Melilla, Spain

February 26^th, 2025

Our final port was to be Oran, Algeria.

We had never been to Algeria, and I was very excited to visit Algeria’s 2^nd largest city. It looked like a fascinating port, with an exotic old part of the city.

However, like many things on this cruise, it was not to be.

We received an email stating that for “operational reasons” our visit to Oran was cancelled and we would now be visiting Melilla, an autonomous city of Spain.

I was very disappointed, I had so been looking forward to Oran, and Melilla just didn’t do anything for me somehow. But we would just have to make the best of it.

Our suite is on the starboard side of the ship, and usually that is the side where they install the gangway, so whenever we have been in port, our view from the balcony is usually of cranes, warehouses, and large containers. Today we docked on the port side, so I finally got to see a great view from our suite.

Ilise had arranged a walking tour of Jewish Melilla, but unfortunately as she is now back in the US, David and Ilise would not be joining us. So, it was just Brian and me as well as Phyllis and Michael on our tour.

Melilla is one of those cargo ports where your tour guide cannot come in to the port, so we took the shuttle bus to the Plaza de Espana to meet our guide, Moses.

The Plaza is really a large roundabout surrounded by magnificent buildings, constructed in the modernist style.

The city is divided into 2 sections, the old town and the new town, however the new town isn’t so new, it also has a historic center which is where we will end out tour. We started our tour by walking to the old town.

This is basically a walled city built on several levels that also served as a fort.

There are several museums there.

We visited the Melilla Historic Museum.

There is a great display on the history of Melilla, including artifacts from the Phoenician period.

As well as a wonderful model of the old town.

Melilla is only 4.7 square miles in size, and is surrounded by Morocco and the Mediterranean Sea. An old map there shows the city, and its relationship to Morocco.

Moses was very instrumental in setting up the Jewish section of the museum. The museum is extremely well done, explaining the long history of the Jews in Melilla, as well as showcasing important Jewish traditions and artifacts.

There is a model of the Or Zaruah Synagogue

And a beautiful glass reconstruction of the synagogue’s doors.

There are replicas of objects inside the synagogue, as well as original artifacts from Melilla’s synagogues.

All in all everything is beautifully well done, and I could have stayed there for a much longer time to really take in all that was there.

After the museum we walked around the old town, through the narrow alleyways

We saw the site of the first synagogue in Melilla as well as the adjacent oven for beaking bread.

On the tour Moses explained a lot about the history of the Jews in Melilla, and pointed out relevant buildings. This is the site of another synagogue

From the bastions we saw a great view of the city, but as it turned out, most of what we could see was actually in Morocco.

We walked along the bastions

And had a good look at our ship.

We then walked around the old town for a while.

After exploring the old town we walked back to the new town and the Plaza de Espana.

We got a close up look at the magnificent buildings, designed by Enrique Nieto.

There is a lovely statue of the architect.

We also came across a small plaza with a definite Gaudi influence.

There is a great statue of Miguel Cervantes writing Don Quixote in the plaza near the Catholic Cathedral.

Our final stop of the tour was at the Or Zaruah Synagogue, also designed by Enrique Nieto.

The building has 3 floors. The ground floor is retail space, the middle floor is a private residence, and the top floor is the synagogue itself.

We got to see the original doors, the glass replica of the door is in the museum.

On entering through the doors, there is the staircase to the upper floors, and you can see the stained glass window above the doors. Inside the stairwell is a small lift, but it looked a bit dicey to me, so we walked up the marble stairs to the synagogue.

Or Zaruah means “light is sown”, and Moses said the term originates from Psalm 97:11. Well the synagogue is well named. The sanctuary is filled with light.

Sunlight streams in through the stained-glass windows, and the many chandeliers add to the abundance of light in the room. It is quite stunning.

The sanctuary is really beautiful.

We have been on several Jewish heritage tours around the world, but I must say that Moses is the best guide we have had, His love for his heritage and excitement sharing this with us is infectious. He really is a lovely man. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour.

We decided to go back to the ship for lunch. There was a great view of the town from the ship.

Today is our final sail away. I suppose because the weather is a bit cooler, there was no sail away celebration out on deck. Instead, as the Sojourn headed back into the Mediterranean Sea, we headed to the Grand Salon. The magician, Hector is Magic did another show. We had missed his first show, and we enjoyed this second one. The problem with guest magicians is that they all tend to be very similar. Hector did do some new and fun magic tricks. One where he ended up with a guest’s ring tied to his shoelace was amazing. How on earth did he do that? However, he was such an engaging personality that I think I would have enjoyed the show even if he didn’t do anything new or amazing. He was just fun to watch.

We went back to the Grand Salon at 9:30 to see Martin Kaye perform again. Tonight’s show was a celebration of the music of Elton John. Martin is such a high energy performer, the sort where you feel exhausted just watching him. I am a huge Elton John fan, so 45 minutes of listening to him do justice to Elton John’s music was really great. It was a fantastic show.

After the show we went to the Observation Bar. Usually it is fairly quiet. We find a seat at the bar, Dan pours me a chocolate martini, we listen to Robert on the guitar, and we chat with the other folks at the bar. It is all very sedate.

Not tonight. We did find a seat at the bar, and Dan did pour my chocolate martini, Robert was playing his guitar, but tonight was different.

Along with Robert, Martin Kaye was on the piano, and Santini from the Seabourn 6 was playing his guitar, and they were all singing. It was a wonderful jam session.

The three singers from Gravity joined in as well.

It was such fun. We had a fantastic time. It was one of those nights that you want to go on forever. I wanted to savor every minute. I knew this cruise had to end, but nights like this are so magical. Then on the stroke of midnight Dan asked for last call for drinks. Soon afterwards the music stopped, and reluctantly we all headed back to our suites.

I had had very low expectations of Melilla, but it had turned out to be a really lovely port and Moses was a marvelous tour guide. Today had simply been one of the best days of the cruise. I don’t want this cruise to end. Ever.