Cadiz was one of the highlights of the trip. It was a character-filled town and wasn’t on the main tourist route in the same way Seville was. At the same time Cadiz is a cruise ship port and one day there were two enormous ships tied up and the cruisers flooded the streets of the old town – so it is hardly an unknown destination.
Cadiz wasn’t well served by buses so we had our 1st train journey of this trip. Europe so far was pretty much mask-free except on public transport. A lot of the countryside we saw on the journey to the coast was relatively unpopulated.
The views from the tower beside the Cadiz Cathedral gave great views over the city, but you did not want to be up there when the bells chimed every quarter hour. The access to the tower was by way of a circular ramp, rather than circular stairs. It was designed that way so horses could walk their riders to the top. It was infinitely easier to walk up and down a ramp, than the pokey stairs. We saw a number of examples of this design throughout Andalucía and it is so much easier to walk.
The streets in the old town where we stayed were clean and colourful. There was lots of good food and we could avoid the obviously touristy places. One of the best meals of the trip was in a small restaurant, on a random little street, where they let us in early (12:45) and treated us to top-notch food and wine for a reasonable price. Andrew discovered chilled tomato soup, Salmorejo and is planning to cook it himself.
We were ambivalent about visiting the city museum, but enjoyed it enormously. With an eclectic collection of ancient artefacts and art
There was a temporary exhibition of the traditional puppets of the region which apparently had almost been lost to time, but some examples were being discovered in people’s attics. They were a little freaky – those black circles around the eyes were not super cute.
