Kicking Off Day Trip Explorations in Cadiz

Katie Johnson
Jul 27, 2023
7 min read

Updated: Aug 1, 2023

I have been here almost two months and I wasn't letting another weekend go by without a day trip now that Bryan has arrived! Yes, the man landed less than 5 days ago, but he was more than happy to jumpstart our European travels with a 30-minute drive to Cadiz!

Cadiz is the capital of the province that we live in, making it the perfect place to explore for our first weekend together! This 3,000-year-old city is located slightly south of Rota and can be spotted on clear days from Rota's beaches!

While there is a 25-minute ferry that goes from downtown Rota to Cadiz, Bryan wanted to drive to Cadiz for our first time, so after parking, we passed the morning exploring the ancient streets!

El Bar Nuestro De Cada Dia

We even stumbled upon a tiny little coffee shop that was definitely not the average tourist spot! Being the only English speakers in this bar-turned-morning-coffee-shop, we branched out of our comfort zones and ordered "cafe con leche," which we enjoyed at the standing bar!

Teatro Romano de Cádiz

After paying our €2.80 for coffee, we headed out for some more city sightseeing! When looking at the map, Bryan noticed an ancient amphitheater, so we headed that way! Little did we know, we had stumbled upon the oldest theater in Spain that could sit over 10,000 people during its prime use in the 2nd-4th centuries!

Walking through the Balbi Theatre Museum, Bryan and I learned that this amphitheater was built in the 1st century BCE by the ancient Romans. Cadiz grew into a massively successful city port for early civilizations due to its location for water trade routes. Cadiz is famous for their fishing ports and their Ancient Roman waterways are still used to this day by cruise ships and fishermen alike!

Walking into the amphitheater and sitting where the Romans sat, Bryan and I were amazed by the structure that has survived all these years!

We also learned at the end of our amphitheater tour that this theater was discovered in 1980 when a building caught on fire. As the rubble was removed from the fire, the ancient Roman amphitheater seats were discovered! With the help of archeologists, this world treasure was dug up and the museum was founded.

If you look at the final few photos above, you can see how Cadiz expanded and built over the amphitheater centuries after its popularity. Like most of Europe, when you start digging, you never know what will be discovered under your feet!

Plaza de San Juan de Dios

After our amphitheater exploration, it was time to meet up with our free walking tour guide! This free walking tour was recommended by a new friend, so I signed us up with high hopes.

As we waited for the tour to begin, Bryan and I wandered through a tent shop filled with local artists. Among all the jewelry makers, there was one watercolorist and a leather craftsman. You know I flipped through all of the watercolors looking for our next art piece, but nothing caught my fancy.

Bryan, on the other hand, found the coolest European coin wallet. When flipped upside down, the coins fall out into a small lip that allows you to pull out the exact coins needed before flipping the coin pouch back around and slipping the remaining coins back into their secure pouch. For €16, it was the coolest find of the day! And the best part was meeting the local craftsman who made it!

With Bryan's euros safely stored in his new wallet, it was time to join up with our walking tour of the city! We learned so much about the city of Cadiz, so here are a few fun facts we learned along with the photos to prove it:

El Barrio de La Viña

Cadiz actually inspired the creation of Cuba's Havana city design! In ancient times, the women of Cadiz would paint their oceanfront houses bright colors to welcome their sailors home from their long journeys at sea. As the Spanish conquistadors ventured to central and South America, these colorful homefronts inspired the colorful streets in Cuba that have become world-renowned for their welcoming rainbow streets!

Mirador entre Catedrales

A local archeologist discovered this ancient male sarcophagus in the 1980s and then spent the rest of his life trying to find the matching female sarcophagus. Upon the archeologist's death, when his home was sold and the new family began home improvements, the female sarcophagus was discovered under his house. Had this local archeologist explored under his own house, he would have found the matching pair during his life!

The area where the female sarcophagus was discovered has been left mid-dig in the center of the city, so we were able to see a true area of discovery! To protect the area, they have placed an observation deck over the discovery location. Pretty wild!

Parroquia de Santa Cruz

We also visited the oldest church in Cádiz. Parroquia de Santa Cruz was originally built as a mosque back during the decades of African tribes living in Southern Spain. Eventually, the mosque was recycled into a Catholic Church and stood as the Cathedral of Cádiz until the new cathedral was completed.

Plaza Fray Félix

Right outside the mosque-turned-cathedral is Plaza Fray Felix. The cylindrical building right outside the church is known as a Wudu. This building is where Muslims wash their hands, feet, and faces before entering the holy worship area. When the mosque was repurposed into a Catholic Cathedral for the area, locals added a cross to the top of the Wudu and continued to use it as a cleansing area!

Another fun fact: the stones in this old town area were recycled from the US colonies! During the colonial rebellion, the American colonies returned ships filled with stones, rather than the expected goods from the Americas. Rather than dumping these stones into the ocean, the Spanish repurposed them for their streets! So while the American Revolution happened, we added to Spanish history by providing their street reconstruction materials!

Arco de los Blanco

As our tour continued, we also passed the Arco de los Blanco, the only remaining wall from Cadiz's original walled city center. Now this wall signals the el populo area, where you may notice cannons lining the building corners. While they look out of place, these cannons were another way the citizens of Cadiz repurposed useless items.

Following Napoleon's failed attempt to capture the city of Cadiz, the French army left behind tons of useless cannons. The Cadiz citizens had noticed the corners of their buildings were constantly in need of repair due to the ox and horse-drawn carriages cutting the street corners too sharp. While the city needed carts filled with produce, meats, and traveling salesmen to keep up commerce, they also needed their buildings to last- so their solution was to weld the cannons into the corners of the buildings! This ingenious idea solved two problems- less building damage and a purpose for all the cannons now lying about!

As the years went on, these cannons were melted down and turned into beautifully-designed cornerstones for many popular street corners. In older parts of the city, you can still spot some of the original cannons!

Plaza de las Flores

One of the last stops on our tour was Plaza de las Flores to see all the fresh flowers for sale.

Plaza de Abastos (Cádiz)

Just past the Plaza de las Flores is another famous plaza: Plaza de Abastos. Better known as the Fish market, this 19th-century fish market still showcases the original Roman columns and booth setup that has been around for ages. Known for its fresh assortment of seafood provided every morning, Plaza de Abastos is also famous for its tapas booths around the market that cook some of the area's most famous dishes with the daily catch!

While Bryan and I didn't make it back to this area for lunch today, we know this is high on our list for our next Cadiz visit!

La Caleta

Our walking tour ended at La Caleta, a beach made famous by the 007 movie Die Another Day. Remember when we said Cadiz inspired the city design of Havana? Well, you can see this is true since MGM filmed the Havana-set James Bond film in none other than this ancient Spanish city!

Just compare those photos above with this quick clip from the film:

Without realizing it, we have turned into the true James Bond filming location fanatics! Back during our Japan travels, we visited the abandoned city of Gunkanjima off the coast of Nagasaki, where scenes from Skyfall were filmed!

Restaurante El Nino La Juani

By 2:45 pm, we were starving! While this may be Spanish lunchtime, we were beyond ready for a good bite to eat. We stumbled upon Restaurante El Nino La Juani, where we enjoyed a lunch filled with various tapas! While traditionally known as appetizers, Spain's tapas cuisine has grown famous for becoming small bites of various foods at cheap prices. This way you can eat several different tapas, while sipping on your preferred bar beverage. Our tour guide had said Cadiz is known for cazón en adobo (fried dogfish) so we made sure to order that as one of our tapas.

And for a woman who doesn't like fish, I am already looking forward to going back and getting my own cazón en adobo that I don't have to share with Bryan. It was that good! We also shared papas alinas con melva (Andalusian- style potatoes) and croquettes. The food was bomb and the pitcher of sangria was the perfect refreshing beverage to go along with our sunny lunch!

Catedral de Cádiz

The last stop on our day trip was to la Catedral de Cadiz. This 18th-century cathedral has an entire history of its own: it began construction in the early 1700s but construction was paused twice due to funding issues. The first funding problems occurred when the US colonies' rebelled and decided to host their revolution. (hence the US Revolutionary War, Go America!)

Then funding was halted a second time when Napoleon attacked Spain in the early 1800s. (Remember those cannons left in the street?)

Eventually, the cathedral was completed in 1838, with clear, visible evidence of the two major pauses in construction. The ground level of the cathedral was constructed out of oyster stone from the sea bed off the coast of Cadiz. Following the end of the American Revolution, construction picked up again with the use of sandstone and then was finally completed in limestone following Napoleon's escapades in Spain.

If you look closely at the first photo below, you can see the three different building materials (left/rear part oyster stone construction, front/bottom sandstone construction, and front/top limestone construction.)

After touring the eerie catacombs of el Catedral de Cádiz, we headed to the tower! After climbing for eternity, we made it to the top of the catherdal's bell tower. With spectacular views of the entire city, we were excited to spot Rota from our lookout point! This was the perfect way to end our day trip!