Málaga, Gibraltar and Cadíz

We’ve made 4 stops so far—only one of which is new for us. So this is a brief Málaga, Gibraltar and Cadíz blog. Having been to Málaga and Gibraltar before, these stops turned into mainly exercise stops. We managed to walk about 5 miles in both cases.

Málaga in November is very quiet. The day was gloomy, so we hiked to the Cathedral and back to the boat, rather than strolling the beaches. Picture 1 is the best we could do for the Cathedral. There was nowhere we could stand to do it artistic justice.

Gibraltar ranks right up there with Gatlinburg TN, Stratford-on-Avon in England and Bran Castle in Romania—amazing tourist traps! Gibraltar is known for it’s shopping, since it’s a duty-free zone. Having gone up on the rock in a previous trip and seen the apes, we did the walk, took a picture of “The Rock” (Picture 2) and headed back to the ship.

Cadíz was more fun. We trundled off to Jeréz de la Frontera. It’s the sherry capital of Spain—probably the sherry capital of the world. The locals describe themselves as worshiping at 2 cathedrals: the Catholic cathedral and the sherry bodegas. Picture 3 shows the Catholic cathedral in the background and a statue of Don Manuel Maria Gonzalez, who is credited with creating the first sherry. His bodega is now called Gonzalez Byass and his main brand was Tio Pepe—named for his uncle, Joe.

We visited Bodegas Tradicion—a small sherry producer (20,000 bottles per year), with really fine sherry. We sampled their 5 types of sherry, including 2 cream varieties and their 2 brandies (all before noon!). All were fine; the more expensive brandy exceptionally fine (at 250 euros per bottle). No, we did not purchase…. Picture 4 shows where some of the barrels are stored. Interestingly, the barrels are reused over and over without cleaning—they claim they have little sediment.

What was amazing about this Bodega was the private Spanish art collection of the owners. Picture 5 shows one of the two wings. This wing contained early (14^th-16^th century) religious art, plus one wall of paintings just of the Annunciation. The second wing was more contemporary. Pictures 6, 7, and 8 show works by El Greco, Zurbaran and Valazquéz—pretty amazing. Unfortunately, the lighting seemed suboptimal.

Today we’re sitting in Casablanca and haven’t left the boat. We’ve seen everything to see in Casablanca on a previous trip and it has rained in the desert. Tomorrow we go to Tangiers and hope to see some new stuff there. More then….