Spain Day 1

Marcus’s Blog
Spain Day 1
Old and New Cadiz
     I woke up really early, before sunrise to see us pull into to port. The sunrise was absolutely amazing, and after 8 days at sea, land was finally in sight. So ready or not here I go.

     Getting off the ship was fairly easy, I located the train station, got a map of Cadiz, then took a Churches of Cadiz tour. Cadiz is a town/city that is declining in population but is still hella dense; there are over 110,000 people in a 11km2 area.  So it didn’t take too long to get a full tour of the city. Some highlights were the “new” cathedral and the front gate.

     The “new” cathedral, constructed over 300 years ago, is massive and beautiful. It is not really efficient because its human capacity is fairly small because the walkways are so huge. Our group of 30 people filled up most of the seats in the congregation area. I feel that I was more in a tourist trap than an actual cathedral, but nonetheless that church was amazing.

     I also really liked the front gate to the city. Old Cadiz is a walled city guarded by two brothers (now statues) who were beheaded in the 3rd century for being Christians. The front gate is really beautiful, and expresses the rich history and the different theologies that have resided inside those walls for over a millennia.

     This first night, after having beer, tapas, some rice meal and Sangria we walked over 45 minutes to the clubs. It was fun, but they played bad American music because they saw all of us Americans at the bar. Nonetheless we all had a good time, but I could not handle the Spanish lifestyle, and I had to go back to the ship by 4am.
  
     Cadiz is arguably the oldest city in the Iberian Peninsula, but the stuff built in the 3rd Century has all been lost. It was a nice little town, and my first day and night was really fun and informative but I could not stay there for 4 days, so Sevilla Sevilla here I come.