Thursday, January 19, 2017

Cádiz, Costa de la Luz, Spain. . . . . . . . . . . .


The Spanish coastline stretching from the Portuguese border to Gibraltar is known
 as the Costa de la Luz (Coast of Light).  Cádiz is the capital of the province and
 is the oldest inhabited town in the western world with 3,000 years of history.
 It's position is one of the largest ports on the Atlantic coast of Spain, also a
 naval base and a major shipyard, as well as the port of shipment for the brandy
 and sherry from Jerez de la Frontera, and also olives and olive oil from Seville.


We liked it here. After taking the usual Hop On Hop Off bus around the town
 which has 140,000 inhabitants, and the beachfront area, we spent the remainder
 of our time on foot enjoying what was a cool blustery but mostly sunny day with
 no rain for a change.






Although the historic buildings such as the Baroque style cathedral which
 has undergone recent much-needed restoration, the Renaissance style
 Church of Santa Cruz, and the Neo-Classical Museum of Cádiz were attractive,
 we headed to the seafront, enjoying a stroll through the parks and promenades
 where the combination of white houses and blue sea gave an impression of crisp,
 pristine freshness.


We loved the small shopping streets many leading to open plazas and a market.

This was a great find for me - a tiny, narrow, tucked away Merceria which translates
as haberdasher's, draper's or notions shop. It was very old fashioned, with high ceilings
and lined with wooden shelves displaying yarns, ribbons, knitting patterns, embroidery
 items etc. It was also crowded with customers, locals who obviously are keeping alive
 sewing and knitting traditions - I loved that.

There were Christmas decorations in many of the streets, some quite 
lovely, but this was my favorite in the window of the Merceria -
a lovely Nativity scene tucked between the yarns and notions.


As in most of Spain, tapas bars and restaurants were common. 
This sign made me realize there are never enough vegetarian tapas - although
 this one does have one, Pisto!
We found a nice coffee bar and stopped for a warming drink - then walked back
to the ship for dinner.


Our last port of call in Spain was La Coruña - more on that interesting town later, 
plus I still need to post more on the Lisbon, Portugal stop.  Slowly but surely
I'll get around to it - life has been hectic since we returned home!

8 comments:

  1. How beautiful! In that first picture I can just imagine sitting there on a lovely, sunny day. The narrow shopping streets remind me of walking in Barcelona. How I would love traveling here. The nativity in the yarn shop would be a favorite too. All so wonderful!

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  2. It looks like a wonderful place Mary! I bet you had fun in that notions shop.

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  3. OOO, thanks so much for sharing these amazing photos. I would love to visit there someday.

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  4. Beautiful photos, Mary, of Cadiz, Costa de la Luz. Living on Crete, I can completely relate to all that bold, bright colour that covers the stunning architecture. The tapas bar and cafe would have definitely been my two places to sit and take in all the gorgeous views.

    Happy 2017 to you, my friend! Looking forward to your pics of Portugal!

    Hugs,
    Poppy

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  5. Cadiz looks like a lovely place. I love all the bright colours. I read your comment on my blog that you will be visiting Malta for half a day. Probably, all you will have time for is Valletta but I think you will really enjoy it there. If you come in summer, I hope you won't mind the heat. July and August can be quite unbearable.

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  6. The colour of the sky, the light on the beautiful stone buildings, the angles you've shot all combine for more of your fantastic photos.
    I read once that Cadiz is one of the possibilities for the ancient city of Tarshish in the biblical account of Jonah, for it was as far away as one could get from Nineveh in that time.

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  7. OK, adding Cadiz to my list too! :D I LOVE Baroque and those photos jsut show the magnificence so well. Thank you. So happy you got to go.

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