Ola Cadiz!

After a pleasant enough overnight sail, our entrance into the Bay of Cadiz was quite eerie, as a thick white fog rolled out over the sea, reducing visibility to only about 100 metres.  Larger vessels were visible on the radar screen, but it was still a bit disconcerting to see boats suddenly loom out of the mist like ghost ships, and to hear the moaning of a foghorn somewhere up ahead.  We circled around for a while hoping that the morning sun and the breeze would disperse the fog, but when that didn’t happen we got bored and headed in to the harbour anyway.

Even though the main container port and the military base are on the opposite side of the bay, there is still a lot of maritime activity here, with fishing boats, yachts, ferries, police and rescue vessels and cruise ships all using the harbour. Most mornings we wake up to see yet another new giant cruise ship berthed at the customs dock!  The city marina is quite good, though it’s about a one-mile bike ride along the waterfront to get into the old town. It was obviously built in the heady days before the GFC – way more grandiose than it needed to be – and now much of the space intended for shops, restaurants and facilities is derelict. I would be willing to bet that someone’s brother-in-law got the brick paving contract, a friend of a friend got the fencing, the wife’s godson got the dock construction … all high quality and way more than warranted by the modest fleet of small power boats and average yachts that use it. Still, facilities are good and the marina staff are very helpful, as are the staff of the small chandlery on site.

Old Cadiz itself is great. Inhabited at least since Neolithic times, it has the layers of Roman, Moorish and Spanish imperial history that we saw in Seville. We visited a fascinating archaeological dig near the cathedral, where evidence of each of these layers is on display under a perspex walk-over, along with artefacts they’ve discovered. Herodotus, the ancient historian, records that the original inhabitants of the peninsula were so fierce that traders from Carthage would never meet them face-to-face: they left goods on the shore then sent smoke signals from their ships. The Cadizians (?) would leave gold and other stuff, take the traded goods, then leave the coast clear for the sailors to come and collect. Cadiz was Spain’s major seaport during the ‘golden age of discovery’ – Cortes sailed from here, as did Columbus on his second voyage to the Americas. And the ill-fated Armada, of course, though we don’t much like to talk about that here.

Mary and Joseph spent the entire family clothing budget on themselves.

Despite the evidence of financial gloom everywhere, the Spanish still know how to live well. You can’t walk a block in town without encountering a café, bar or restaurant where wonderful food and wine are available for next to nothing. One of our favourite meals – a great range of tapas with a couple of drinks each at the 1812* Restaurant – cost a grand total of 17 euros. Parks and squares are the places to be in the balmy evenings; everyone is out for a stroll, usually dressed in style, stopping to chat with friends or enjoy a drink. The kids are there too, playing, skating, eating icecreams at midnight; babies are obviously the stars of any show. Despite – or perhaps because of – Spain’s very low birthrate, there seems to be a huge baby industry. Children’s clothing is exquisite, and prams look more like luxury cars.

Because fountains are fun!

There are great beaches along the coast here, and they are very relaxed places. Everyone goes to the beach. Nut-brown kids jump off the rocks, handsome young men kick soccer balls around, beautiful golden skinned girls stroll along the shore, the leathery old guys stand around in their shorts in knee-deep water and even the old ladies bring down their deck chairs and sit in circles to chat. Our fold-up bikes have been a great asset here – Cadiz is contained within a small peninsula and it is pretty flat, so you can ride everywhere, including the narrow streets of the old town. It’s been fun to explore another Spanish city, and we’ll certainly head back to Spain on the way back out of the Med, but now it’s time to set sail for North Africa. Only 50 miles across the strait to Tangier; the weather should be good and we’ll head off in the morning. Adios!

 

 

*Still celebrating the defeat of Napoleon – this is the bicentennial year