Gym's Ramblings: Calling on Cadiz

October 7, 2016

We visited Cadiz on October 7, 2016. Cadiz is historically important for many reasons, some of which are as follows:

1. It is one of the oldest cities in western Europe, having been populated by every civilization all the way back to the Phoenicians;

2. It has always been the base for Spain's Navy and is close to the site of the battle of Trafalgar;

3. Christopher Columbus left from Cadiz on two of his four voyages to the new world; and,

4. Gym and Mrs Gym were there in 2016.

Location, location, location...Cadiz was built in the perfect place. It was established at the end of a thin peninsula surrounded by water. Today, two big bridges help connect the city to the mainland but for thousands of years the city's ongoing existence was guaranteed by its location. Cadiz has until modern times, been very easy to defend. The evidence of various civilizations thriving and surviving at this site are being dug up all the time in property development and renovation projects. We saw some of that evidence in the Cadiz Fine Arts and Archaeological Museum. There are particularly good Roman and Phoenician exhibits there. The museum was part of a walking tour we took around the old town.

Cadiz has retained its charm as the local governments have wisely limited the development of high-rise buildings. This has kept the narrow streets and old town squares popular places for tourists and locals alike. A walking tour is really the only practical way of seeing most of the sites, since many areas are not accessible to vehicles bigger than scooters. In this very walkable city, Gym and Mrs. Gym easily chalked up 10,000 steps on the day.

After the tour and some exploration on their own, the intrepid couple re-boarded the vessel for the last time from the European mainland just before dinner on October 7, 2016. They settled in for a 36-hour crossing from the mainland to the island of Madiera, Portugal.

Even before leaving the European continent, thanks to the internet, the author was able to use NOAA, The Weather Network and other such sites to track Hurricane Matthew and a yet to be named low pressure system in the Caribbean Sea. Appropriately, that unnamed storm would be named Nicole (our daughter's name) as the tropical depression became a tropical storm and then started moving in a northerly direction, in the easterly wake of her big brother Matthew.

The Old City Wall of Cadiz

The use of marble tiles again in an urban park

Plaza San Juan de Dios leading to the Old Town Hall

Statue to Segismundo Moret, a Spanish politician (his mother was Irish)

The Od Town Hall

These officials are coming out of city hall to join a procession
that will wind through the streets and end up at a Church where flowers will
be placed in honour of the Virgin Mary

Oyster stone is the primary building block of Cadiz. It is sandstone that
contains pieces of the shells from ancient shellfish.

An interesting use of a used cannon barrels is shown
in this picture. They were used to keep carriage wheels
from hitting the corners of buildings

ballast stones were used as pavement on many of the streets

What are the white markings in the stone of this plaza?

Ignore the modern art in the centre of the picture and notice the front
door to a church in the background and the white markings on the floor of the plaza

The markings are are the floor plan or blueprint of the Cadiz Cathedral
laid out in front of the church itself

And here is the massive Cadiz Cathedral which took 116 years to complete.
Because it took so long it had several lead architects and exhibits
multiple architectural styles

The old city boasts 129 different watchtowers. Everyone in the 18th and 19th
centuries wanted to monitor incoming ships bringing wealth back from the new world