OLA! Or, happy Labour Day, as they say in Europe! Woke up on a much brighter day than we had been led to expect by the Weather Channel (but then whoever believes them?!) They had been predicting rain, and so far, (knock wood!) it’s been very breezy, but still nice and sunny, which is always good when you’re at the beach! Up around 8-ish after a very good rest. This morning, we breakfasted on cheese and salami and a bit of fruit; saving some of the eggs for a later breakfast.
We are truly having a very difficult time with what R calls “Double Daylight Savings” time … we absolutely NEVER sleep this much, but for some reason, being as far west as we are, it seems like we are sleeping far too late, and then the day passes so very quickly. Not sure I’m doing a very good job explaining – it’s just that time-wise, we’re more than a little confused!
Today being a national holiday, we were surprised that there were actually stores open for business – maybe that’s the “labour” part of labour day? At any rate, today was our day to explore Old Town Cadiz, which lies at the end of the #1 bus route into town. I decided that as rain was predicted, I’d take one of the backpacks rather than a purse – all the better to put things in … like umbrellas and jackets, etc. We actually got to the bus stop and almost into the bus – until the driver reminded us that we needed MASKS on public transportation! Whoops! Our bad! So, back upstairs and gathering masks. Fortunately for us, it seems like there is a #1 bus every few minutes, so back downstairs, across the street – and voila, in 2 or 3 minutes, here we go! Lovely day and lovely ride into the city!
The old town area isn’t really that big, and soon we were seeing water on both sides of us – on our left heading into town the beaches we walked along yesterday, and on the other side, the commercial port with lots of ships and boats of all kinds gathered together. We got off at the end of the line – which is under major reconstruction, and then headed off in search of the City of Cadiz Museum.
Cadiz is really lovely to walk around. The streets are very, very clean and there aren’t too many cars to avoid. One difficulty, though, is the lack of street signage! In some places, there are four corners completely devoid of any name whatsoever! Does everyone just automatically know where they’re going, so it’s not necessary? Hmmm… one thing that we had read about were the cannons! Seems that during the Napoleonic war, a great many cannons were left behind – and what the towns people did was to plant them in concrete at the corners of their buildings, standing on end, muzzle up, as protection from turning vehicles! And, where there weren’t enough cannons, it seems they just put up metal plates to protect the buildings! Cannons as street furniture – what a great idea!
(Certainly better than they were originally intended, that’s for sure!)
The City of Cadiz Museum was open today (surprise!) and it was free, so in we went. The bottom level of the museum is filled with archaeological artifacts from around the immediate area, and the upstairs is basically flat, religious art. Let us say that we loved the bottom, and skipped the top! (I’m such a philistine!) Cadiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, with archaeological remains dating to the 12th century BC, was founded by the Phoenicians from Tyre. Their city, then known as Gadir, was where all the luxury goods from all over the Mediterranean came to be traded for local metals (gold, silver and copper). Later, during the Second Punic War, the Romans took control. Then came the Moors, who were eventually pushed out by the Christians. Known internationally (or as internationally as was possible in the “Age of Exploration”) Christopher Columbus sailed from here on his second and fourth voyages, and Cadiz later became the home port of the Spanish treasure fleet.
From the museum, we next headed to the Cathedral. It is huge, but interestingly enough, not very old. It was built between 1722 and 1838, with money from the trade between Spain and America. They have a very good audio guide that you access through the bar-code on your phone. The only problem is that, as anyone who knows me knows already, I have a truly inverse Midas touch … I touch anything electrical, and weird things happen. My cell phone screens turn backwards, I’ve brought down the electricity in three hotels on two continents – I touch the light switch, and the entire hotel loses power … but today was really and truly frustrating! Sometimes I could get the signal, and sometimes I couldn’t … R was able to hear everything through his blue-tooth hearing aids, but that wasn’t much help for me! I do have to admit to finally giving up in frustration! Had to actually go outside into the sunlit plaza … and drown my sorrows in Stracciatella gelato. Oh well!
By this time, we’d seen most of what we wanted to see, so decided to head back to the apartment. Found the bus stop with no problem, and a minute or two later, we were heading home! I was able to identify our getting-off spot based on the Restaurant Pomodoro that I’d noticed yesterday, and in just a few minutes we were back in our lovely apartment! Putting the blog together now, and then will head out at 7 for our reservation at Arsenio Manila! YUM! What’s for dinner?!
Lots of love,
m
xxx
PS - I am going to post this, and then all the photos -- because there are a lot of them!
Love,
m
xxx
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