Cádiz, Spain
I apologize for the confusion on the last post. My sidekick, Dawn the Donkey, got tired of waiting for me to update here and tried her hoof at being helpful. Not bad for a stuffed animal! She’s back to just tagging along now. Here she is at our port stop in Cádiz sporting her new yellow necktie.
After her run-in with the dogs, she had to get a shower and change of clothes. And that’s all she had in the suitcase.
The statue behind her is called the Monument to the Constitution of 1812.
It’s the very first point of interest we stumbled on after stepping off the ship. Cádiz signed this document to oppose Napoleon, who was trying to takeover Europe back in that day. This was just the beginning. There is so much history in this city!
We followed the crowds into quaint narrow alleys. It’s so strange to me that people lived so close together back when real estate was so cheap.
I wanted to plunge headlong into the charming alleys, but Joseph urged caution. So we stayed in the wider roads or tagged along behind other cruise passengers until we came to the Puerta de Tierra Gateway. This medieval fortification was originally built in the 1500’s. I could only capture bits and pieces in the pictures because it is so large.
By taking advantage of a narrow neck of land, this became a kind of wall protecting the old city. What an amazing feeling to walk through this narrow foot passage, imagining peddlers and fishermen doing the same thing hundreds of years ago.
The moat that was once filled with water had been converted into parks. One side had green grass and playground equipment. The other was concrete sport courts. I loved watching this dad play soccer with his child, dwarfed by the 40-foot high walls.
We headed toward the water where the map showed a nice long scenic walk. And that’s when we stumbled on a couple of our shipmates, the brothers Dave and Doug.
Dave, on the right, lives on Carnival cruise ships and his brother is just tagging along for a few weeks. I know that sounds crazy, but some folks really cut loose when they retire!
The seafront promenade was all that I hoped. Just stunning really!
We kept seeing what looked like fortifications in the sand. Apparently there are leftovers of Roman aqueducts on some of the shorelines, but I don’t know if that’s what they were. Here is one that looks like it might’ve been a building at one time.
The only problem with this wonderful town is that there are no public bathrooms. You pretty much have to stop somewhere and have a cup of coffee. Ironically, this creates a need for another bathroom stop. I don’t know how parents do it! At least they had an espresso just the right size for Dawn the donkey.
This particular café was memorable because the manager had to ask us to leave, because an elderly woman who was a regular had arrived and was impatiently waiting for her regular albeit tiny table!
We walked back along the main drag and this was much more modern. Most of buildings seem like they were built in the 60s or 70s. I should dig into that a bit and find out why. Someday!
For some reason this beautiful flat empty lot was just going unused. Another mystery.
On the way back, we came through the historic gate from the other side. That’s about when I took a closer look at the tourist map and discovered there was a walking tour! For me, this is where the fun began. But for Joseph, the zigzag through the old town that we had already walked through was not as fascinating. Still, I took too many pictures to post today. I’ll have to finish this up in the next post. So I think it was well worthwhile!
(Trees growing in the Puerta de Tierra Gateway moat.)