jetjunkies

February 10, 2025

We discussed our stay in Cádiz this morning and the agreement is that we love it here. Of all the places we’ve traveled to, this is in the top two. The other being Cape Town, South Africa. They speak English in Cape Town, a big plus, but it’s safer here, the people are very friendly for the most part, the climate is a close to perfect microclimate, the food is good and the lifestyle relaxed. Too bad it’s so far from home.

We walked to the Botanical Garden again today. There are areas we haven’t seen and Pete’s wants to see the Parrots (parakeets). Biggest parakeets I have ever seen.

The Castillo De Santa Catalina is a fortress built in the 17th century, was later used as a prison and is now open to the public with an exhibit of the catastrophic explosion of a munitions depot in 1947. The munitions were located inside two warehouses, storing 1,565 underwater mines, 596 depth charges and 41 torpedoes. This explosive material had arrived in Cádiz between 1942 and 1943 for the defence of the Spanish coasts during the Second World War. Heat and time caused the explosion in warehouse 1 containing 200 tons of TNT. The shock wave completely destroyed the Naval Base, Shipyards, the railway station, the children’s hospice known as «Cot House», the working-class neighbourhood of San Severiano, the summer houses of Bahía Blanca and all the buildings adjoining Tolosa Latour Street. All the windows in the city broke into a thousand pieces falling to the streets in the middle of an immense rain of glass. This is the greatest disaster that Cádiz has endured.

South of the Castillo is La Caleta beach, with the boats featured in the first photo, a restaurant, sunbathers/swimmers and frolicking wet dogs.

It was time for something to eat, but we’d waited too long and at 3 pm all but the bars were closed. It’s difficult getting used to such fixed times to eat. Fortunately a place in Plaza De San Antonio near our apartment was still open and we were able to enjoy a beer, Caprese salad and pizza.

We had a great view of a beautiful lookout tower while enjoying our late lunch/early dinner.

Approximately 130 of these towers remain in the city. They were built by shipping company owners and investors to watch for returning ships, their own and competitors. They devised complicated signals using flags and mirrors to convey information about cargo, giving them valuable advance time in which to make financial decisions.

Off to the apartment with our leftover pizza.

We have decided to visit Gadir tomorrow, a partially excavated phoenician city from the 8th century BC. Until then….