Rooftops of Cadiz

  Cadíz, Spain
Sunday, March 16, 2008

On Saturday, March 15, Andy and I took the train to Cadiz to explore the seaside town for the day. The journey was about 1 hour 45 minutes and I slept most of the way there and back because we were out late Friday night at Richard and Betty's house (drinking grappa...). 

Cadiz is a really cool little city on the coast. We were hoping to be able to see across to Africa, but alas, it is too far. We did walk along the coast though and the beach looks lovely. It was warm (22 degrees Celsius) on Saturday, but not warm enough to go for a dip in the sea yet. But hopefully we'll get back here in the summer. 

View of Cadiz from Torre Tavira

One of the best touristy things to do in Cadiz is visit the Tavira Tower (Torre Tavira) which has one of the only two camera obscuras in Spain. You climb up the steps to the top of the tower and inside they have a large white conclave screen. Once the lights are off, the technician projects the image of Cadiz from the outdoor camera on the screen. Then he/she turns the screen to give a 360 degree view of the city. It looks like video because you can see people walking, cars moving, ships sailing, etc. but it is all real time. It is pretty amazing. The views from the top of the tower are great too. The rooftops have clothes lines, gardens or little patio areas.

Sarcophogi in Museo de Cadiz

After visiting the Torre Tavira, we walked around the historic centre and came across a cafe. After refueling with coffee, we visited the Museo de Cadiz (free of charge for EU nationals). It contains a lot of Phoenician/Roman artifacts dating back to 800 years B.C. There are two sarcophagi in the museum that are pretty interesting. And I encountered a skeleton, so of course I was excited. 

Plaza de España and house of 5 towers

Later in the afternoon we walked through the narrow streets until we found the Plaza de Espana, the house of 4 towers and the house of 5 towers. At first I thought they were just really competitive about their towers, but apparently they used to use them to view and guard the port.

Once thoroughly exhausted from walking, we found a tapas bar, ate a light dinner and headed back to the train station. We rolled into Seville at about 8:00 p.m and took our first city bus back to the apartment. Two modes of transportation in one day!

On the living abroad front... I had an interview on Friday, so we'll see what happens. I've been applying to marketing/PR jobs and teaching jobs. So depending on what happens with the job front, we'll decide our next move. For now we'll leave it to fate...

So this coming week is Semana Santa. I'll write more once we get into the full experience of the processions, brotherhoods and huge statues/floats. I'll learn the proper names for everything too!