Cadiz, Spain: The Oldest Town in Europe

Today, some friends from my hostel and I headed down to Cadiz, which is in the southwestern corner of Spain, for some fun in the sun!  Generally acknowledged as the oldest continually inhabited city in Europe, Cadiz was founded by the Phoenicians, and since then has seen Roman, Muslim, Visigoth, Christian, and Spanish rule.  It is also famous because Columbus started two of his four voyages to America from here, and in the process, made Cadiz incredibly wealthy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  Pictured above, behind Helen (one of my hostel friends from England) and I, is the view of Cadiz from the beach.

Unbeknownest to us, there is an air show festival in Cadiz this coming Sunday.  Lucky for us, the planes and helicopters were out practicing over the Atlantic!  For all you Michiganders and Floridians, it was basically like watching a free Blue Angels show from the beach, complete with the low fly-overs, upside-down planes, and peel-aways.  At one point, the jets even flew by with colored exhaust and the red-yellow-red of the Spanish flag was streaked across the sky!

Helen and I on the beach after a few hours of napping, reading, and swimming in the gloriously cool Atlantic.

After the beach, the three of us--Helen, Burak (who is from Turkey), and I--went to get some traditional Spanish food in the form of tapas and gazpacho, and then to explore the town a bit.  Small and surprisingly devoid of tourists, we were able to walk much of the main part in just half an hour.  Pictured behind us is one of the town's prettier buildings, the yellow-domed cathedral.

Our last stop the day was the Museum of Cadiz, which featured some great ancient artifacts, including the eighth-century BC Phoenician sarcophagi pictured above, and some nice paintings.  After that, we caught the bus back to Seville, tanner and much more tired than when we left, and perhaps a bit sad to leave the ocean.  Fortunately, though, a new adventure awaits tomorrow!