Cadiz Day 3: The Beach

Churros for breakfast, yes please! We learned to emphasize the rolling of our r's for churros as one place we went had me repeat it a few times before being all 'Oh yes churrrrrrrrrrrrros.' My bad. I enjoyed my churrrrrrrros happily in the morning sunshine.  Most everyone else got toast with a tomato salsa though Chico I believe managed to get some ham on his.

We headed for the beach after filling our bellies, walking along the beach was perfect. The water was lovely. Finally finding a spot in the sand to rest our things Lori and I headed to try and find drinks and possibly more towels. We found drinks in a small shop and brought them back to the group. I could not resist the water and hurried in as soon as I had the chance.  The water was a bit chilly at first but once you got in it was wonderful The water was quite salty so you could float around quite easily in the surf.

This trip down to Cadiz with Jess and her family was truly amazing so far. No problems. No planning. No worries. Just peace and relaxation. A true holiday.

Cadiz Day 2: Camera Obscura

After enjoying a spot of lunch after we left the museum we headed through Cadiz' winding streets and found the camera obscura in Torre Tavira.  We paid the €6.00 and climbed up the tower, admiring thae art work and information about the towers that popped up through the roof line of Cadiz. Upon reaching the top of the tower we were blown away by the view of the city. If you are ever in Cadiz,I highly recommend checking out the Torre Tavira for its view alone. After enjoying the view and the beautiful weather we headed down the stairs and were entertained by the guide who showed up the camera obscura. 

A camera obscura is an optical device that projects an image of the surrounding area onto a large screen. The guide was able to move the mirrors projecting the image to give us a 360 degree tour of the city. Moving the large bowl she was projecting onto she was able to zoom in and out on certain areas. As it is a projection you can see little people walking around in real time. I had never seen one before but the largest one in the world is in Aberystwyth, Wales so I might have to catch a train there and check it out.

Cadiz Day 2: Cadiz Museum

Our next day in Cadiz, we woke up and headed for the Museum of Cadiz. The museum costs €1.50 I believe to enter based on what I read on the website but we were allowed in for free. I am not sure if they just thought we were from another EU country but they did not check our passports or anything. 

The museum was very interesting, showing all the archaeological finds that have happened in the areas surrounding Cadiz. 

Cadiz Day 1

Waking up without a worry of having to do anything was quite nice. We rose from our slumbers and were greeted by the wonderful sunshine of Cadiz. Enjoying coffee and chocolate croissants from the bakery down the street. The croissants were so fresh biting into them with all the warm chocolate, so good. 

The reason we were in Spain was for Jess' stepmom Cindy's 50th birthday party. One way to celebrate. Though I myself turned 18 and 19 in the UK and now that I am living in Liverpool it looks like I will turn 25 and 26 here as well. Wow, when did I get so old? Take me back to 18!!

So our companions in Spain were Jess' dad Steve, Cindy, Cindy's sister Lori and her husband Chris. Lori and Chris we called the Chicos for the duration of the trip. Everyone was super nice to me and it was nice to be around more people. 

We walked do to the waters edge, exploring a beautiful park and I collected lots of beach glass that I hoarded back to Liverpool.

Barcelona to Cadiz

Waking up early, we caught the metro in Barcelona for the last time. Heading across the city to the train station where we would depart for our day long adventure across Spain. We we're catching the 9:04 am train all the way to Sevilla where we would switch and get on another train. Eventually finding ourselves in Cadiz at 10:23 pm. Yes. We were looking at around 13 hours on trains. Lucky us. 

I had no idea what our train would be like so we had packed some tissues which is always recommended when travelling. You never know when there will be no toilet paper or you spill chocolate on yourself. Better safe then sorry. We also brought along baby wipes just in case the situation was less than sanitary. 

I was happy to find out that our train from Barcelona to Sevilla was going to the probably the most comfortable journeys I have ever taken. We found our seats and double checked they were ours before sitting down. We had more leg room then a plane. The train was quite empty so it was nice and quiet. The seats moved and slid into recliners. It was amazing.

Barcelona's Estadio de Fran train station.

Our ride below. It was a very long train and we had to walk quite a bit along it in order to find our seats.

Jess and I were both determined to make this the best train ride of our lives. We slept, talked, enjoyed writing funny stories about really weird princesses and babies. We enjoyed the candy we had purchased in Barcelona. I crammed by box as full as I could when we had purchased them. It was quite dense and full of deliciousness.

We were quite wrong about the bathroom situation as well. There was a toilet at the front and rear of each compartment and it was clean and had lots of toilet paper. Lucky us.

Finally reaching Sevilla, we got off the train and headed through the station attempting to find which train was ours. Jess attempted to get any sort of wifi in order to contact her dad but had no luck. We finally managed to find which platform our train was on and hurried over to it. Finding our seats we slid into them and sat back for the last leg of our journey.  It was about an hour or so from Sevilla to Cadiz and we attempted to plot our route to where we were staying.

Arriving in the dark is something I don't like doing but we both hustled along through Cadiz and we looked around in attempt to find where we were and where we had to go. Passing a Burger King our stomachs reminded us of how hungry we were but seeing the line going out the door we hurried on past it. Taking the wrong street, we ended up a bit father from the hotel and had to re-route ourselves. Finally finding the correct street we found the address but nothing seemed right. There was nothing indicating that this was even a hotel. We stressed, trying to get on email to find which buzzer might be Jess' dads but email was not working. We confirmed with a woman on the street that was indeed the right building. We yelled "Steve!" up at the building at around midnight. Jess finally resorted to pressing all the buzzers. Luckily we got the right one and Chico answered. Soon Jess' dad appeared and unlocked the door for us. Leading us up into the apartment.

We did not stick around long though, our stomachs drove us out of the apartment and we wandered around for a little bit before finding a pizza place down a random street. Boy, was that pizza good. The place is called Ristorante Pizzeria Osare and is located on Calle Rosario 27. One of the best pizzas I have ever had. Might have been because I was starving but Jess and I devoured it.

After filling our bellies, we headed back to the apartment to get some rest. After such a long journey, it was nice to be in the same spot for a while.