Cadiz

On one of our taxi rides, our driver was telling us that we should go to Cadiz, as it’s his favorite beach town.  I figured this would be a good day stopover, on our way to exploring Southern Spain, and it would make a nice contrast to other places we would visit for two reasons.  First of all, it’s one of the few beach cities in Spain on the Atlantic.  And secondly, I was anticipating perhaps a Portuguese influence in the cuisine.

We arrived in the early afternoon, and immediately took the kids to the beach.  The sand was really soft, and there were waves large enough for the three of us to go body surfing.  The water was cold, but tolerable.  We spend three hours or so frolicking in the sand, which was great for the kids since they have love swimming and needed a more kid-oriented stop for the day.

Around 7PM, we headed back to the hotel.  The kids were obviously tired, so Sue and I set them up with peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and we ducked out for a date of our own.  We walked along the beach promenade, and arrived at the start of the sunset light show.  In the distance, a marching band was playing, so there was a musical accompaniment to the sunset too. This was our first time seeing an Atlantic sunset, and since it was partly cloudy that day, we got a great show:

I did a little research, and chose a Tapas restaurant called El Faro (the lighthouse) about 2 km away. I’m not sure Sue was planning on walking that much, but she persevered and we got there.  El Faro is reportedly one of the King of Spain’s favorite places, so we figured we couldn’t go wrong.  Sue ordered her staple of Salmorejo – this time with tuna – and I got an assortment of seafood tapas – all excellent.

One tactic we tried was to pick the thing on the menu with the longest description: Pavia de Bacalao y Wasabi sobre un crema de membrillo y bonaito a lo mostaza en granos.  It was really good and different, although I couldn’t taste the wasabi part.

We met a charming couple from London at the bar, and chatted with them for a while.  They shared some of their tapas with us, and gave us a name of an Indian place to try in London: tayyap. El Faro’s tapas bar is standing only, and as such it’s easy to meet your neighbors.  And tonight wasn’t very crowded, so it was easy to converse.

Afterwards, we searched for a taxi, but wound up walking back to our hotel.  Sue had on new shoes, and she was a sport about the long walk, even though I could tell her feet hurt.