CADIZ - June 25th 2007

Whilst Ian makes work trips down towards Cadiz on a weekly basis, our only tourist visit to the actual city of Cadiz coincided with a Fiesta day and we were unable to navigate our way around to the old city section. So today's tourist aim was to find the old walled section of the city and go for a wander to see what the place was like. We also wanted to look in on the stork nest we had filmed in early March to see what family additions had taken place during the last 3 months.

There are several sections of highways in our area of Spain which play host to families of storks during the spring and summer months. For those of you who have been born and bought up in Europe this may seem rather ho hum.......for us Ozzies, storks are something that you read about in nursery rhymes and we find them fascinating.

Their ability to build nests perched on high platforms on the edge of major freeways is great and watching them soar and fly so gracefully can be very time consuming (and also potentially dangerous as there are very few stop points along the road systems in Spain - so you tend to look out for them whilst driving - not so good). Anyhow, the nest we pictured being constructed in March (above)now has 3 members living in it (right).
The old centre of Cadiz is situated at the far end of the island - straight down the main street until it basically hits the far coast. In most places the city is bordered by a sea wall, so the beaches are either coves or run along the ocean side where the new town is located. Being a Sunday (and the start of Summer.....and hot), there seemed to be a local exodus from most buildings to the beach areas.
The walk along the ancient sea wall included a visit to the Castle of Santa Catalina. According to the tourist blurbs the original castle was built between 1598 and 1621. Originally erected to protect the city it was converted to a military prison for those of "higher condition" in 1769. The castle includes a chapel, barracks and warehouses which are used for art displays and exhibitions.

Leaving the coastline and moving through the old centre we were able to find some of the beautiful squares which seem to be typical for the old town centres in Spain. The buildings, churches and cathedrals which tend to border these squares are often impressive and the squares themselves vary from lovely gardens, to paved areas filled with tapas bars and restaurants, to road intersections and parking lots. Cadiz had some beauties. Stopping at one of the little bars and having a typical Spanish lunch under the umbrella is something that should not be missed. The relaxed middle of the day meal where it is expected that family and friends will take their time, gossip, drink and watch the world pass - usually in a little street with vine covered walls, bright umbrellas and plenty of shade is something that the younger western countries have missed out on.........it seems a very civilized way of living.


Cadiz has been able to maintain many of the old formal gardens throughout the old town. Many are small but are to be found every couple of blocks and in the heat of summer, the sound of the fountains, and the shade of the huge old trees provided another relaxing and cooling area to wander through and escape the afternoon sun. Whilst Cadiz does not have the stunning geographical scenery of Rhonda, and its historic castle was not quite as impressive as those in Malaga, it is a lovely city with a street scape which matches those we have seen elsewhere in Spain. Wandering through the narrow streets where stunning doorways allowed us to sometimes peek into houses which opened up to internal courtyards made for a enjoyable day. Cadiz was worth the visit.