Fun things to do in Cadiz

Cadiz is a little strange, something you may notice are the trees along the streets, what you may not notice at first glance, or until I looked at my vacation pictures, is that there is very little exposed earth, the whole place is paved over except for these small openings to allow trees to grow. Sure there are areas like the botanical gardens, but in the city it is all paved. Look at these orange trees, even the openings to the earth are covered with paving bricks.

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This is one of rare Roman factories to treat and salt fish and seafood, and one of most important in all Mediterranean area for his Garum production. The Garum was a sauce made by processing seafood interiors and Romans very appreciated it although it was very expensive. Cadiz was one of biggest and vital town producing and storaging those precious foods, and one of most ancients.
The visit is detailed by a sequence of informative panels, and a video try to rebuild the history and work of the factory.

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Like most of the towns and cities we visited in Spain the entire area is "spotted" with churches and even a Cathedral now and again. Cadiz is no exception. Since the Cathedral (shown on the outside in photo 1) charges entrance we decided to visit the Church of Santa Cruz which is just around the corner from it. The decorations you can see in the second photo. The 3rd and 4th photos show the church of San Antonio. The last photo shows a church that I could not find on my tourist map...either the church is too new or the map is too old...

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Even though Cadiz is a major Spanish city, you could walk many of the streets and find them comparatively empty as you can see by the photos here. It was nice to be able to have a few moments of quiet in this busy city. These streets were not on the tourist map, they were just our "connections" between points of interest since we did not always follow the marked routes. So what I am saying is get off those marked routes a little and just let your feet take you where they will.

Well, I finally got the chance to have my Hammam (Jerez http://www.hammamandalusi.com/), and have nothing but positive feedback for this hydrotherapy....

...to benefit fully, you must do the hot bath / cold bath thing as many times as you can take it (the cold one's a killer, but the rewards are over the good and the bad). What a charge to the system...your realigned mentally and physically.

Your skin will feel softer as it's expelled toxins, you'll be tired after all this detoxification...so don't have too much planned for afterwards. (Remember the skin, in an hour, can do what your kidney's take 24 hours to do...and the kidneys are working super hard at the same time - the cold water activates them).

My middle toe on one of my feet doesn't move when i bend my toes, but after the hammam, it was tingling - perhaps the nerves were stimulated....interesting....

The music / the decor / the lighting / the sweet tea / the staff - all tranquil....

I'm addicted...i felt so peaceful afterwards....this was all without the massage.

Price - 15€ a skull for 1 hr 30 min session. You can include into this time a 15 min massage for an extra 12€

Cheers
Carmelle

Calle Ancha, Literally wide street, really is one of Cadiz's least narrow streets. It is also one of Cadiz's most important streets for getting your bearings, shopping and getting to other important places in the old centre.

The photo you can see is looking down Calle Ancha from Plaza San Antonio, where it begins.

At the other end of this street you will find COLUMELA which is the main clothes shopping street.

Built between 1685 and 1719; the plaques you can see covering the surface of the building commemorate the Cortes who sailed for the Americas and gave light to the constitution in 1812.

You can enter for 2.50€ Mondays to Saturdays 10-13:30

Plaza San Francisco really is just another pretty plaza in the centre of Cadiz. Though if you spend much time in Cadiz you'll probably get to know the square really well. Very close to the bus stops and station it is a good meeting point. It is lined with cafes , bars and restaurants and is also very close to the main going out bars for young people.

Traditionally it was a botellon site where groups of people gathered to drink in the streets with their friends. Now all this has changed due to the new anti botellon laws.

Plaza San Francisco often features in peoples directions to get to other places so take note of the photo.