Our time in Madrid ended the morning after the bull fight experience. No bad dreams during the night of being gored by a bull. We made our way by taxi down to the Madrid regional rail station to catch the 10.35am to Malaga. Malaga is almost due south of Madrid on the Mediterranean coast, about 420km by train. It took a little under three hours on the fast train, stopping several times. We hit speeds of in excess of 220kmh on sections of the track, not super fast but quick enough.

The Watts also left us on their Globus bus trip loop around the eastern side of Spain and will return to Madrid for their flight back to Australia.

We had a night in Malaga ahead of our Oceania cruise to the Canary Islands, with a stop in Morocco on the way down the African coast.

We took the opportunity in Malaga to see a traditional Flamenco show, never been to one before. It was held in a small restaurant all set up for the occasion, a partially lit club like atmosphere prevailed with onlookers seated around a small stage.

There was a chap plucking a guitar of some sort, lots of strings. He seemed to be pretty good at it and convinced us to buy his CD after the show.

There was then another chap who sang along with the guitar, the songs didn’t seem to be all in Spanish, maybe there was some North African in there somewhere.

Anyway, he wasn’t too bad. Then there were two girls, perhaps better described as young mature women who did the dancing to the music and singing. Sometimes together and at other times by themselves.

One of them had a pained expression on her face for most of the time, the other smiled and grinned a bit during her performances. Homealone thought that the different facial expressions might be due to the nature of the story being portrayed in the dance routines. It was an interesting performance and something new for us. It was then off for a late snack at a nearby restaurant and then bed.

The following day we had a bit of a lie in and recuperation from all the activity before heading to the dock to board the Nautica, a relatively small ship with 684 guests and 400 crew. The ship sailed away at 7pm on schedule bound for Agadir on the Atlantic coast in Morocco.

That evening we had dinner in the Pollo Grill, a first night celebration. Homealone had the very tasty veal chop.

The next day was spent at sea, the weather was overcast but pleasantly warm. Seas were calm. Day of rest ahead of arriving in Agadir in the morning.

When ashore in Agadir we were whisked away by an energetic guide who kept telling us to return to Agadir, ‘we need you tourists’. He was a bit of a comedian. Occasionally funny.

First stop was at an entertainment type establishment for a Fantasia show. A ‘Fantasia’ show is a bit like a circus and is a collection of folk acts displaying local culture. There were some musicians and dancers.

The odd animal is involved as well. So we had some threatening men, in traditional garb, on horseback charging us with rifles and lances.

An acrobat troupe then joined in the action, rather good.

The coup de gras though was the snake charmer who came on at the end with his box of tricks that concealed various snakes, including a cobra. He suitably controlled the snakes showing them around the audience.

The cobra though was a bit stubborn and wouldn’t fully rise up to the flute like instrument he was playing, despite also being prodded with a tambourine.

After the Fantasia it was back in the bus for a visit to the city’s big Souk El Had. Souks are interesting places to wander through. The only downside being the constant harassment to buy.

We ended up in the haberdashery, homewares, shoes and electrics area none of which we wanted. I think the vendors sensed this and basically left us alone to wander into the spot where there were baskets full of biscuits and dates.

Slobro just loves dates. This was more interesting with the great presentations on display.

We left the Souk empty handed apart from a postcard and got back on the bus destined for the Kasbah, a 16th century historic fort, high on a hill overlooking the city and harbour.

It was largely destroyed in a big earthquake in 1960, like most of Agadir, but has since been rebuilt/restored.

The great views from up here were restricted by sea cloud that had rolled in, but the spot is still impressive.

We now set sail for the Canary Islands and are going to have a busy few days with five port stops over the next five days.