waiting for me to finish snapping pictures so we can move on to the next booth of purses and scarves.


Oops... here are a few more of those unmentionables, but these are a little different that the previous ones I showed you.


My mother-in-law checks out the ribbon and lace.


Looking for a little bling? Gotcha covered!


My mother-in-law browses through the linens while my father-in-law... ahem... waits patiently.

We perused and browsed and ogled and touched and eventually ended up walking away from the gypsy market having purchased NOT.ONE.THING. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking we exercised great restraint, and I suppose we did. Looking back, I'm glad we didn't purchase anything because we remained in Cadiz and took a bus tour, and it would have been extremely painful to tote gypsy market treasures all over the city for the rest of the day.

Next... photos and commentary (Of course there will be commentary! Isn't there always commentary?) of our bus tour of Cadiz. I know you'll be waiting on pins and needles. Later...

Catching up

Wow! It's been a few days since I've posted. Sorry, but I've been busy. Between the boys' birthdays last week and my in-laws visiting for nearly a week, I haven't had a lot of spare time. I'll share with you some of the happenings of the last several days...

D turned 13 last week and we gathered around and watched him open gifts from family after dinner. As you can see, he was quite pleased to have received this particular gift. He still loves legos.


M turned 10 and is thrilled to now be in "double digits." He got his military I.D. card and will be getting his Spanish I.D. card this week. Here he poses with a coveted birthday gift, a Pokemon DS game, something he and his brother will no doubt enjoy.


We went several places during my in-laws' visit. One day we had tapas at La Brisa on the boardwalk in Rota and then went for a walk afterward. We saw this beautiful sand sculpture on the beach. The artist told us it took him a week to create it.


We also saw a group of boys running and doing acrobatic maneuvers off of this ball. A couple of them were very impressive.


We took my hubby's parents and our boys and went to dinner and a flamenco show in Jerez. We took a tour bus from the base, which was preferable since that meant we'd have transportation and wouldn't have to worry about parking our own vehicle. Here are the men in my life enjoying the show.


The exact same singer was there as last time, but the guitar players were different people as were the dancers.


I wasn't expecting to see a male dancer as I didn't realize men did this particular kind of dancing. This guy was very, very confident in his dancing ability and a lot of fun to watch. Wanna see?




The next day we drove to Gibraltar as this was one of the places my in-laws really wanted to visit while they were here. We had a great time, although it poured rain most of the day. We jumped on a tour bus and hit the highlights of the Rock.


My hubby and mother-in-law walked and talked together for a while. I think she really enjoyed having some private time with her son.


My mother-in-law was a good sport with the Barbary Apes as she allowed one to climb on her. The boys and I got in on the act too...








We saw a baby ape that was old 5 weeks old. Here's a short clip of the the baby with two older apes. The high-pitched sqeaking noise is the baby.




The boys are standing on Europa Point, with the mosque and Rock in the background. It was unfortunately too rainy and foggy to see the coastline of Africa.


During the course of my in-laws' visit with us, the boys introduced my father-in-law to Guitar Hero. I think he may have found himself a new hobby. My mother-in-law may disown all of us.


We went to Puerto Sherry during low tide so that we could explore the tide pools and search for shells, rocks and beach glass.


My hubby ventured out into the tide pools and beyond.


M had fun exploring too.


I believe D had the most fun of all. He found evidence of sea life among the tide pools and he was so mesmerized that he was reluctant to leave.


These are the Phoenician ruins in this area.


My hubby stands in front of a part of the old Phoenician city wall to give you an idea of how massive it is. I'm still in awe just thinking of the amount of work that must have gone into building this structure. Incredible!


We had lunch here at one of our favorite restaurants... Blanca Paloma.


After dinner we sat and watched the sun go down... beautiful!

More of our adventures in my next post... stay tuned...