October 11 - Cádiz, Spain

I’m batting 1000 in the last two days!  I had another absolutely delightful day. The Ovation docked around noon right in downtown Cádiz.  There are two other ships here, the Oceania Riviera and the Mein Schiff III.  They look massive next to us.

First a little about this city. Cádiz is believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in western Europe. Legend has it that it was founded by Hercules, but the truth is that the real founders were the Phoenicians about 3100 years ago. It has been important over the millennia because it’s at the convergence of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. The city is on a peninsula connected by a narrow strip of land to the mainland.  The last time I was here with Al four years ago a new bridge had just opened connecting Cádiz and the mainland in an effort to ease the traffic.  It’s a very clean city and I saw not a single panhandler.  Most of the people I saw today looked Hispanic.

I waited until around 1 PM before disembarking.  The bulk of my fellow passengers took a long tour to Sevilla and I waited until they were on their way.  We’re here until 10:30 PM so I had plenty of time. When I exited the terminal there was a taxi stand and an enterprising man named Raul offered to take me on a tour.  This was the same thing we did on our last visit and we had a lovely time then, so I decided to try it again. We negotiated a price and we were off.

I sat in the front passenger seat. Raul spoke not a word of English yet we managed beautifully with the Spanish I’m remembering more of every day and sign language.   (If I stayed here for a week I might actually be pretty conversant again.) Our first stop was the Plaza de San Antonio. I remembered it from an earlier visit. There is a lovely church and the plaza is surrounded by buildings which reflect the Moorish influence. They have beautiful arched windows and lots of tiles on the facades.  We walked down a little street so narrow a car couldn’t pass to a bar where there was a wall with very old casks of local wines.  The proprietor who was a friend of my driver gave me a glass of exquisite sherry from one of the barrels.  The color was a very deep amber and the aroma was literally intoxicating.  It tasted pretty good too!

                                                  The church in Plaza de San Antonio

                                          Raul in front of the very old casks

We got back in the car and zipped through some narrow, twisting streets and came to La Caleta, the long beautiful beach on the opposite side of the peninsula. The promenade along the beach has been featured in many films often filling in for  the Malecon in Havana. From the Caleta we went to a botanical garden and park. They have built a grotto and waterfall there surrounded by hibiscus bushes and other plants whose names I don’t know unfortunately.  The sound of the water cascading down was so soothing I could imagine families coming here on lazy afternoons to stroll and picnic.

                          Some scenes along the Caleta promenade

                     A rare occasion when I put a photo of me in front of the waterfall

                         Inside the manmade cave looking out through the cascade

We passed by the theater, the old cathedral and the Plaza de la Constitucion.  The oldest constitution in Spain was ratified in Cádiz in 1812. We stopped and took photos; actually Raul took most of them because he did a much better job with my iPhone than I did.  I told him he should have been a photographer, that he’d missed his calling.

On previous visits I had noticed lots of towers around the old city.  Today I learned why they are here.  Merchants would build towers above their houses so they could look out to the sea and see trading ships coming in and be first at the docks to meet them for trade.

I had asked Raul if he knew a good local place where we could have a light lunch. He had called ahead and reserved a table.  It was a good thing too; it was packed, but he’s a regular and friends with everyone there. He parked and we walked down one of those narrow streets impassable by a car to Café Rafael. I didn’t see a menu but we had a delicious meal of grilled fish, potatoes and a salad with a very nice local dry white wine.  The meal for the two of us was 40€. It was truly a bargain for what we ate and drank.

After we finished Raul drove me back to the port and we said our good-byes.  He gave me his contact information and if I return I will definitely try to get him to drive me around again.  He was a nice man and a good guide.

So that was my day in Cádiz.  It’s a lovely city with a lot of history and truly friendly people.  Tomorrow we’ll be in Gibraltar.  When Raul asked where we were going next and told him that he had the usual reaction of most Spaniards – the English have no business owning that piece of Spain!