Thursday 29th July – Cadiz
It was quite rough in the night.
I woke up a few times during Paul’s watch. The bow was being lifted out
of the water by the waves and crashing back down and lifting me up as it did so!
Meanwhile, Paul had engine trouble to deal with. Every hour or so it slowed right down
until it seemed it was going to stall, then it gradually worked itself back up
to speed. Paul wouldn’t be able to
check out what the problem was properly until we got to
Cadiz. Luckily the autohelm coped with keeping
us on course when the speed dropped.
It was quite chilly and wet when I went up just after 4 and the sea was
still rough but it wasn’t freezing cold. Not a good sunrise due to clouds and
haziness. As we drew nearer to
Cadiz more fishing boats appeared and the fishermen on one of them made angry
gestures at me, either for being too close (which I didn’t think I was) or for
flying the Portuguese flag because we’d forgotten to change our courtesy
flag. At 10am we made our way into the marina, passing a wall where
a row of men had lines in the water. They, too made angry gestures and shouted
as we passed – perhaps we disturbed the fish because we hadn’t damaged their
lines.
The marina isn’t very pretty but has everything we need, including a
laundry. I made us a huge
much-needed breakfast once we were securely berthed and then we tidied the boat
and freshened up before setting off to explore
Cadiz. It claims to be the oldest city in
Europe and was described by Byron as the loveliest city
he’d ever beheld! I bet that was before he’d seen
Venice. On the way out of the marina I was lucky
enough to find a 50 euro note on the ground. It’s very industrial by the marina but
in the distance we could see lovely-looking buildings in the old part of
town. We were ready for a cold
drink when we reached the outskirts of town 30 minutes later and then we
followed the map to find the places we’d picked out to visit. The first of these was the Plaza de
Espana which is a lovely park in an elegant square which has an impressive
monument to commemorate Cadiz’s
constitution in 1812.
There were beautiful plants,
ornate fountains and exotic trees where I spotted green parrots perched on the
branches.
Further in town we went to the
museum of
Cadiz which was more enjoyable for
being so cool inside than for being interesting – although there were some
fascinating marionettes on the third floor. They were very scary-looking and some
were wielding axes dripping with blood - think Punch and Judy serial killers in
a horror film.
The pretty streets were mainly
empty due to the heat so we had good views of the long, narrow streets (sailors’
alleyways) and the high turreted houses that form the old town – truly lovely.
At about 5 we climbed to the top of Cadiz Cathedral via a spiral staircase. It’s
the tallest building in Cadiz, built
in 1722, and was quite a strenuous climb which made us realise how unfit we are
– especially in the searing heat.
The views from the top made it worthwhile though.
The narrow streets began to fill up in the evening and the designer
shops, gift shops, cafes and restaurants became more crowded. We found a lovely
restaurant slightly off the main square that boasted vegetarian specialities –
not something you see much of in
Spain. The meal was lovely – we particularly
enjoyed the delicious fried potatoes in peanut sauce and the aubergine pie.
