The rest of Cadiz

Day three of our stay in Cadiz began with rain but soon after breakfast the sun broke through and we headed outside.  We had decided to try and find a lavadero (laundromat) to get our clothes washed and turned south towards the center of much more modern Punta Tierra.  Unfortunately, we could not locate one of these small, family owned laundries and we returned to the boardwalk along the Atlantic coast for a quick lunch.

We returned to the old city in the early afternoon determined to explore every street and alley of this beautiful old Spanish city.  Just inside the old city gates we visited the charming Iglesias (churches) of Santa Maria, Santa Cruz and Santo Domingo.  The Teatro Romano and Carcel (jail) Real are also in the immediate proximity of the old city gates and on the way to the beautiful cathedral which, it is said, was inspired by the cathedral in Granada.

Stopping for a beverage and a tapa of pickled carrots and onions in the cathedral square we waited for a cloudburst to abate while practicing our “bar” Spanish with the very amenable waiter.  Later, we crossed this narrow part of the city and visited the bus station to see the schedule for the autobus to Marbella.  After ascertaining that there were plenty of buses that would get us to Marbella we angled back to what was becoming one of our favorite places in Cadiz, Plaza San Juan de Dios for another refresco and where we found a wonderful old Spaniard playing the guitar beautifully.  We convinced him to play a few more arrangements after which he stopped by our table (we gave him a couple of coins of course) and chatted with us in his rusty English.

The following day found us crossing into the old city early under clear, sunny skies.  We delved deeper into the city on this morning with our first objective, the busy Plaza de las Flores which was alive and colorful with every type of blossom one can imagine on this beautiful spring morning.

  Crossing the city our next goal was the Inglesia del Rosario and the Oratorio de la Santa Cueva to see the wonderful marble altar pieces in the former and three magnificent paintings by Goya in the later.

Once again, the mixed bag of weather we’d been having in Spain turned for the worse and chased us back to our hotel.  In nearly four full days we had explored less than half of this incredible city.  One cannot walk down the streets anywhere in the old city without being distracted by the beautiful architecture, the history, the artistry, or simply the ambience of the quaint narrow streets with their sidewalk cafes and potted flowers in almost every window.

Cadiz, like Granada, generated in us the desire to explore and the feeling that we could spend weeks there before we might possibly see most of what this historical city has to offer.  This is definitely another part of Andalucia that we plan to visit again and again.