Woke up late today…..so nice to have blackout blinds! We hit the Torre Tavira first, which is one of the 126 watchtowers located in Cadiz. These watchtowers allowed the local government to keep an eye out for maritime traffic heading into port. Cadiz was the main port for Spain in the 18th century, and all ships coming to Spain from the New World came through Cadiz.
Torre Tavira became the official watchtower of Cadiz in 1778, as it is at the highest point in the entire city. It is named after Lt. Antonio Tavira, the first watchman of the tower. The views from the top are the best in the city.
They had something called Camera Obscura on the tower, that is basically like a lens that they shoot through to a concave screen and they made a circle around the city showing the highlights. Hard to take photos, but here is a shot from google. It was interesting to see people moving about the city, unaware that a group of people were watching them from above. Apparently this was all the rage back before there were motion pictures!
Then we walked over to this park adjacent to the waterfront, Parque Genoves, which dates from the late 18th century. It had a lot of really cool trees and plants, but my favorite was the waterfalls and grotto.
A view of the park from the top of the waterfall area.
There are a lot of Monk Parakeets living in the park. Apparently the locals let a few of them get out, and they proliferated. There must have been well over 100 in the park.
We then walked over to the Castillo Santa Catalina, which is open to the public and more importantly, free! Great views from this little fort.
That’s Castillo de San Sebastian in the distance.
Every fort needs a church.
This site had a display that talked about the biggest catastrophe to hit Cadiz. In 1947, a storage depot of underwater mines exploded, and leveled a good portion of the city. This explosion killed 147 people, and injured 5,000. The reason given for the explosion was previously captured German made depth charges that had highly volatile ingredients that self combusted. This is starting to shed a little light on why BMW’s and Mercedes’ need constant tune-ups. Below is a picture of the damaged porton of the city. Looks a lot like a photo of Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
One of the culprits. Damn Nazis!
Another beautiful shot of Castillo de San Sebastian as we were waiting for a bus.
We went to dinner at the #2 place on Trip Advisor, Confusione Pizza. This place is AMAZING! Here is my review on Trip Advisor.
“The pizza was excellent, but the real killer dish of the night was the Burrata Salad! Served in a lettuce taco with balsamic, with finely sliced melon on top to hold it all together, a sprig of mint, a small shot of lime, it was AMAZING! The food was so good that we will be back tomorrow for lunch!
We sat at the bar and watched the chef work, and it was like watching a Master Chef show. He is so passionate about his work, and it shows in the flavors. Do not pass on this place if you are in Cadiz!”
We took a walk to rid a few calories from our system and came across this incredible Magnolia tree. There are several such examples throughout the city. I’ve never seen one quite this large!
