Arriving In Lisbon
After an overnight sail, we arrived in Lisbon early in the morning of the 25th March.
It is an impressive approach under the Tagus Bridge. Note that the blue building by the Cruise Terminal is both a Metro and main line train station called Santa Apolonia, whereas the domed church on the hill is the National Pantheon, where prominent Portuguese are buried.
Summing Up Seville And Cadiz
Seville was rather a disappointment, as it does seem the Spaniards are intent on ruining one of the gems of Europe, with some hideous architecture. But against that the I liked the innovative trams and was pleased to see the floats before the parade.
I didn’t see much of Cadiz and it is a city that I would visit again.
In hindsight, given the times that the Oriana was in Cadiz, I think it would have been better to give Seville a miss and explore the city on foot.
Leaving Cadiz
We left Cadiz as the parades ended and the sun went down.
I did get a glimpse of the floats from Oriana, but the pictures are too bad to upload.
The cruise ship shown in the picture was the only other cruise ship we saw in port. The guide at Cadiz, said business for her hadn’t been so good in the last few months as visiting cruise ships to Cadiz, were down in numbers compared to previous years.
Chocolates On Oriana
I’m always wary of the chocolates, that hotels and indeed cruise ships, put on your bed at night.
Chocolates On Oriana
This one was from Whittakers Chocolates and the excellent Restaurant Manager certified they were gluten-free. I had no trouble with them, although there was another sort, I didn’t sample.
My caution stems from a night a few years ago, in a five star hotel in Spain, where the chocolate had a biscuit inside. Luckily my late wife, C, was acting as food taster and after eating her chocolate, quickly ate mine as well.
A Parade In Cadiz
Returning to the Oriana, our coach was held up by a parade.
The pictures aren’t the best, but it was difficult photographing from the coach.
Seeing these parades, reminds me of probably the first serious film; The Pride and the Passion. I saw it with my father at the cinema in Felixstowe. I remember vividly the scenes where they hid the enormous gun under a float in the cathedral to hide it from the French.
I do wonder where they shot these scenes.
The American Embassy In Cadiz
Not by joke, but that of our tour guide to Seville.
The American Embassy In Cadiz
The guide was German.
I Dread To Think What This Might Mean
I caught sight of this notice.
I Dread To Think What This Might Mean
I suppose it’s fairly obvious, but I can’t resist the obvious translation.
Walking Down The River In Seville
I finished my day in Seville by walking back down the river to the coach for the journey back to the Oriana.
There are some interesting bridges and the Torre del Oro.
In contrast to most rivers in Britain, there were very few places to sit and those that did exist, were rather muddy.
More Appalling Architecture In Seville
I’m not totally against modern architecture, as after all, I used to live in one of London’s most modern brutalist tower blocks, but s0me examples like the Metropol Parasol are not to my taste. Here’s a couple more.
Does Spain have planning rules to stop the worst of these buildings getting constructed?
Call me a Philistine if you like, but I believe truly great buildings enhance the buildings around them, rather than obscure their features. That is why One New Change is a much better building than The Shard.
Floats For The Palm Sunday Parade In Seville
After seeing the Metropol Parasol, I wandered through a few churches looking at the floats for the afternoon’s Palm Sunday parade.
In some ways, I find these sort of Holy Week parades obscene. All that gold, silver and expense, when in many places in the world, there is a great deal of poverty and starvation.
If you reckon this is all too ostentatious, then look at some of the churches in Ecuador and other parts of South America. It does seem that Pope Francis is trying to move the Roman Catholic church to a different and more humble plane.
But will he succeed?
The Anonymous Widower 