Today is our last “ship tour” – but again, it is just the HoHo bus, and buying the ticket through the ship was again cheaper. We know the drill, of course, and we arrive at the theater about 30 minutes before our tour time. Good thing we did! They called the tour 20 minutes early! Wow! Talk about inconsistent! That’s what I’m calling the ship – the inconsistent ship! But anyway, we don’t care, we are out through the maze, have our stickers and are first off to get the bus. But unfortunately they really aren’t ready on the pier and no one tells us where to go, so we exit through the terminal which is way out of the way for the bus. Sigh. Circling back, we end up getting there 2nd….crap! But, as it turns out, the first couple don’t want to sit up top, so we manage to snag the good seats at the very front of the double decker bus, semi-protected from the wind. Success!
And then, we sit. Because of course most people on this “tour” didn’t even get to the theater until the tour call time – which would have been expected of course! Even though it is cold, it is worth it to sit here for the seats – because they will come in handy on the drive around the city. Plus, the sun hasn’t even risen yet, so we would be taking the tour in the pitch dark if we left now. And of course, finally, it’s great entertainment watching everyone come out, try to get on the bus, get turned away because it’s full, then go find the next HoHo bus a little bit further down the bus line. Now that’s worth the price of admission!
Finally we are off on our tour around Cadiz. It is a very small and walkable city, so our plan is to stay on the bus for an entire route, then get off at the 5th stop on the 2nd round to walk through the Parque Genova which has exotic trees and plants from all over the world, as well as monkeys roaming the grounds. Sounds good to us! The circle route on the HoHo takes us past the seaside promenades, which look great for morning walks, past the Cathedral, and even though it is barely light, we can still get some awesome photos from the 2nd floor of the bus. Past two fortresses and La Caleta, the closes beach to the city, then back along the same route to turn south and along the main beaches and I guess you’d call it the resort area. Then it is back into the commercial part of the city, past the main shopping mall and Corte Ingles (of course!) then back to the port. Nice little jaunt, supposed to take about an hour, but at this time of day, it isn’t nearly 40 minutes. Which means we have to sit and wait for the bus to leave again on it’s scheduled route beginning at 10am. Again, we have nothing but time!
And again, it is free entertainment! Watching the girls trying to sell the HoHo bus to passengers, other passengers getting angry over something and yelling at the girls (still don’t have a clue about what) then storming away and walking into the port through the roadway instead of the pedestrian entrance and getting yelled at by the guard. Karma. The huge walking tour that is leaving the port area, with our NY jerk friend at the lead, in front of the tour guide (of course), and the rest of the poor people straggling across the street. I tell ya, free entertainment!
The bus finally leaves and we are once again on our way. Past the promenade, past the cathedral (more good photos), this time alighting at the beach to walk a few blocks up to the Parque. Which is as advertised, except for the monkeys. Darn it. Guess it is too cold for them or something (it’s pretty chilly) but they are definitely not around anywhere we can see them. The Parque though is really neat otherwise – tons of exotic trees, palms, firs, ferns, topiaries and this wild water fall on which you can walk on top. Cool.
The Parque is also right on the waterfront, so we detour out to the promenade alongside a dilapidated building that is all roped and fenced off. There are signs talking about rehabilitation, but we’ve no clue what it is. It is fairly modern, just totally in disrepair. There is a sign somewhere that says something about a theater, so maybe this is where they used to have summer concerts (as our ancient guidebook says). Who knows, but it makes for a nice little walk along the water regardless.
From here, we trek into the city, looking for the Museo de Las Cortes de Cadiz. It is the city’s history museum, but Google says it is temporarily closed. What the heck, we’ll go see about it anyway, and it is a pleasant way to orient ourselves in the old town. The little streets and alleyways just wind around, with different shops and restaurants and cafes everywhere. It is early Saturday morning, so not so many people are out, and it is really peaceful just to walk around and explore.
In our searching, we actually stumble upon the Oratorio San Felipe Neri which is one of the city’s finest examples of baroque churches. It doesn’t open until 11:30 so we have some time to kill, and we continue to wander through the streets, ending up on a pedestrian street with cafes for a quick cappuccino stop. As we loll about, sipping our caffeine, yet another ship walking tour passes, and we learn the street behind us is the longest street in the city. Ok. Nice little tidbit of useless information.
Still with time to kill, we meander through the increasingly busy streets, ending up close to the main market, which is teeming with people. We skedaddle back to the Oratorio and get there just as they open. The ticket guy is sweet, doesn’t speak too much English, but enough to figure out we need English language and he hands us a book that explains all the chapels in English. Sadly, pictures are not allowed, because this church is amazing. The chapels are beautiful, virtually all carved wood with gold flake, The Immaculate Conception by Murillo is hung over the main altar and there is a monstrous cupola that would be gorgeous in photos. Oh well. The main claim to fame here – besides the fabulous baroque architecture – is that this is where Spain’s first liberal constitution was declared in 1812 when the Cortes, or Parliament, met here to reform the government. There isn’t a lot of information about that part of the history – the book is all about the church and chapels, but it is an interesting little nugget.
It is close to lunch time (well our lunch time, not Spaniard’s lunch times!), so we amble about looking for a spot to eat. We end up on Plaza San Francisco next to the convent, where there are a few restaurants lining the square. The first one we go to isn’t open until 12:30, and the guy is sort of snotty. So we walk across the square to this little café that is obviously open for a beer and wine to sort of suss out the situation. As we hang out and wait, we see the other restaurant is open, but the snotty guy is just sitting around not really helping out, and we decide we don’t want to give him our business. So we amble around to a little place in the sun called Marisqueria San Francisco where the menu is virtually all fish – and prices are reasonable. We end up ordering a plate of Pulpo for Ed, chocos (fried cuttlefish) and croqueta (ham) for us to share. Oh my word! The food comes out piping hot in these paper cones, and the portions are huge! We’ll never finish this – well – ok, yes, we will, but what a feast! The choco is perfect, excellently done, the croqueta as well – and the octopus is typical Galician goodness. All while sitting on the square looking out at the convent across the way. Couldn’t ask for a better meal.
From here, we wander through the streets, heading back to the seaside to visit the Cathedral – never even realizing that the Oratorio we wanted to visit (de la Santa Cruz) was not the Oratorio we saw – and that we were literally right around the corner from it. Sigh. Oh well, we’ll be back here twice in the next year or two, so we can visit then.
The walk leads us through the busy parts of town, with tourist shops mixed in with local shops. We stop at another cork shop, this time picking up some coin purses (my Euro purse has developed a tear), beaded mask holders and some really cool layered masks in different colors. They’ve got the greatest masks here. There are even some N95 in multi-colored and flowered patterns which I really want, but decide we’ve enough masks and I don’t really need any more at this point in time – but boy were they cute.
Back on the street, we make our way past houses with wonderful architectural detail – balconies, tiles similar to those adorning houses in Lisbon, ornate, tiled courtyard entrances – to the Cathedral square, perusing the Christmas market out front, which is almost entirely jewelry. There is a fabulous painted paper stall, with these adorable handmaid book earrings, but I really don’t need any more earrings…..although they are super cute….
Anyway, into the cathedral we go, which is massive and gorgeous and amazing. From a picture perspective, it is only so great, because they have pigeon nets strung throughout the entire area to keep the pigeon poop off the congregation! But otherwise, it is just huge, ornate and beautiful. This was the last great cathedral built in Spain with finances from the New World. The construction started in the early 1700’s, but it wasn’t finished until the early 1800’s, almost 100 years later.
One of the most intriguing parts of the Cathedral is the enormous crypt underneath the main apse. There are maybe 6 different tomb areas down here, one for the local composer Manuel de Falla (whose name we’ve seen elsewhere in the city) and others that are obviously of important people – all marble with Jesus statues or huge mausoleum structures that look like they are all in marble as well. It is truly fascinating down there.
Back on the main level, we make our way past a beautiful creche, around the choir area, all carved in ebony (I think) wood and then past this really different depiction of Jesus and the world. Carved wood with a glowing globe in the middle. Totally different.
After our cathedral touring, we head back out into the square and I succumb to the book earrings. They are totally cool and cute and the woman selling them tells me (in Spanish that I actually figure out) that she hand painted the paper that she used. Even better!
Then we hunker down at a little café around the corner, El tascon del Torreon, in the sun, but unfortunately also in the wind for a beer and wine, before making our trek back to the ship. On the way, though, we walk by the ruins of the Roman theater that we had viewed from the bus. We decide to try to find the entrance to the site, because on this side of the theater, there is only a turnstile exit. We walk around the corner, taking a square circuit, but can’t find anything, and figure they must be closed. But as we are rounding the corner near the exit, we see people coming out. Hmmmm…..So, we try again – and this time, we are successful (open your eyes – we walked right past it the first circuit!!!).
And bonus, it is free to visit. So we spend a little bit of time here, looking at the artifacts from the theater, watching a nice little video presentation on how it would have operated in the day (the cavea, or stands of seats, were divided into sections with women seated at the top, under the portico, freemen and slaves next, then general populace, and of course the elite and governing bodies in the opera. After the presentation and the museum, we go outside to the actual theater – which is what we had seen from the road.
It is really amazing how they built these all those ages ago – and how so many have been found during excavations. We wander about the cavea (as much as they’ll let you!) snapping photos here and there. There are also great views of the cathedral dome with the inlaid cross that so intrigues me. It just strikes me as really amazingly different from anything we have seen.
We’ve exhausted our touring list (well not really, but we didn’t realize we missed the Oratorio until we started writing the blog!) so we head back through town to the port. It is an easy walk, and we enjoy soaking up the culture and the sights. We really like this little town – it seems to be the perfect mix of local and tourist. We’d love to come back some day and spend a few days here. With all the travel we have scheduled, we might just make it happen sooner rather than later.
Back aboard, we watch a beautiful sunset as we sail away toward Lisbon – last stop on the mainland.
Andiamo 