Saturday 9^th August

The only downside to this place are the mosquitoes! I now have 25 bites and went to the pharmacist last night to get some stronger medication as the piriteeze I’ve been taking does no good at all! I have also become paranoid about fumigating the cabin; I now follow a strict procedure – all windows protected by nets, spray the cabin at least 3 times a day with mossie killer spray, use the plug in anti mossie device, smother myself in repellent before bed, wear long sleeved and long legged pyjamas (blow the heat!) and last night it worked no new bites!! However it has to be said I am relegated to the after cabin as Rob will not hear of spray in our normal forward berth!

Anyway enough of my complaints – we are really enjoying this place and today we took an open-top bus tour of the city and surrounds. It came with a guided audio description in English and you could get on and off where ever the bus stopped so we did just that near to the Cathedral; having explored some of the very narrow street and admired the excavations of the Roman  Theatre we retired to a cafe for a drink break which turned out to be a fantastic tapas lunch! From the outside the place just looked like a street cafe but very old and in a narrow street away from the normal tourist trails! On entering we discovered the whole bar area and behind to the side was a refrigerated series of display cabinets. The bar had high stools and these were occupied by various Spanish folk drinking wine and eating tapas. I decided to find out what the various things in the displays were rather than order from a menu. Fortunately an elderly chap propping up the bar spoke a tiny bit of English and he recommended several things so I ordered and we were not disappointed. The tortillas with crab were delicious they looked like large crisps with bits in; the ‘pulpo’ octopus was also fantastic it had been cooked in a broth with garlic and wine and was sliced and sprinkled with piri -piri powder! An hour and half later we staggered out and made a note to return another day but to order less food!

Next stop the Cathedral which was magnificent but unusual in that there were no big stained glass windows. The marble clad columns and rounded ceilings were intricately carved and within the body of the building there were 16 small side chapels. We also went down to the crypt which was huge and very well laid out. Well worth a visit. We also admired many stately houses and churches on our tour – there is certainly some excellently well preserved 17^th – 18^th century architecture here to see.

We were astounded to see how crowded the beaches were – but apparently they are well known for being particularly clean and as they are just a stroll from the city centre quite novel too.

We are probably going to head for Gib. next but have yet to decide whether to stop at Barbate and risk the unwelcome reception given to our fellow Rally Portugal boats who have already gone into the Med.

Unfortunately the WIFI we had 2 days ago has stopped working so will have to search out a cafe to get these messages sent before we leave.

Jacky and Rob