Tuesday in Cadiz

For the afternoon activity, the group that arrived to Cádiz on Monday toured the older part of the city, known as “la ciudad antiguo”. We first bought bus passes, and then rode on the bus for our first time. When we arrived at the last stop, we got off and saw how different it was in the older part of the city, and how much more history it had. There were statues, old buildings, and other things that made Cádiz seem a lot more European (the newer part of Cádiz definitely doesn’t look as extravagant). We saw a statue dedicated to the independence Cádiz received by resisting against stronger forces, with famous figures carved into the stone, quite intricately. Unfortunately the sun was directly behind the statue, so the pictures we took weren’t as good as they could have been. We then went down some different streets, where I almost got run over trying to take a picture (whoops), and stopped at a plaza in between a few buildings to have some ice cream. The sign said “Helado Italiano”, so I don’t really think that it was Spanish ice cream any more than it was Italian. After taking a break for that, we continued on and saw all of the shops that lined the alleys full of people. There weren’t just independent boutiques down these streets – there were commercial shops that you might see anywhere else too! After walking down some of these streets, we came to a plaza which contained the cathedral (I think…). It was very big, and what I thought was most interesting was the a map of the building on the pavement in front of it. Our tour guide told us that it showed all of the hallways, passages, etc. that you would find inside.

Anyway, I thought this part of the city was the coolest thing I had seen yet, and it’s only been two days! I’m sure I’ll see more of Old Cádiz as the trip goes on.

Jonathan Alinovi