Beer in a Flower Pot

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I head out for yet another aimless wander, which seems to have become my activity of choice here in Cadiz. I probably should check at some stage before we leave that I haven’t been aimlessly wandering down the wrong streets and missed some world class attraction.

First stop is the Cadiz Museum on the very attractive Plaza de Mina. I thought I took an award winning happy snap here yesterday of a classical building with an eerie green coloured facade, but I now see that it only looks like that because it’s wrapped in green coloured semi-transparent cloth while it’s being renovated. The museum looks very big - three floors in a building with a large footprint - and it probably would be if three quarters of it wasn’t closed for renovations. The exhibits are mostly from Phoenician and Roman times, including two gigantic Phoenician sarcophaguses which look like they must have needed the sorts of cranes they use to build skyscrapers to get them in here. I wonder how they did that without taking the roof off. I assume they didn’t take the roof off.

Next up are the very attractive waterfront Jardines de Alameda Apodaca, with their giant ficus trees. I read that these were brought here all the way from our humble homeland in 1903 … although another source says a couple of nuns bought them in their suitcases from India. Anyway, they’re very very big.

I wander on into Plaza Espana with its very impressive Monumento a la Constitucion de 1812.

Next up is the Roman Theatre … well it will be if I can find the entrance. I can see most of it through a fence along the waterfront promenade, but the way in is well hidden - a tiny door off a back alleyway. It’s free to enter, so maybe they figure it might get overrun if they make it too easy to find. I read that it‘s thought to have been built in the first century AD, and was only discovered in 1980. Huh? I wonder what else might be lying under the city that no one knows about yet. It’s still only been partly excavated, and is thought to at one time been one of the largest such structures in the entire Empire. It’s accessed via a vomitorium. I have to confess that the visions of exactly what that might be were a bit grotesque before I looked it up; it’s a large tunnel under the stadium from which the crowd “spewed forth” after an event. It’s impressive, even though the terraces are crumbling away a bit, which is probably not all that surprising given that they were buried for a couple of millenia.

I can’t resist another peek at Puente Canal, this time when there’s more sunlight and the tide’s in. The surf’s a bit choppy and the wash is splashing up over the causeway. None of this is however enough to deter the thrill seekers. Some of them are casually lying back sunning themselves on the rocks at the base of the wall waiting to be washed away. And of course there are the young daredevils jumping off the top of the structure into the pounding waves. One group is standing right in front of the forbidding looking locked gate that blocks access to the sinister looking Castillo de San Sebastián .… and if I’m not very much mistaken I‘m pretty sure I just saw one of them climb over it. Didn’t he read our post from yesterday … although on reflection the odds of him being one of our blog’s three subscribers would seem to be rather long … No one’s quite sure what the marine scientists are up to in there, so if I were him I think I’d stick to safer activities, such as jumping off the causeway … into pounding surf … inches away from jagged rocks.

We have a well earned siesta and then head out in search of dinner. It seems there are a couple of cruise ships in, so finding somewhere to eat is proving a bit problematic. We end up back near the apartment. I suspect whoever did the English version of the menu might have had a bad day with the Google translator - the “slow cooked eggs” I order turn up as grilled ribs, and nothing I say to the waiter seems to be able to convince him that they’re not eggs. Hmmm … and “una cerveza” comes out in a small glass that’s only half full … so next time round I ask for “una cerveza grande”, which is only slightly bigger. The bill however tells me that this was a ”cerveza maceta”, which apparently translates to “beer in a flowerpot” .…

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Aimless Wandering
It is too bad the cruise ships are impacting your ability to find a good meal. The architecture is lovely. Enjoy the promenade.

[RENanDREW]

Slow cooked eggs
I love a good aimless wander in a new place, and aimlessly wandering with an overarching purpose is my favourite kind! I also love a funny lost in translation moment :)