A day at the beach in Cádiz

Check, check, check it out. Bloggin' three days in a row, I'm on a role. However, there appears to be an inverse relationship between the temperature here and my desire to blog, as the temperature goes up my blogging ambitions go down. So as the weather becomes ever warmer I have made a vow to try to keep up with my blogging, not only for you all but for myself as well, because this blog will serve as a remind of all the adventures I had here in Spain for years to come. So without further ado here is a little bit about my trip to Cádiz two weekends ago, oh how the time flies.

This trip to Cádiz was the last "free" trip, that CIEE offers, I'm sure the cost is included in program fees but I like free things so I'm calling them free. I managed to go on all of the free trips and honestly none of them were disappointing in the least. It was a nice way to ease into traveling, having everything planned out and having CIEE staff to field any problems we may have had. They always put us up in nice hotels if it was a weekend trip, provided us with food and local tour guides. These trips were the perfect length and a great way to see parts of Spain that I may not have traveled to otherwise! I was very excited to travel to Cádiz, because it is a beach town, and you all know I love the ocean.

Cádiz is pretty far south, and is on the Atlantic.

After a very comfortable bus ride, we all got our own row of seats because they offered so many other days to take this trip that we only had about 25 people on a greyhound bus, we pulled into Cádiz around 11 AM. I was a little disappointed to see that is was foggy and a little windy, I was worried it was going to cramp my style and prevent me from enjoying the beach but thankfully as the day wore on the fog burned off and the sun came out. 

Cádiz is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Spain, it has been around for over 3,000 years. On our tour through the city we started in the area called "Old Town" and got to see remnants of old cathedrals, the old city walls and even some roman ruins. Much of the city is new, as in built after the 18th century because the city was attacked my England in 1702 and was devastated by the British cannons. They have since reclaimed some of the land back from the ocean and have (obviously) rebuilt. Cádiz also recently celebrated its bicentennial of independence as an autonomous provence of Spain, it was the first one to do so.

View of the pretty, white beach town from the torre of the cathedral.

Another thing that is interesting about Cádiz is that it is the only city in Spain that handles tobacco directly and turns it into things like cigarettes. Sevilla had the monopoly on tobacco trade with the Americas until the 18th century when the Rio Guadalquivir's water levels lowered and sandbars started to appear. The Spanish government decided to move their main port from Sevilla to Cádiz which has direct access to the Atlantic, this decision converted Cádiz into one of the wealthiest ports in all of Spain. One fact we learned about tobacco was that the women were in charge of handling the highest grade of tobacco because they are naturally more dexterous and could more skillfully roll cigarettes.

Old tobacco factory in Cádiz. 

Statue dedicated to the women of the tobacco trade.

Then we headed into the Plaza de San Antonio for a short rest break before heading up into the torre (tower) of the Catedral de Cádiz. The cathedral of Cádiz is much less grand than the one in Sevilla, and it was never completely finished due to a lack of funds. It only has two towers instead of the intended four and it has empty alcoves, outside and inside, where statues of saints should be. Nonetheless it was still pretty and the view from the top was to die for.

Plaza de San Antonio. 

One of the torres of the cathedral.

View of the cathedral, you can really see the missing statues on the torres.

Cupola of Cádiz Cathedral.

Ocean view :) 

Palm tree oasis in the middle of the city.

After our ascent of the torre we went for a walk around Cádiz we visited the flower market and a number of other local markets. Walked through some pretty gardens and even got to see another one of the special trees that Cristobal Colon brought back to Spain from America. Mercifully, before all of the walking became to much we arrived and the beach and were told we now had free time until it was time to leave.

Gilana, Zoe and I had all neglected to bring lunch so we headed back into the city to find some pescado frito or fried fish, which Cádiz is known for. We asked our tour guide for a recommendation and he sent us to the most wonderful place, it was full or locals and very busy! After waiting for about twenty minutes we got more fish than we could eat for 15 euros and took it back to the beach where we had to fight some seagulls for it but it was worth the trouble. My favorite was the chocos which is fried cuddlefish and tastes like calamari but not as chewy. It came with a lot of varieties of shrimp and fish but some of the stranger things we tried were a whole fried squid, some bone-in anchovy-like fish and most disgustingly, huevas. From the name we should've known it was going to be weird but it was basically fish eggs stuffed in an intestine and fried. Not my personal favorite but I tried it. Then we spent the rest of our time enjoying the view and laying on the beach because it was too cold to swim. I did dip my toes in and collect some seashells though!

Such a pretty beach. 

It was kinda high tide...

Me and Zoe on the beach. 

Cute little boats. 

I had such a wonderful time in Cádiz it was a great relaxing day trip with awesome friends! I hope reading about my trip to the beach brightens up you week, I know thinking back on it as I wrote this blog sure brightened up mine!