Cadiz

Beautifully preserved Cadiz. It was all about trade!

We were back in Europe today at the southern Spanish port of Cadiz. Unbelievably my parents had not been here before! We chose a Tapas tour and thus was given a pseudo sleep in as the bars did not open until later in the day. At the very leisurely hour of 1000am by Albany standards, we wandered off the ship to meet our guide Charo. She was like a spanish version of my mother on steroids! I was initially a little scared! But she became rather hilarious (not intentionally I'm sure!) as she drank more and more at each stop!

Charo was great value, it seemed she knew everyone and had thick enough skin to help us push past the crowds on our walking tour and get us seats at the packed markets. She was a passionate woman who loved her city. We realised that we knew very little about Spain. She schooled us! "Watch me! Look at were I'm pointing". Cadiz is a very old city, up there with the ranks of Athens and Rome. An important city because of geography, controlling trade routes to and from Europe, the city was populated by wealthy merchants. This resulted in beautiful buildings and thanks to excellent preservation efforts, it is now a very pretty city to walk around. Cadiz is also known for sherry production and as a city that Napoleon failed to conquer

Charon taught us today that the word "tapa" means "lid" and so called because the original dish was ham or cheese used as lids to cover their drinks to prevent insects from getting in. It has now evolved to more than cheese and ham, to become the popular "small dishes" of variety. Eating at the bar versus to eating at a table will attract different pricing, much like coffee in Italy. 

Surprisingly, the 3 hours of being bossed around flew by and was highly enjoyable. The food was excellent and that was reason enough to book this tour. We said goodbye to Charon and sat down to much on the requisite churros and hot chocolate before wandering back to the ship. 

Lady of Justice. It was NOT a penis on her guide, said our guide, but none of us could remember what it actually was

Buildings in the historic centre must be preserved. Typical courtyard of an apartment block, central well, marble everywhere

Streets were narrow so cannons were in nearly every corner to protect the buildings from damage from carriages. The rich would melt the cannon against the corner with their family crest

Oyster stone, the blocks used for buildings quarried from local cliffs. You can see the oysters embedded

Our first tapas stop

Croquetas - deep fried potato goodness

The fillings were blue cheese, ham and prawns

Next stop, sherry. 17% alcohol

Lovely ambience and friendly owners

Seriously the best pork. Chicharrones and Carne mechada, consumed with the picos rolled inside

Payoyo cheese, a type of cheese we had not heard of! Intense flavour but not overwhelming. Delicious

The palms trees added a lovely feel to the city

The very busy market

Charo got us a seat for 7! She literally quizzed all the other patrons as to how long they would be at their seats lol

Fried cake of small prawns. Crunchy and tasty

We were also treated to deep fried anemone

More churros that we could eat...16 euros with 4 hot chocolates! The dough was light and it wasn't super sweet which made it easy to eat