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Published: April 18th 2010
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Cádiz
Mom and Dad in front of the cathedral ¡Saludos a todos!
In Spain, Easter is celebrated for an entire week, beginning with Palm Sunday and ending with Easter Sunday, known as Semana Santa, or Holy Week. In Castilla y León this year school kids and teachers had off Thursday and Friday of Semana Santa and the whole entire following week (so from Thursday, April 1st through Sunday, April 11th.) Mom and Dad came to visit me in Spain during this time and we traveled around Andalucía! It was so good to see them after being in Spain for 7 months and not seeing anyone in my family since last September.
I met my parents in Madrid on Thursday morning, April 1st, at the airport and we took a high speed train to Cádiz, arriving around 4:30 pm. After checking into our hotel in the middle of the old part of the city, we took a walk around the peninsula. We passed through many attractive plazas, saw the cathedral, and strolled along the water walkway for awhile. Later on after resting in the hotel we went out for another walk and had some tapas for dinner. The old part of the city was bustling with activity because starting
Cádiz
with Mom in a city plaza in the early afternoon and going into the early hours of the morning (until around 3 am!) there were religious processions going on in the streets. On a lot of the streets where the processions were scheduled to pass, the locals set out folding chairs and sat there for hours, talking, mixing drinks, playing cards, etc while they waited for the processions. There were so many people trying to watch the processions that you really needed to claim your viewing spot well before a procession was going to pass a certain area or you wouldn't be close enough to the procession to see that much. Our first day in Cádiz we didn't ever wait around somewhere to claim a spot but we did see one procession from somewhat of a distance pass through the cathedral's plaza.
On Friday morning we had breakfast in the hotel and set out to see a lot of the peninsula that we had not explored on Thursday. Cádiz may be the oldest city in Europe. It was used as a Phoenician trading base called Gadir around 1100 B.C. and later settled by the Greeks and Romans (termed Gades by them). We saw the remains
Cádiz
inside the cathedral of a Roman amphitheater near the cathedral and then walked up the cathedral bell tower. The views from above were stunning. You could see most of the peninsula as well as the port. The bright blue sky against the whitewashed buildings was really attractive. Later on we walked towards the end of the peninsula and passed through the Parque Genovés that has many sculpted bushes. We continued along the other side of the peninsula by the water until we made it back to where our hotel was and we stopped for lunch at a casual restaurant that had good seafood.
We took a nap in the hotel for awhile and then I went out for a run around the peninsula along the water (now that I was well oriented.) I was even able to run along one of the beaches farther up the neck of the peninsula that we had not seen on any of our walks and it was really refreshing! There were lots of people out enjoying the beach. That evening we took a walk to the Plaza de la Constitución where one of the old walls of the city is well preserved and then we waited
Cádiz
with the gold-domed cathedral in the background in a nearby plaza for one of the processions to pass by. Poor Dad's foot was bothering him but he managed to be able to wait long enough to see the procession go by which was good. This time we were much closer to the action. Afterward we walked to the plaza by the cathedral and showed up early enough to get a table at a restaurant there. It was nice to take in all the people and to see the processions go by in the distance.
On Saturday morning we rented a car and drove to Arcos de la Frontera, a pueblo about an hour away from Cádiz that perches on a high ridge with beautiful views of the surrounding countryside. After attempting to find a parking spot in a plaza near our hotel, we gave up and found the hotel, dropped off our luggage and parked way down the hill, outside of the town center. We were all kind of sweating during this process because the city has really narrow, mazelike streets and maneuvering the car can be pretty difficult in some areas!! Dad did a great job though... :-)
When we finally made it back
Cádiz
walking on the pier out to the Castillo de San Sebastián to the hotel we had a drink out on the terrace, enjoying the views while we waited for our room to be ready. We began exploring the winding streets before eating lunch at a restaurant that had excellent tapas. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the town and resting in the hotel.
On Easter Sunday in Arcos they have brought back an old tradition in more recent years where they have a small "encierro de toros" (running of the bulls in the streets.) They used to release the bulls in the historic center of the town but in the last few years they've begun having the encierro in the newer part of town where the streets are wider and they can put up barricades (to protect the spectators and the buildings.) The barricades have the bars farther apart in certain areas so that a person inside the area with the bull can slip out quickly if they wish, and vice versa. I arrived with Mom and Dad around 11 am and we claimed a spot by the barricades. There were guys selling noise-making devices made out of pieces of bamboo with a slit down the middle.
Cádiz
Dad on the Playa de la Caleta Mom and I bought them and played with for awhile while we watched the people and waited until they released the first bull around noon.
Watching the men running with the bulls and seeing the bulls so close up was quite an experience! When I studied in Valencia 2 years ago I went to a bull fight but this was nothing like it because we were so close to the action this time. The first bull was running full speed and looked like it was going to pass by quickly but then someone provoked it and it stopped right in front of us! It was breathing heavily and looked really ferocious... Then it started to charge the barricades across from us before turning in our direction and charging the barricades right in front of us. Dad was filming a video of the action and was standing up on a brick structure around a small tree near the barricade with some other people. When the bull charged in our direction, he and the others all kind of fell backward. This shows up in the video he filmed which was pretty funny!
The second bull was released at 3 pm
Cádiz
walking near the beach, approaching the Castillo de San Sebastián and it was smaller than the first bull and looked a lot more frightened by all of the people. It shot out of the box that it was released from so fast that it actually slipped on the street a few times as it ran by us which made me feel pretty bad. All of the events surrounding bulls in Spain are longstanding tradition and humans have bred these types of bulls specifically for these events but in the end it is harassment (and in the case of bull fights, killing) of animals for sport so the events can be hard to watch at times. It is certainly not the type of event that I would normally consider myself interested in watching but to at least see it once while in Spain is a cultural experience.
After all of the hype with the bulls, we went to have a late lunch and I took a walk with Dad in the evening. Our time in Cádiz and in Arcos de la Frontera was certainly memorable! On Monday morning we left Arcos to continue our trip and spend the day in Gibraltar... chapter 2 is coming!
Besos,
Dana
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Bert
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I want to see that video! Must have been pretty neat.