"¡Hola España!" a Cadiz Travel Page by annase

Send Photo to a Friend

Cathedral Square

I loved Cadiz. It was my first time in Spain and it was fab. I was supposed to stay only 5 days in Cadiz, but my Ryanair flight back to the UK got cancelled virtually minutes before we were supposed to board the plane. I was amongst the passengers who had been taken near the aircraft by bus in order to board and then they decided not to let us on the air plane after all. Me and all the other passengers were left at Jerez airport with a vague promise that we would be taken back to the UK in the couple of next days...

All the flights were pretty much fully booked for the few coming days, so I had no idea when I was going to get back.. or whether I was going to be flying from Seville, Jerez or somewhere else. Oh well, that's Ryanair for you... Luckily my sister is staying in Cadiz at that moment, so I had a place to go. In the end, I stayed almost a full week in Cadiz and finally spent one night in Sevilla from where I also flew back to the UK.

I spent my days going to the beach, cycling and walking loads. It was sunny all the time, but since the city is located on the Atlantic coast, the wind makes the temperatures feel slightly milder which is great. It was about +26 every day which for the locals is not much, but worked well for me, being relatively fair and not so used to warm weather all around the year. The old part of the city is very pretty with lots of old buildings and cobbled streets. Since I was staying in the centre of town - just off a busy pedestrian street, it was rather noisy at times.

Send Photo to a Friend

Paseo Maritimo

There aren't that many sights, but I went to the cathedral tower (at the Plaza de la Cathedral) and you get nice views over the roof tops. Apparently, the Torre Tavira (Tavira Tower) along the Calle Sacramento is also worth a visit and features a camera obscura. I didn't bother to go to their camera obscura thingy, but maybe next time.. There is also a few parks, pretty plazas, fortresses and seaside promenades and lots and lots of place to eat and drink.

The beaches are pretty good. You can walk miles and miles searching for a perfect spot since the beach is about 8km long, but I think one of the best is Playa de la Victoria (in front of the Playa Victoria hotel) along the coastal walk Paseo Maritimo. The small town beach (Playa de la Caleta) is ok as well, although it's nothing spectacular, and frequently gets pretty crowded and too small during the day. According to my sister, the white building on the beach, Antiguo Balneario de la Palma, was featured in one of the bond movies as a spot in Havana, Cuba.

The water is lovely blue colour and it's pretty clean - although it's really salty!

Send Photo to a Friend

Plaza Espana

It's also cheap to eat out (Cadiz has got some gorgeous restaurants), rent a bike, take a taxi.. you name it.. in Cadiz which is great.

I don't speak Spanish very much and the locals hardly speak any English at all, but somehow you'll get by. My sister was in Cadiz on a language course, so was very lazy and let her do the talking.. Handy!

I did find though that since I have studied Spanish before, during the week, my understanding of the language got better and better and I've got a buzz to learn it again now. :-)