Paseo Santa Barbara, Cadiz, Spain. January 2017
On the first trip to Andalucia, I based myself in Seville. Cadiz was on my list of places to visit simply because it was "the end of Spain" and I wanted to see the Strait of Gibraltar. As travels plans go, we never know what will happen in the future, so I had no idea two years later I would be in Algeciras [see: Algeciras] and Tarifa [see: Tarifa] both much closer to the narrow part of the Strait. I didn't know what to expect from Cadiz and with my late in life vow to reduce travel expectations, I had not done much research in advance.
Cadiz Station was at the end of the railway line (as was Algeciras) and as the train approached the terminus, there were a series of wetlands punctuated with industrial sites. I could have been in New Jersey around the Meadowlands. Finally, the land rose bit by bit into a peninsula and THAT held the old town (casco antiguo) of Cadiz. The place was pleasant and small enough to see on foot on a day trip. My favorite spot was the above pictured Paseo Santa Barbara and the attached gardens. The little sentry posts took me back to El Morro in Puerto Rico, the first place I ever saw with that style of fort. It was funny that I was in Spain having something remind me of Puerto Rico rather than the reverse. It was more about what I encountered first - no matter how much I loved history, it played little role in the formation of memories - funny.
Cadiz was OLD. I mean Cadiz was founded by the Phoenicians in 1104 BC. Some scholars counted it as the oldest continuously occupied city in Europe. Impressive, but in my travels a LOT of places made this claim, so suffice it to say - Cadiz was really old. Not much of that "ancient vibe" remained though. The old city was more like this little gem set in an industrial port zone. The modern world churned on and could not stop to consider small bits of history like the "Casco Antiguo" of Cadiz. "Cadiz" actually was derived from the Phoenician word for "Wall" (which came by the way of Berber and Arabic). Much of the Spanish fleet that set sail for the Americas in search of gold and other plunder departed from and returned to Cadiz. So much so that Cadiz was often attacked by pirates, so its defense required the still existing heavy fortifications facing the sea. In the fading days of the Spanish Empire (18th century), Cadiz port was one of the richest and most cosmopolitan cities in Europe. Most of the old city dates from that period.
My only other memory of Cadiz was that all the city's orange trees were in full fruit. Alas, I was told that in most of Andalucia, these urban orange trees were purely for decoration and the fruit was not edible. That certainly explained all the oranges left to rot under the trees! I have to say that an orange tree in "full fruit" is not only exotic, but beautiful! It made sense to me that the word for "orange" in English derived from the Spanish via French (although its etymology extends much farther afield and is truly fascinating).
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