A bit of Old Cadiz

Time to Go Slow
It's been a leisurely five days here in Cadiz. I didn't actually do much sightseeing-- probably only about three hours in total, in fact. The interesting part of Cadiz--the old town--is fairly small, so I was able to quickly see all that I wanted to see, then get back to the serious business of relaxing.

I did make almost daily laps of the Cadiz "coastal walk", an atmospheric and breezy walkway on top of the old city wall that snakes around the edge of the peninsula. The photo at right shows one of the many small watchtowers that line the walkway. The image below shows the many fishing boats stranded during low tide in front of the Castillo (castle) de Santa Catalina.


Cadiz's Castillos
I visited Cadiz's Castillo de Santa Catalina today, and truthfully, it's a bit boring inside. It does have a moat though! Moats are cool. I really like moats. They remind me of learning about the Middle Ages in 7th grade and thinking that it was all just a bunch of hooey. Moats, damsels in distress, knights in shining armour...come on. It was all just too fantastical for my 13 year old sensibilities. Eventually I did give in
and believe in the whole 'Middle Ages' myth--probably around high school, but to be honest it took actually seeing castle after castle in Europe during my 20s before I could realllly embrace it.

For those of you that have unfortunately been to Florida (he he)...the castillo reminds me a lot of St. Augustine's fort, also built by the Spanish. They might have been built about the same time but maybe not. It's after midnight so I don't feel like googling it. But you can. :) At right is a period diagram plus an aerial model...to show you what I mean about the similarities.

Only about 1/2 mile away is another seaside castle, the 18th century Castillo de San Sebastian. They both seem more like forts than castles to me, but eh, semantics.

Unfortunately this fort, I mean castle, is closed to visitors, but I did walk out the long causeway to it's gate. It was low tide, so from the shore it looked a lot like a very small Spanish version of France's Mont Saint-Michel. With all the exposed rock at low tide it was quite a pretty scene so I stitched together four images to make the below panoramic shot. (I did so while watching CNN drone on and on about the US election...this is not make me miss television at all).


Cadiz's Towers
Yesterday I didn't leave the hotel until 4pm. Seriously. I did visit the hotel cafe for lunch ($16 for a club sandwich and Diet Coke, what a steal!) but that's inside the hotel so it doesn't count.

When I did finally set foot outside, I figured I'd better cram in some exercise so I decided to climb two of Cadiz's many towers. First, I climbed the cathedral's main tower and caught the beautiful views from the top (right and below.)

Next I climbed the Torre Tavira, the highest and most important of the city's old watchtowers.

In the 18th century, Cadiz was a booming port, enjoying 75% of Spanish trade with the Americas! Whoa! In fact, Columbus actually set sail from Cadiz on his second and fourth voyages. During this time, Cadiz became the richest and most cosmopolitan city in Spain. Many glorious mansions were built, complete with tall towers on top in order to watch the comings and goings of the great ships. In fact, in its heyday, Cadiz had no less than 160 towers! Today 127 remain, and from the top of the Torre Tavira, I could make out many of them.

I have sloppily circled some in the photo below to give you an idea.


And in case I haven't gone on and on enough about Spain's narrow streets, I'm gonna go ahead and do so a bit more. The black stripe down the middle of the photo at left is Cadiz Old Town's WIDEST street...only wide enough for one car!

Again, people do live here
Ooops, didn't take people shots again. Morocco will change that. I do have one people shot to share. A lots-of-people shot. Below is a stitched together shot of Plaza San Antonio on Easter Sunday, full of families out enjoying the sun and each other. Great spot to people watch.

And one last thing too important not to mention...
Cadiz is probably the oldest city in Europe. It was founded as a trading base for the Phoenicians way back in 1100 BC. Cool, eh?