Cadiz is beautiful, a large beach peninsula area with a very relaxes atmosphere, happy and helpful people and lots to see as you ramble (with the knowledge that you can't get too lost as you'll hit sea on three sides of the city!)
Little moments from Cadiz that I will remember,
An old man with suit and cap shuffling along towards an apartment, a bunch of red carnations and a box of something in hand.
A thirty-ish, self-confident, balding, chunky guy in sunglasses, tshirt and Bermuda shorts, walking along a Cadiz pier with his dog. The dog was the size of a chihuahua, had a blue bow in a topknot on it's head and was terrified of anything that moved towards it. It was quite a strange juxtoposition!
The chatty old lady repainting the facade of her building in a quiet side street. Upon noticing us, her rambling included 'touristo' and rubbing her fingers together in a money like symbol. We wondered whether she wanted us to help her paint her wall, I imagine her back wasn't enjoying the job. Imagine having two days in a beautiful place like Cadiz and spending it in a shaded side street, painting a building wall - working holiday?!
Probably my favorite though, was walking back along the beach wall to our apartment and passing the school band rehearsing. The group of thirty or so were out on the asphalt sport area, in the dark, standing in a large circle and belting out their songs. There was a substantial proportion of large drums, thumped at reasonably precise intervals(!), a big brass section and accompanying instruments - it was glorious and so impressive. Our walk slowed to a ramble as we made our way past both nights to take in the atmosphere.
Colleen and I along the beachscape, check out the anti erosion rocks!
Cadiz is big and socio-economically well-off enough to host a large number of retail brands, colleen and I spent a while in mango (MNG) trying things on, and walked past zara, expensive dress and shoe stores and many others.
We visited their impressive cathedral, looked through the glass at the archaeological dig of cathedral footings, wandered through the city gate archway and ate ice-cream on the way to relax on the beach (though it got a bit chilly so we didn't last too long).
On the recommendation of our hotel attendant, we visited a food market area one morning and marvelled at the size of the tuna lying on the bench, two kilo slabs of it lying on top of it, ready to be sold. We all bought some fruit, strawberries, nectarines and cherries, yum; although I can't wait to get to turkey to sample the figs Selen has talked about. We found a busy little cafe that served tasty coffee and toasted bread with 'fresh tomato', most easily described as a coffee cup of blended and slightly dehydrated tomato (Mum, like the first tomato step in your guacamole), to be spread on your toast. I will have to do it at home, simple but yum!
From there we wandered through a nice park which was quite kid-friendly, with numerous playgrounds, and even a fountain area containing dinosaur sculptures, and a board walk up over the top of it - quite random really! Most amusing were the two white ducks having a nap on the back of the two metre crocodile sculpture!
Oh, and a note to self for Selen, when unplugging something to put your phone in to charge, check that it's not the minibar fridge you are using to keep chicken cold!
(colleen gets the thanks for today's alliterations! And the photos from her itouch, now that I am without a laptop the posts will be photo restricted!)
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Location:Av de Andalucía,Cadiz,Spain
Fantastic Sar, we will have to add this place to our list!
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