CADIZ AND CREMA DE ALBA

We awoke to this lovely sun-washed view from our balcony of Cadiz, Spain this morning.

Our final destination today will take us through the Spanish countryside to Jerez.

We are back on the Panoramic tour again and it feels good to be sitting rather than walking for a change.
Cadiz, Spain is fascinating; it's the oldest city in Europe. Almost entirely surrounded by water, the city appears isolated. It stands on a peninsula jutting out into the bay, dramatically defining the surrounding landscape.

One of Cádiz's most famous landmarks is its cathedral. It sits on the site of an older cathedral, completed in 1260, which burned down in 1596.

The city is full of beautiful fountains . There were some really unusual ones, such as these which were made of copper.

They were somehow connected to this lovely old church, even though they were across the street.

We also drove past the bull ring as well as these manicured gardens that were part of the round abouts.

It's really a lovely city. I'm not sure of all the history here, but there are many historical sights, such as the wall to the old city. Our guide said that some of the plants and trees here were supposed to have been brought to this area by Christopher Columbus!

As we were leaving the city, we noticed this strange looking structure and found out that is was a Pylon.

The Pylons of Cadiz are electricity pylons of an unusual looking design. There is one on either side of the Bay of Cádiz and they are used to support huge electric-power cables. The pylons are 158 metres high and designed for two circuits.
We saw this huge bull in the distance standing on top of a hill as we were driving along. When we got closer, we realized that it wasn't real.

It was the Osborne bull and it is a 14 meters high black silhouetted image of a bull in semi-profile, and is regarded as the unofficial national symbol of Spain. It was used for advertising years ago and now the locals have adopted it for their "logo".
As we drove into Jerez, we noticed that some of the wineries were in the middle of town.

The Andalusian horses are very important here in Jerez and there are statues of horses everywhere as well.

Jerez is known as the capital of sherry wine, the horse, and flamenco. It is the home of the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art, a riding school comparable to the world-famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna.

We were very fortunate when we were in Vienna several years ago to be able to attend a horse show at that riding school and we saw the Lipizzaner stallions perform their "Airs Above the Ground". It was unbelieveable!
We finally arrived at our destination, the Williams & Humbert Winery.

Williams & Humbert, located in Jerez de la Frontera in the region of Andalucia, is the largest winery in Europe with more than 1,200 acres of vineyards and produces some of the world’s most acclaimed sherries and brandies.

The Company was established by British expatriates who first began making sherry in the 1880s. They named their product Sack after the Shakespearean word for sherry and placed the bottle in a sack-cloth bag to make a stylish statement. Today, Dry Sack is the only company from Jerez allowed to use the word sack in its brand name. Williams & Humbert’s portfolio also includes Gran Duque de Alba Brandy de Jerez, Crema de Alba cream liqueur and Dos Maderas dual-aged rum.

There is also a museum inside the winery. This place is really huge!

An important part of Andalusian culture, horses also have a prominent role at Williams Humbert. In addition to visiting the harness room and learning about the secrets of the horse world when you are on tour, you can enjoy the equestrian performance that the winery organizes in its exhibition ring several days a week.

This ring is where we had our tasting. Unfortunately there wasn't a horse show that day, but we were able to taste their sherry instead.

After our "history lesson" was concluded, we were served 3 different kinds of sherry to sample. Our guide from Williams & Humbert was very knowledgeable and came around to each table to answer any questions that we might have, either about the sherry or the cellar.

We each were also given a sample bottle of a liqueur called Canasta to take home with us.

All of the 16 tables in the area seated 12 and they had cups and bottles of their different sherry for us to taste.

Frank liked what he had sampled, so he purchased a bottle for us to bring home. He's my official taster.

Our favorite, however, was Crema de Alba. It tasted just like Bailey's Irish Cream and it was delicious! Consequently, we had to have a bottle of that as well! Are you surprised???

It is the first Cream Liqueur worldwide which is produced with Brandy. They use for this Gran Reserva Gran Duque Brandy.
As we left for home, we stopped outside the winery and watched the ducks and swans.

It was a lovely setting. I always think of the poem that Yeats wrote in 1919 entitled, "The Wild Swans at Coole". It is said that swans mate for life. I would like to believe that people do as well, especially when you are fortunate like I am to have such a wonderful mate.

We got back on board in time to have that 5:00 cocktail on the veranda which we didn't need, get cleaned up, and go to dinner. We decided to skip the show tonight and we got Casablanca from the library and watched it on our DVD player in the suite.

We will be at sea tomorrow on our way to Portugal. Who knows what surprises might lie ahead for us!

XOXO, Pcasso