Catching Our Breaths in Cadiz

What were we thinking booking 5 nights in Cadiz?

On the itinerary, we had planned a couple of day trips out of Cadiz as well as the sights of this town situated on an isthmus, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. Truth is we arrived on Friday and it was Sunday before we got around to booking a day trip for Tuesday.

It was time to slow down, to do laundry, to write a blog post, to rest. We had a two bedroom apartment with kitchen, so we bought breakfast supplies, fruit and veggies, and containers of that creamy Andalusian gazpacho we discovered in Cordoba. We bought crunchy, grainy bread from the woman with the neon-red hair and infectious smile in the bakery around the corner.

Our place was in the old town, two blocks from the ocean. There is a walkway around the waterfront with parks and we were near the entrance to the Genoves Botanical Gardens. One evening we watched the cruise ships leave town, just like Dallas road in Victoria.

Cadiz is the oldest town in Europe. It was settled by the Phoenicians 3000 years ago (1104 BC). The Romans came in the late 3rd century BC after taking it from the Carthaginians.

During the 1500s, Cadiz was the ocean port through which all European ships to and from the new world sailed, after leaving the river port of Sevilla.

When Napoleon was on the rampage in the 1800s, he took all of Spain, except Cadiz despite trying for 1 1/2 years with the Siege of Cadiz. This was because the town is on an isthmus and had the walled fortifications that still stand around the town.

Today Cadiz is tidying itself up a bit and is a cruise ship port. But it is mostly marketed as the port for Sevilla once again, with a lot of people hopping on buses to visit the sights in Sevilla. There is apparently 46% unemployment (according to our tour guide) here but we didn’t see signs of this.

We dipped our toes in the ocean on Caleta beach not far from our place. This is the beach from which Halle Berry arose in that James Bond movie. Cadiz was masquerading as Cuba then.

If I had known when this photo was taken that this was the Halle Barry beach I might have made more of an effort – put on my string bikini maybe.

We sampled the seafood with mixed appreciation.

We visited the Roman salt-fishing factory remains. And we visited the market where there was no fish because it was Monday and they don’t fish on Sunday.

Finally on Tuesday we took a private tour south to Vejer de la Frontera, Bolonia and Tarifa with Marguerita and Juan of Funtaste Tours.

Vejer de la Frontera is a beautiful white hill top town. One of the Pueblos Blancos.

This is not a nun as I thought at first. Marguerite says it is the outfit Spanish women wore until it was banned in 1936 by Franco because boys were wearing it to escape military conscription. She said that her grandmother wore it. The top part is pulled up from the waist and covers the head and arms.

Bolonia is a village by the sea where the ruins of Baelo Claudia are. The town was founded by the Emperor Claudius in the 1st century AD as a fish salting town right on the beach. The Romans in this area of Spain caught the fish, then cleaned and cut them up, then processed them in layers of salt for preservation. Then the fish was shipped throughout the empire in amphorae.

This part of the Spanish coast, Costa de la Luz, is the windiest place in Europe. There are wind turbines all over the landscape. It is also a mecca for kite surfers.

The Battle of Trafalgar occurred just north of Bolonia and Baelo Claudia, 21 October 1805.

We ended our tour in Tarifa for lunch at 3 pm. The Atlantic meets the Mediterranean at Tarifa and there is a ferry to Tangiers, Morocco. We toyed with the idea of going to Morocco or Gibraltar but in the end didn’t manage either.

Revitalized we left Cadiz the next day bound for Sevilla. From the train, we caught sight of the tallest bridge in the marine haze.

Now here it is your moment of mosaic – a mythological sea creature (ichthyocentaur or man, horse, fish) from Cadiz archeological museum.