Cadiz, Spain

 Sitting on the sea wall

 View over the rooftops to the ocean beyond

At the central market.  That's one big tuna

The cathedral and square where we drank our cafe con leche

Cadiz has been a commercial port for 3000 years, making it one of the oldest settlements in Europe.  Most passengers on the ship were using this port to access Seville, a two hour drive away, but we decided to spend the day exploring Cadiz.  I’m glad we did as it has so much to offer.

Dad spent his morning doing a coach tour of the surrounding area, including a sherry tasting at an enormous vineyard in Jerez.  Rob, Cam and I just wanted to walk around, and as the ship docked right in the downtown area, we didn’t have to walk far to find a cathedral on a square with a cafe.  Perfect for people-watching while downing a couple of cafe con leches.  

Old Cadiz is an island-like peninsular, so wherever you walk you tend to pop out by the sea.  The buildings leaned in on each other as we walked along incredibly narrow, cobblestone streets.  By chance we stumbled on the central market.  What a find.  Seafood so fresh most of it was still moving.  Lots of camerones on sale.  Wow - they really are TINY shrimp.  We were peckish so we bought some Iberian jamon and pecorino cheese, and a bag of little bread rolls, and stood on the street devouring it all.

There are 129 old watch towers in the city, one of which (Torre Tavira) has a large camera obscura at the top of it.  We stood in a completely darkened room with a white concave horizontal screen. Above, there is a hole through which the outside light enters, with a mirror and magnifying lenses, thus projecting the city as a brilliant moving image.  With me so far?  It was pretty awesome, but I guess you had to be there.  Afterwards we stood on the top of the tower and admired the 360 degree views first-hand.  It is such a beautiful city.  I don’t know how many times I told the guys I was coming back to live there one day (or at least visit for a really long time!). 

A restaurant, El Faro, had been recommended to us by the couple we met at lunch yesterday.  We took many twists and turns and seemed to always come out at Calle Virgen de las Penas.  Or, Street of the Virgin Penis as we came to call it.  Cameron is so immature.  However, we did eventually find the restaurant and got Dad to meet us there.  We had a feast of mixed fried seafood Cadiz-style, and paella, and local rose and ate ‘til we could eat no more.  Of course, after all that food, a walk was in order.  So, at our leisure, we traipsed back to our original cathedral and square (there are many squares with churches), and sat down for our apres-lunch coffee.  We were entertained by a teenage boy showing off to his mates.  He pretended to be a torreador (bullfighting is still very popular in Andalusia, although I thought it had been banned in Spain?) and he was really very good, so maybe he’d done some training.  All the kids sat on the cathedral steps and cheered him on.  We were all laughing.

We walked some more and finally made it back to the ship just before sailing.  Definitely my favourite port so far.