Cadiz for an afternoon

We recently had cause to spend a pleasant afternoon wandering around the narrow streets of old town Cadiz, and a pleasant experience it was. Cadiz is a town of two parts – the new town with famous department stores, and, our destination, the old town with its many shops, cafes, restaurants, and of course churches. 

One tip – Cadiz is bigger than it looks and if you’re heading for the old town by car then make sure you drive as far as the city walls unless you want a long (2-3 mile) walk in blistering heat along the seafront. Lesson learned there. On entering old town Cadiz there are plenty of car parks well signposted and at reasonable(ish) rates.

It being lunchtime we spent half an hour or so wandering the streets to find somewhere suitable to eat, finally settling on a tapas bar where selection of reasonably priced tapas (2.50 Euros) was available and greatly enjoyed.

The town was a little quiet for the rest of the afternoon (siesta time) so we wandered around the parks and took a look at the ferry ports where with AIDA Vita was paying a visit to the town (see here).

Come evening time though and the town came back to life, with the shops reopening, cafes and restaurants filling, and the friendly locals filling the streets (in fact we hardly heard any English speaking during the day). Wandering around the town, we found plenty to entertain, including the usual street entertainment, as well as the many churches that were often lit up to great effect. Of course the cathedral is a site to be seen too and the square in front of it a great place to relax and watch the world go by.