Friday, April 3 - Cadiz day trip

The kids have been asking to go to the beach since we've arrived in Spain.  Now that Scott's holiday schedule follows Spain's federal holidays, Scott had a 4 day weekend for Easter.  After a relaxing Thursday, we woke up, ate a quick breakfast, and loaded up the car on Friday to head to the beach.

As we were heading down our side street, Goles, we got stuck behind a garbage truck.  The men were so nice that rather than make us wait for them to dump all 3 dumpsters, instead they circled the block to let us get through.

We passed a windmill farm that you can barely see through the tree.  It's hard to take a picture going at 120km+/hour.

We arrived in Cadiz.  We chose this as our beach destination since it's one of the closest beach towns (about 1.5 hours away) and it was recommended by a number of people.  We roamed the streets looking for on street parking, but eventually we gave up and parked in a parking garage.  Here's the view once we were outside the garage.  We walked along the water's edge heading south, the way the picture is pointing.  To the left (east) is the old city of Cadiz.  

The kids were as happy as could be once we got to the beach.  We quickly changed them into their swimsuits, slathered them up with suntan lotion, and they played an played in the sand and water.   

We found this little section a few feet away from the water's edge.  They loved that they could play there independently. 

Rosa and Scott checked out the ocean.  We're along the Atlantic here.  At some point we plan to visit a beach on the Mediterranean Sea.

It's around noon and the beach is fairly empty.  This was partly due to the weather.  When we arrived in town, it was in the 60s and there was a breeze.  But, as the sun woke up and the locals woke up, the temperatures rose and it became a perfect beach day.

A little bit further south on the beach was this shaded kiosk where people were having drinks and snacks.

While many people wore bathing suits like we're used to in the states, there was some topless sunbathing, many little girls with just bikini bottoms on, and some little boys prancing around naked.  Plus, there were a few men in their speedos.  

Cody and Rosa wanted to go swimming, but the water was a bit too chilly for that.

So Rosa got busy drawing her full name in the sand.  

Complete with a smiley face

Eventually we were able to drag the kids away from the beach and head across the street for lunch, outdoors of course.

 

After our late lunch (3pm-ish) we headed to the old town of Cadiz on the way back to our car.  Here's a picture of an old wall.

Lower down is an area to play soccer. 

Rosa's busy skyping with Kate.

Notice the cement walls are made with local shells.

I liked this statue of a bird across the street.

Check out the cannons on top of the wall.

Devon had us check out this fountain.

Once in the old town, the kids had fruit smoothies (granizados).  They sure look happy.

And then we went outside to the main plaza in front of the cathedral.  There were chairs set up for Semana Santa.

The gold dome in the distance is on top of the old cathedral.  And the bus stop in the foreground has stairs going down to the parking garage.

We drove around the outside of the old town.  Here's a picture of one of the buildings for the University of Cadiz.  

Here's a closer picture.  Aunt Beth (and baby James and Grandma Carol) will be visiting this summer when Beth has a business trip to this university.  We're excited!

On our drive home we saw a solar panel plant.

And a cowboy billboard

And what we think are aqueducts

 That night we went out for dinner.

While we were walking around we passed this coffee/bar.  I need to look it up and go inside and experience it one day.

We ate dinner in Plaza de la Gavidia.  It was our 4th time eating at this plaza and our 4th restaurant.  And, this is a small plaza.  This time we ate at El Sanedrin and skyped with my parents while we were waiting for our food.  Our waiter was extremely nice and he was telling us about a procession that was going to be in the plaza the next night.  We bumped into him the next day and he confirmed that we'd go to see the procession.  So thoughtful.

What I totally forgot was that it was the first night of Passover.  For some reason I had it in my head that it started Monday night.  I didn't realize the mistake until the next day after breakfast.

And we saw this horse and carriage at our corner.  Usually we don't see them in our neighborhood.