I arrived in Ceuta, an autonomous Spanish City in North Africa knowing very little about it, I had not even heard of it until I was booked on my cruise.
Ceuta, Spain.
After I woke this morning I got breakfast & then joined Helen & Shaw to take a walk around Ceuta. We met up with Tony & Kathy, who it turned out, lived very near to me in Spain & whose son, Chris, I was friends with.
We set off walking through parts of Ceuta close to the ship, visiting many places, including the Shrine of Our Lady of Africa, a church near the port, a Monument to the fallen in the African War, & Ceuta Cathedral, before heading to the beach on the south side of the promontory.
We then walked along the beautiful beach, watching lots of people fishing, as we walked towards Morocco. As we walked along Kathy spoke to a local who told us that the furthest point we could see along the beach was actually Morocco but that we could not cross the border as it is closed. It is strange to think of all the problems that are caused at the Spanish border with Gibraltar because Spain doesn't recognise that Gibraltar is an English dependency, & yet they have the same problems with Morocco because Morocco doesn't recognise that Ceuta is a Spanish dependency.
After walking a long way along the beach we turn back & walk to the walled fortress & walk through it on our way back towards the port. When we get back opposite the port, Shaw leaves us to go back to the ship & the rest of us continue into the shopping area of Ceuta, where we stop off for a drink at a small cafe bar. When we leave the bar we walk back through the main shopping centre, veering off every now & then to see different things along the way.
Early in the afternoon, we head down towards the Mediterranean Maritime Park. We soon find our way into the park & after walking around for a while we find a restaurant & we all sit down for a meal. The food was very good & I really enjoyed sitting in the park with Helen, Kathy & Tony. We sat talking for hours before I paid for the meal & we then all headed back towards the ship.
We had almost reached the ship & I went to take my ship's id card out of my pocket. I then realised that somewhere I had lost the card. It could have been anywhere & we had walked miles all over Ceuta & been to a couple of bars & restaurants as well as looking in lots of tourist sights. As we approached the Port entrance we were stopped by port security. Kathy spoke to the security in Spanish, telling them I had lost my id. The guard was very good, he phoned the ship`& spoke to them & told us to continue & that the security at the ship would speak to me. As we approached the dock the ship was in, more security stopped us & lead us towards the ship. This security guard walked so quickly I couldn't keep up & he disappeared. As we approached the ship, the ship's security called me up to them & explained that someone had found my id card in Ceuta & brought it back to the ship. The card had everyone's photo id scanned into it & all they had to do was run it through the scanner to check it was me. I was glad I hadn't got to go to the trouble of organising a new id card or proving who I was.
This evening I met Helen & Jean for dinner. We had a great meal & went to watch the night's entertainment in the theatre. We again saw the guitarist we had seen previously & again he was very good again. When the show finished Jean left us & went back to her cabin & Helen & I went to see the entertainment in another bar. It was advertised as a show where couples competed to see who knew more about each other. It was very poor but so poor it was funny. It seemed that the shows on board consisted of passengers being convinced to do silly things to try & amuse the other passengers. This wasn't the entertainment I was really looking for on a cruise, it was more suited to a 1970s TV show or holiday camp show.
After the show Helen went to her cabin & I had a pint in the bar before going back to my cabin.