Sunday 24 October
Up and out for a full day's exploration of Cádiz today - a Ruth treat. Cádiz is an old city, probably founded by the Phoenicians and oozes maritime/naval history - it is still the home of the Spanish Navy.
We headed through the Old Town and onto the city walls, with its resident canons.
Park Genovés is a beautifully planted space with huge topiaries and finds such as Los Niños Bajo el Paraquas, the Children Under the Fountain.
We also found this strange exhibit which looks to have been a natural rock which has been turned into a fountain/bridge walkway. It was fun to walk through the rock and get splashed in the process.
Cádiz, as many cities do, has a fair amount of tiled fountains, and we were amused by the pigeons this one had attracted.
Cádiz's beach, the Playa de la Caleta, is a shallow harbour and was busy late October. It was too tempting not to have a paddle!
The south end of it is protected by the Castle of San Sebastian, and it seemed churlish not to walk up the walkway to see how far we could get.
This far.
Next on the Cádiz tour was the cathedral. Cádiz cathedral was probably the newest cathedral of our trip. It was built in the 18th century in a largely baroque style, with rococo and neoclassical elements. As usual, these buildings blow you away with their soaring towers, vast spaces and catholic symbolism. But, if you look closely in this cathedral, you can see the netting that is slung across up high. Initially, I thought this was to stop birds invading the space of the worshipers, but, on inspection, it's stopping small bits off the roof falling onto visitors' heads.
We then climbed the bell tower and and enjoyed the awesome views.
By this time it was nearly 1500 and we'd left it a bit late to find lunch, but we managed. Then we wandered the backstreets which, as ever, are fascinating.
We ambled some more and ended up on a street bar for supper. And, just in case I thought I'd get bored, I had a crossword with me!
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