A lull in the WEG action, on Tuesday, September 18, with only a jumper warm-up class, and plenty of rain to hamper good photos, we took a side trip to Cadiz, 20 miles southwest of Jerez, where the sun was shining. It was Astrid's last day with us in Spain, and although she would be joining us in the USA at Dressage at Devon next week, it was time for her to get set up for her first year in graduate school, and to spend some time with her family and horses. We wanted to make her final day special with a visit to this ancient city, which claims to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Western world.

Surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean, Cadiz was founded as Gadir by Phoenician traders in 1100 BC. Hannibal lived here for a time and it was here Julius Cesar first held public office.

Columbus set out from here for America on his second voyage, and Cadiz later became the home base of the Spanish fleet. "If it were not for this city," said Astrid, you and JJ might have been Europeans like us!"

The old city is African in appearance and immensely intriguing with a cluster of narrow streets, which open into charming small squares. After finding a place to park, and adventure in itself, we used the short amount of time we had here to simply walk around and soak up the ambience of this European seaside town.

With the inviting smells of nearby restaurants, it was decided food was a better way to spend the day than looking at cathedrals and churches, and after a short walk through the ancient streets where we were watched from apartment balconies by different versions of small dogs.

We found a tiny restaurant the size of our work table at the press center in Jerez, and ordered the best meal to date we have had in Spain. Huge prawns soaked in garlic sauce, fried calamari, and a "fruit of the sea" combination of shellfish and fried seaweed. We washed it all down with a bottle of delightful white wine, and JJ, who played it safe with a veal dish, had two huge mugs of beer.

We returned later to the press center (after a nap in the car while JJ drove) to our colleagues wondering where we had been. As I worked on updating the website, JJ brought Astrid to the Jerez airport, leaving her with our Motorola walkie talkie, for her impending arrival in Philadelphia, in just one short week, September 25th.

It is hard to believe that this time next week we will be reunited with our dogs, and living in our camper behind the Gold Arena for Dressage at Devon, one of the oldest Dressage competitions in America.