Seville

Seville, Spain

Three consecutive days in port is tiring.

On Tuesday we were in Cadiz, Spain and took a bus to Seville for an “on your own” day.

Seville is a lovely city but we did not do a good job of planning our time. We saw the

two places we were most interested in, the Cathedral and Alcazar, the royal place.

I was disappointed that La Giralda, the Moorish Tower adjacent to the Cathedral wa
closed.I wanted to climb the ramp and see the view of the city. We did luck out in one
way. We were given the "Pension"  (senior) rate and it is about 25% of the regular.
It would be nice if the U.S. senior discounts were that much.

We still had over two hours left and did not want to get on the hop on hop off bus that late.

We should have done the bus first. We would probably have had plenty of time.  It's

hard to always make the right call on shore excursions. 

Portion of Wall of Notre Dame De Lourdes Church

Inside Hassan II Mosque

Hassan II Mosque

Foster and Linda at Rick's Bar

Casablanca

As much as I don’t like it, we are into the last week of our cruise. But as ususal

we have future cruises booked.

Monday we were in Casablanca. We did not want to take the all day tour to

Marrakech but decided to stay in Casablanca. Then I had to decide whether

or not to take a ship’s tour. The main problem with their tour’s was that none

had a tour inside Hassan II Mosque and since we did not go inside the Grand Mosque

in Oman, I wanted to see inside this one. We decided to take our chances going

out on our own. We’re not great at negotiating taxis in foreign ports, but we did okay. 

We had a 3 hour tour of C and took the public tour at the Mosque. It was very nice.

We drove around the city seeing poor and rich areas. We stopped at the Habous

Quarter and walked through the souk. I had hoped to find bags similar to one I got

in Oman, but no such luck. It seems I always need to make a return trip to see or

purchase something I missed the first time. 

We made a couple of other stops in town including a Catholic Church with walls of

stained glass.

Las Canadas National Park 2

Las Canadas National Park

Who are Jim and Judy Leavell?

Jim Leavell shown on previous picture is a guest lecture and has given presentations on Muslim, Hinduism, and photography. He is Professor Emeritus at Furman.

Jim and Judy Leavell

Foster and Linda at Las Canadas National Park

Mount Teide Volcano

Tenerife, Canary Islands

We had a wonderful tour of the Las Canadas National Park today. I will share some photos.

Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands

After 3 more relaxing sea days on Wednesday we were in in Mendelo, Cape

Verde Islands. We walked around the town. There wasn’t a lot to see. I didn’t

go to dinner and watched a beautiful sail away but thinking Foster might have

removed the camera disc, I missed getting the best pictures of the day. 

More Ballet 2

More Ballet

African National Ballet La Linguire

Catholic Church in Kadar

Old and New in kadar

Huge Monument in Kadar

Kadar, Senegal

We just spent 3 relaxing days at sea. I really did not do much. The new guest

speaker just hasn’t grabbed my attention. We had a few port lectures so we’re

prepared for the next 3 ports.

Monday we were at Kadar, Senegal, the last of our West African countries. It

seems as we move further north the poverty is less. Although you will see from

the picture, there are still a lot of “roadside” businesses.

 It was extremely dusty in Kadar, I think worse than Dubai. We took a city tour and

it was nice. There was a lot of new construction going on. For a Muslim country, we

did not seem many in traditional Arab clothes. Most people were in western clothes.

We went by the University and I only saw a few women in Muslim clothing. We will

be heading west for a couple if island stops before one more stop in Africa before

heading to Europe. Unfortunately our cruise is nearing its end.

In the afternoon the African “National Ballet La Lingiure” performed. The show was

absolutely fantastic. The dancers were wonderful and so energetic. They had to be

exhausted when it was over. It was definitely a big hit

African Dance U of G

Drums U of G

More U of G

Beautiful Student at U of G

University of Ghana Library

Ghana

We took an interesting tour on Thursday. We were a small group of 14 and a cheer went

up from most of us when we got on our Air-Conditioned van. The highlight was a

trip to the University of Ghana which has 45,000 students. It was a very nice campus.

On the drive to the city (Accra) we passed some very nice housing, quite an improvement

on the previous ports. The road was good However, the trip back took us through the

poor area and the road was terrible. I don’t know why we took it. At least we did see,

many people in Ghana have decent housing.

This part of West Africa has a lot of poverty but in some areas the people do not seem

to realize how poor they are. I think it is good for us to see how bad some situations

are in order to appreciate what we have.  It's one ofthose times when hearing The "Star

Spangled Banner" wouold give you goosebumps. I don't think I mentioned about
how astonished I waas on ANZAC Day when Trevor sang the Australian National
Anthem (shich I did not recognize) and the Australians did not stand. I cannot imagine
not standing for the our National Anthem in a public place especially when out of the
country.

We had a nice drive around the campus and had a nice view overlooking the city.

We then went to the Arts department and were taught to play the African drums

and also learned an African dance. It was so much fun. Everyone seemed to have a

really good time. I wish we could have had video of it.

Tour Buses in Togo

Dancers in Togo

Togo

We chose not to take a tour today since yesterday was so busy and we had already

done Voodoo. We got off the ship to say we had been here and then decided to

take the shuttle into town to see a little more. Bad mistake. Pretty much like Benin.

We were told the bus would return in 10 minutes, then 30. Finally after about 45

minutes and much hassling from vendors, we finally got the vendors off the bus

and returned to the ship.

There was a really good dance group with 3 persons in stilts performing on the pier.

Ganvie Stilt Village

Ouidah Voodoo Village

Benin Street Scenes