A Modest Proposal For Spain

So Spain is facing an invasion of 60,000 Islamic migrants from Morocco into their enclave in Ceruta (and Europe is kinda freaking out about it),  and likely moving on from there onto mainland Spain itself.

Luckily, the Spanish have a solution to this problem. 

Indeed, since they've been demanding this solution on another country, I'd daresay they should boldly move forward and progressively adopt the following proposal:

 

There's a ready made slogan for it too: “From the Mountains to the Sea, Al-Andalus will be free".

Well, fair is fair, and all that. Good luck senors, you'll need it.

Cruise - The Sights And Sherry Of Cadiz

The next morning we arrived in Cadiz, Spain and got a good view of the city skyline. 

The monument on the skyline was made in 1912 to commemorate the Spanish Constitution being signed in 1812.

We then boarded a bus and drove through Cadiz and headed to the Jerez region. We had a very upbeat and friendly guide who told us the history of Cadiz and the Jerez region.

Jerez de la Frontera  has often been mispronounced in English as Sherry.  It's the Sherry production region.  We were off to a sherry and tapas making tour.

We went to Bodega Casa Del Marques - since 1846 it's been producing fine sherries.

The bodega is on a classical estate in a lovely Spanish villa.

We got a nice tour of the facilities and saw the hisotric areas where sherry is made.

Then we saw some barrels full of sherry and learned the difference between the sherries made there and got to sample the olorosso and cream sherry they make there.  Very tasty and we bought a small bottle to bring home. 

 We then were served glasses of sangria and got to work making Tapas.

Since neither the Brits in the group, nor Tash or I knew Spanish, Abby and Leah managed to use their high school Spanish to chat with the ladies running the cooking demonstration as our guide translated.

We made mushroom caps stuffed with beef.

Potatoes fried in olive oil with greens.

And three more dishes.  All amazing, and yep, quite a few more glasses of Sangria as we made and then ate the tasty dishes.

After that we then headed back to Cadiz for the end of the tour and had some time to walk around Cadiz near the port on our own.

We walked to the Plaza de San Antonio and then wandered the narrow streets for some browsing and shopping.

We stopped by a cute Gelato place and sampled the tasty treats inside.

I mean how could you not go into such an establishment?

We then saw the outside of rather ornate literary, arts, and science center dedicated to Cervantes:

 

No windmills to tilt at in sight, unfortunately.

We then came upon a row of ladies clothing stores and some damage was done as both the fashions and prices were great. I got to rest my hip by sitting down and patiently waiting as they shopped so it was all good.

Shopping instincts sated, we headed back to the ship with plenty of time to spare to board.

We then had dinner with a view as we pulled away from port, having acquired a taste for sherry and tapas while we were there.

Cadiz was a great city to visit and the Tapas tour was excellent and well worth doing.

Ok, Where's The Australian Casualty?

The Detroit Free Press: 2 Americans, 1 Briton gored in Pamplona bull run

There's always at least one Australian that gets gored during the Running of the Bulls, and with seven more days to go, and the festival is clearly not yet over until an Aussie gets the bull by the horns.

Some Australian male with less brains than bravado should be upholding that proud Aussie tradition shortly.

Condolences to the gored, especially to the one with the groin wound.

Stupidity is gonna hurt.

Legal Battle Over Treasure Find Ends In Shipment Of Coins To Spain

For the Shipwreck and Treasure hunters of Odyssey Marine Exploration, the courts sadly ruled against their claim that they had priority and ownership of the sunken treasure trove they found.

Instead the US Courts found the treasure belonged to Spain, and led to the transportation of over 594,000 silver coins by air to Europe.

Interestingly enough, Peru had also raised a claim that the treasure, possibly from the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, off Portugal's Atlantic coast near the Straits of Gibraltar belonged to it as the treasure had originated there.

The treasure was estimated to be numismatically worth over $500 million dollars.

The US government was publicly favoring the Spanish claim over the US company's rights of discovery and salvage.

The article in the Detroit News has more details.

As reported in the article, Spain has rejected selling the coins to the public to reduce its debt.