CAMERA OBSCURA

October 7, 2017

It has been a strange one today fellow bloggers and bloggettes.  And as they said in Smokey and the Bandit, “We’ve got a long way to go, and I’m going to type for only a short time.”  Or something like that.

It was a beautiful day in Cadiz, temperatures in the 80s, very comfortable in the shade, and some breezes blowing off of the Atlantic.  After breakfast we set off to find the Torre Tavira, one of the 136 remaining watch towers in the city.  At one time there were 170.  Merchants would build them so they could watch for their ships coming in from the New World.  The tops were painted different colors so the ships’ captains would be able to aim for the proper dock.  Today they are just unusual constructions on buildings.  Except for the one that was our destination.

In 1993 or 94 the owners of Torre Tavira put a camera obscure on the top of the tower.  This CO is an incredible visual device that focuses an image through a lense onto a conical surface (it’s like looking into the top of a very wide ice cream cone).  The operator turns the lens and you get a complete 360 degree view of the city, live, in real time.  You can watch buses driving down the streets, people walking through the markets, and see the sea waves lapping up on the beaches.  Look for it on YouTube.  There is a real nice one showing what we saw today.  We tried to find it the last time we were here, and as it turned out, didn’t walk quite far enough.

Just for your learning pleasure, another type of CO is a pin hole camera.  Some of us are old enough to remember taking a shoe box into a dark closet, taping a piece of unexposed picture film (you may have to explain that to the grand kids) to the inside, closing the box, and punching a small hole in one end, opposite the film.  Then we took it outside, uncovered the hole, and a picture was exposed – whatever the box was pointing at.  Renaissance artists used them to help their create portraits (and all of that is in one of my talks that I am not doing on this cruise).

To get to the Torre Tavira we hopped on the Hop On Hop Off bus and rode to the Cathedral of Cadiz and hopped off.  The church wasn’t open yet – this is a special day in the Roman Catholic Church (I’ve heard two explanations: one in honor of the Virgin Mary, and the other in honor of Rosario, the patron saint of the city).  So we went to the Torre first, did some shopping back, went into the Cathedral, and back on the bus and toured the rest of the city from the top of a double decker.

The other part of the day was me being frustrated with my backup computer.  My main computer is still in the entertainment department where they were trying to configure it to work with their projectors and things in the World Stage.  Yesterday’s blog and email was done on the spare.  Today it wouldn’t connect to the internet.  To make a long story short, I couldn’t get it to work, I took it to Guest Relations where it frustrated first Chris and the Sheila who sent me to Yan, the internet guru on board.  Some how some settings were changed – I promise you I didn’t touch anything, nor did my partner.  Computers do what they want to do.  There really is artificial intelligence.  Anyway Yan got it working through a process that my personal tech support may understand.  I am trying not to touch anything but the keys on WordPerfect, and the clicks to get online.

As for tomorrow’s talk on Ferdinand Magellan I will have this computer ready, and I will have a backup on a flash drive, and if the Sony Vaio gets back to me in time, and is talking to the projectors, I will transfer the program from the flash drive to it.  And you thought  this was all fun and games at sea.

It is now Bonnie’s turn.

TTFN

Up-Up–Up–and–Away!!
The previous writer neglected to tell you to get to the room where the camera showed the picture you had to ascend 173 winding mesh metal steps (wide enough for only one person and you had to back up or wait for someone to pass going the other direction). They went round and round to the top of the building, where you waited then you went down one level to the camera room for a 15 minute program. It was given first in Spanish and then, the young lady would say it in English. The Spanish explanation was always about 3 times longer than our English version! [Editorial Comment – no it wasn’t] After the program it was down those same 173 steps to get outside. Also, we viewed most of the picture upside down. It was interesting and the views from the terrace on the very top of the building were great.  We wandered around the small streets after the show , doing some shopping. In one plaza there was an old fashioned flea market. The streets were very crowded. There was one other cruise ship in town and as it was Saturday and a holiday, there were a lot of locals, also. 

We did stop back into the church where we got off the bus and they had a large service going on inside. We have visited this church before. It is very beautiful. It was very crowded today. It is interesting because in this church the choir stands in the rear of the church around the organ behind a metal fence and sings from there. It was an all male group again today as it was the last time we were here. They sing quite beautifully.

After returning to the bus, we enjoyed the ride almost back to our ship. There are 12 stops on this bus and they stopped at 11 and said everybody off and get on another bus that had pulled up behind us because it was our drivers lunchtime. Instead of getting on the second bus we decided to walk the rest of the way. It was about ½ to 3/4 of a mile. After passing through the metal detectors, and of course being wandered, we got back on board. We went to the cabin, deposited our goodies and headed to the Lido for lunch. Again it was almost 2:30 so he headed for hotdogs ( which are Nathans all beef hotdogs). I decided to go to deck 10 and the deli/pizza and get a pizza today. Well, it should have taken about 10 minutes but it took 20. The guy who was in charge of making the pizzas they had sent in the back to make some salads that they had ran out of. So me and the 4 other people who had come up and ordered pizzas were put on the back burner. The pizzas are made from scratch. They take a ball of dough, stretch it out and put on your toppings. I ordered red sauce, pepperoni, tomatoes and of course cheese. The crust was fantastic. You get about 10 inch pizza. I devoured it all except some of the edges.

After lunch we headed to the room. Now about our room. I haven’t told you anything yet. It is a very nice room.  We have a large window, a large king size bed (made by pushing two smaller beds together) and a big bathroom, for a cruise ship. The shower is fantastic! It is as big as the shower in our bathroom at 233. You can turn around in it and not swipe the wall. It has glass doors!! There is lots of cabinet space, drawers, hangers and shelves.  We sent out laundry yesterday, half of what we own and hope to get it back tomorrow.

After lunch David napped and I went up to deck 3 and crocheted and listened to my book. I came back about 4:30 to take a bath and wash my hair because it was really dirty after 3 days in a hat and hot sweaty weather. Then, I rested while he went to see about the computer. We went to supper a little later.  I had a cold melon soup, a salad and chicken scallopine with mashed potatoes and vegetables.  Dessert was vanilla and mint ice cream. Just one comment about the 2 couples at our table, yak,yak,yak,yak, aren’t there any normal people. When David said he was a guest lecturer and was talking about history the one lady said, “I hate history”. So we said no more. It is very hard to hear in the dining room so I pretty much just sit and try to listen. There hasn’t been many opportunities to talk. Everyone at dinner has just go on, and on about there trips or jobs or whatever.

Well, tomorrow will be a lazy day. I will walk and crochet. We walked 3 miles again today.
The 3 talks are at 11, 2 and 3. I am only going to the 2 and your Dad’s at 3. Bingo is right after his talk. That is always difficult. Well, at least it isn’t art. Don’t have to get up early, so we will probably sleep to about 7 and then go to breakfast. He will come back to study and I will go crocheting.

Hey Mac studying for the test every night means you don’t have to try and cram the night before.  Say thank you Momma.

Well, goodnight for now. Love you all.

Mom, Granny and Bonnie