Back in Spain – Cadiz

We were back in Spain.  The ferry dropped us off at Tarifa and we got the first bus to Cadiz.  An easy 1½ hour ride saw us in this charming walled city jutting out into the Atlantic in a fisted peninsula.  Throughout the centuries this little peninsula has been a strategic port.  It holds the legends of the Spanish Armada, Nelson and Hornblower.

The fort of Cadiz

Old city wall

 The town is very pretty.  It is filled with beautiful and quirky parks and surrounded by the pounding surf of the Atlantic.

Beautiful public spaces

Quirky park of dinosaurs, crocodiles  and waterfalls

Magnificent fig tree

Cadiz is where Spain’s first constitution was written and ratified in 1812.  We went to the museum of the constitution where there were lots of oil portraits of leading lights of the time and an impressive wooden model of the city of Cadiz.

Painting of the signing of the Constitution

Wooden model of Cadiz.  Look closely and you can see that all the buildings have an open courtyard in the centre.

Next door to the museum was a building calling itself ‘interpretation of the constitution’.  We thought this would house a copy of the constitution and its translation in several languages and a bit of history and background.  So we paid our 3 Euros and walked into a bizarre, over the top church with gaudy gold gilded icons and press button audio-visual presentations.  We left stunned and totally baffled.  Although we couldn’t understand the Spanish, nothing seemed to be in the least related to the constitution.

The 'interpretation' building/church

Next we went to a Puppet Museum.  This museum is quite new and housed within the old city wall.  It looks like they are just building their collection and the signage could be better but the exhibits were lovely.  There were puppets from around the world.  We saw our old favourite Wayang Goleks, lots of marionettes of all sizes, hand and finger puppets and some theatres and props.

Burmese marionette

The old favourite Punch

A wonderful witch

I loved this face

We walked out to the end of the causeway at the tip of the peninsula mesmerised by the surf and views.

The Atlantic surging around the walls

These fishermen had just made a very impressive run through the race under the causeway

As we made our way back, on the beach near the causeway was the most fantastic sand castle.  The detail was superb.  You have to love a town like this.

Check out the cracked brick walls

The perspective was fantastic