Cadiz is old. Cadiz is believed to be the oldest city still standing in Europe. The settlement was founded by Phoenicians from Tyre (modern day Lebanon) following the Trojan War in 1104 BC.
It was 700 years old when Hannibal started the Second Punic War. Around 1,000 BC, Phoenicians settled on Erytheia and Kotinoussa, two islands in the Guadalete River. They founded the port, later known as Cadiz. Gadir (Cadiz) formed part of the “Phoenician Belt” around the strait of Gibraltar.
And so it was a place that we wanted to visit. It’s a short ride from Jerez, and we came around from the south, better to miss the heavy traffic of motorways. Along the way, our routing software, GaiaGPS, took us almost crawling under some highway bridges to avoid the roads, which was as surprising as it was practical.
After the bridges we passed an abandoned house taken over by cats, and so it’s a miracle that we ever were able to go forward to Cadiz with all that interest.
Entering the heart of Cadiz ended up being relatively easy, with some bike paths thrown into the mix to help. We stopped at the train station to make sure our bike transit was arranged correctly and got two completely different stories, and so we’re going with the one we want. Wish us luck!
There was a bar right outside our apartment door, and so we had a celebratory drink and a slice of tortilla española before getting some food for dinner at the market and taking a brief exploratory walk. Cadiz is a maze of small streets converging on nice squares, and we were lucky to get to the cathedral just as the falling sun gave it a golden glow.
There’s even more (feral) cats! What a town.
On our second day in Cadiz we got a chance to explore a bit more. Chris took the chance to enjoy the beach and I took a walking tour of Cadiz.
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