The Hixson Holiday Headlines: Cadiz and Santa Maria, Spain

Friday, March 27, 2015 Cadiz, Spain

The Zuiderdam docked in Cadiz, Spain at 8:00am. Cadiz is the oldest city in Spain and one of the oldest cities in Europe. Christopher Columbus stopped here before attempting to cross the Atlantic on his first voyage. Larry and I have walked the one mile by one mile peninsula city during the a couple of previous visits passing over the old fortified sea walls and seeing the huge old Cathedral,

the Tower of Travier,

and the Botanical Gardens. It is a beautiful city with lots of solid white structures and narrow European streets with sidewalk cafes.

Today the weather was absolutely awesome. The birds were chirping, the bees were buzzing, the red buds were blooming, and orange trees were full of ripe looking fruits as well as new blossoms. Spring has sprung in Cadiz.

Larry always enjoys the motorcycles and scooters parked along the roads.

We decided to take the Catamaran Ferry to the Port of Santa Maria …..a local waterfront town that was half an hour across the harbor from Cadiz.

We explored a beautiful old church and took several awesome shots of the local architecture while waiting for the ferry to arrive.

Gold and silver from the local mines filled the Cathedral.

Once under way we spotted the beaches that lined the coast all along the peninsula. After crossing the channel we passed by a marina with sailboats and lots of large fishing boats docked alongside the seawalls going into Santa Maria.

Men with very long poles fished off the jetty. We enjoyed talking with some students from Madrid who were visiting with their grandparents during Easter break. They enjoyed practicing their English on us and we enjoyed practicing our Spanish with them.

Once landing in Santa Maria we walked down many narrow streets passing local merchants and many businesses.

Homes were above the first floors with balconies of gorgeous blooming flowers.

I love the terrace homes...so European.

We walked by several buildings dating back to the 1700’s. The history here is fantastic!

The city center had a lovely park with a water fountain and a heavenly smell of orange blossoms.

After winding deeper into the old town, we entered the historic district finding an old Cathedral dating back to 700AD in a square surrounded by sidewalk cafes. WOW! The ornately shaped ceiling was made of block, around 100 ft in the air. It was an unbelievable structure. Locally mined silver decorated one altar while another was lit with tall white candles around the Virgin Mary.

After soaking up the sights for about for two hours we headed back toward the port coming to a fantastic castle and running into the young ladies that we had talked with on the ferry.

We met a local gentleman who translated the sign on the structure that told of the English king who had lived here before Spain became a country in the 1200’s. It was interesting to try to carry on a conversation with this local Spaniard.