I’ve have wanted to come to Cadiz since my trip to South America. So I had a real feeling that I was following in the wake of Columbus and Magellan as the Ferry cruised across the Bay of Cadiz and into the harbour. I did have doubts about whether either would have recognized any of it. And these doubts were confirmed when I discovered that Columbus only sailed from Cadiz on 2 of his journeys of discoveries and that Magellan in fact sailed from another port some 23 Kms further along the coast and of course he, along with the majority of his crews, didn’t make it home. So although he discovered the Magellan Straights around South America it was left to his Pilot, Juan Sebastian Del Cano, to complete the first circumnavigation by returning to Sanluca De Barrameda in 1522
The problems of circumnavigation of the city of Cadiz has been sorted by the tourist board by painting coloured lined on the pavement guiding the many hundreds of tourists around a collection of carefully selected highlights. There is a choice of 3 or 4 different tourist walks around the town, I was directed to the purple walk as it covered the most important sights plus some shopping (yes, that’s likely) all I had to do was follow the coloured line painted on the pavement. The tourist office advised that it would take about 1.5 hours to get round it all. So, several hours later, I was still finding little alleyways and doorways leading to small private areas that I just had to look into. The narrow streets are just an invitation to explore. What you can be sure of, is that the millions of EU money poured into the Old Town has definitely made a very interesting area.
My walking took me past the many church’s and palaces of the old town, The Cathedral started in 1716 is a mixture of Baroque and Neo-classical and is very plain outside and with little detailing or decorations inside. The guide joked that it would be finished next year. He said the same about a new bridge over the harbour that was due to have been finished in 2010!
Two of the most notable sights were firstly the Woman’s Hospital (1792) where the prize is an original signed painting by El Greco of St Francis of Assisi. It is said this was his best St Francis. The second was a hike up the 170 steps to the top of the Torre Tavira the highest 18th century lookout tower in the city. At the top is a fantastic 360⁰ panoramic view of the town and coastline.
Oh, did I mention it warm and sunny here!
