Cadiz, Spain

Monday, May 5

Bright sunshine and a clear blue sky greeted us this morning and as Cadiz is a port that enables cruise ships to berth right beside the main esplanade near the town square, we had some great views before we even left the ship.

View from ship over Plaza de Espana

We made our way to the Tourist Info booth where we found out there were 4 themed walks of approx 1 hour each that would take us right around the city and past all the major points of interest. (If only all cities did this!). There is a painted line on the paving to follow for each walk so after studying our map, we decided to combine the Purple & Green Walks first. These go past the city square, main cathedral through the Old Town and then the fresh produce market - all the things we love. At times the lines disappeared but, with the aid of the map - albeit a very simple map - we were able to find all the sites we wanted to see. Sadly, the market was only partly open today but the fruit and vegetables were beautifully displayed and looked so tempting. Strawberries are at their peak here and are only Euro 1.50 a kilo. They are huge but are sweet and juicy not hard and white inside like many of the larger ones at home. How nice if Coles & Woolworths followed suit with their pricing!

Town Hall in Plaza de San Juan de Dios

Al at Arco de Los Blanco (with Green Walk line)

The last four days have been fairly quiet in the mornings with many Spaniards taking a 4 day weekend and obviously enjoying a sleep-in but today everyone was out and about. It is amazing how the atmosphere of a place really changes when everyone is around and the sun is shining. We found the gardens around Cadiz to be particularly nice and they provided some welcome relief after walking in the hot sun. We walked for miles up and down little alleyways, out into larger squares, around parks and gardens, in and out of buildings and, of course, shops too. Cadiz really is an interesting city and it's buildings are so varied although there is a strong Moroccan influence.

The different spires and domes of the Cathedral

Al in one of the beautiful gardens around Cadiz

Clothing in Spain is very reasonably priced (we suspect due to the economic situation here) so we had to stop to try things on and both of us got some great bargains. We returned to the ship to leave our shopping then went out again to do a walk along the esplanade beside the sea and the water was those glorious shades of turquoise blue and green so it was a particularly enjoyable walk. Both of us have loved our time in Spain and Cadiz certainly hasn't disappointed.

Noelle at the Cathedral

 

Posted with Blogsy