Friday, April 25, 2008

My first trip to Cádiz


Yesterday, John and I went to Cádiz.
It is much larger than Rota and completely surrounded by water.
(map)
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We started our tour with Burger King! That’s right, Burger King! John has been craving it. They had all the same stuff, and most the names were in regular English- no “Royal with Cheese” or anything like that. They did have a little menu off to the side that was only onion rings and chicken fingers, and it said it was a Tapa Menu, kinda cute.

- (online photo, not mine)

Next we walked to the Catedral. It was GORGEOUS! The domed ceilings went on and on into the sky, and it had little niches, called chapels, dedicated to particular saints with paintings and sculptures as far back as the 1600’s. We also toured the crypts under the church. The lighting and stone was creepy enough, but the echo of your footsteps made it sound distorted mechanically- scary! It was built in 1722 and is made of Oyster Stone.

Crypt

The Cathedral was started in the 1700's to replace one that had been burned badly. It took 117 years to complete. "The result was a remarkable cathedral with a combination of Baroque style in its interiors, Rococo in its ornamentation and Neoclassical on the main façade, the domes and the towers. This combination of styles in architecture was due largely to the series of architects that supervised the Cathedral during the long period of construction. Catedral de Cadiz also has a museum on site which holds many gold and silver treasures and other precious stone ornaments. In the Cathedral crypt lies the tomb of famed Cadiz-born Spanish composer Manuel Falla, considered to be the greatest Spanish composer of the 20th century. " (From HERE) In the crypt, there were many clergy members, from different centuries and also the poet, José María Penán.

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After that we had some coffee; then off to the Museum of Cádiz. It has both Fine Art and historical objects. There are many Roman and Egyptian findings in the area, and they were by far the most impressive.
Even here in Rota, we are told that if we go digging in our yards and we find Roman coins or anything else of archeological interest, we are required to turn it in to authorities. Apparently, they are common for this whole area.

John and Roman Statue

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Next we had dinner (steamed mussels and fried cuttlefish) at an outdoor café and MORE coffee! We listened to all the people in the surrounding bars cheering at the soccer game going on at the time. After that, it was getting dark. We walked around quite a bit, then had our last coffee and some cake before we went to an African themed hookah bar. They were all out of hookah stuff, so I had a rum-and-coke (emphasis on rum!) and John had a coke while we sat in a lil area with pillows around us. It started to get a lil too smokey for me after a while, so we went home.

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Next time we go, we want to take the ferry, as Cádiz is right across the bay from Rota, and it is quicker. There is so much more to do there.

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Click HERE to see more pictures. Some from the Catedral are blurry, because I did not use the flash. And there are not very many, because (ONCE AGAIN) my battery was low! Too many pictures of the cat at home. Haha! Just kidding- there can never be too many pictures of the cat.

Me having (way too much) coffee

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