Blogs from Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain, Europe

A few days before my boat was due to sail from Santander, I set off to cover the 100km from Tarifa to Cadiz. It was a relatively easy route. No major steep climbs and the main road had a good hard shoulder. It did take me a while to find the road adjacent to the motorway, but once on it, I pretty much had it to myself. The next difficult section was trying to pick up the cycle path to Cadiz out of Chiclana de la Fronteria to avoid the motorway. The cycle path I followed from the town centre led me right to the start of the motorway. I eventually found a place to cross the railway and get onto the cycle path to Cadiz. The sign posting was non-existant. However once on the path, ... read more

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 ... read more

We’re a bit slow off the mark this morning after a long day of travelling yesterday. We decide to catch up on a bit of admin including reviews of some our recent experiences in Morocco. I think it should be OK to let the world know about some of the less savoury aspects of our experience out in the desert now that we’re safely out of the country - the guide who didn’t do any guiding, paying top dollar to “sleep” on wet towels in an oven like tent only to find out later that the guide’s tent had air conditioning ….. I think my blood pressure might finally be starting to return to something close to normal. Our next stop is Bologna in Italy, and the guys who run the apartment we've booked there seem ... read more

It’s very possible to write several weighty tomes about Cadiz and still fall short of nailing its incredible essence. The city is generally considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in Europe, founded and called Gadir by the Phoenicians around 1100 BC. Now well into its fourth millennium the ancient center, surrounded almost entirely by water, is a romantic jumble of sinuous streets where Atlantic waves crash against eroded sea walls, cheerful taverns fry up fresh fish and salty beaches teem with sun worshipping tourists and locals alike. Spain's first liberal constitution (La Pepa) was signed here in 1812, while the city's distinctive urban model provided an identikit for fortified Spanish colonial cities in the Americas of the New World. Enamored return visitors talk fondly of Cádiz' seafood, sands and intriguing monuments and museums. More ... read more

We left Chipiona, intending to take a ferry from Jerez de la Frontera to Cadiz, to visit my niece Salome. When we arrived at the ferry port, we found out they didn't have any ferries running today. So, Antonio decided we'd take a train instead. After a short ride across town, we bought four round-trip tickets to Cadiz, and away we went. A short time later, we pulled into one of the stations in Cadiz. We'd been in contact with my niece, who had just completed her degree in Tourism that day, and agreed to meet her just outside the station. We went across the street to a corner and waited a few minutes until Salome showed up. She gave us a short tour of Cadiz, showing us a museum, the Roman theater, and a few ... read more