While we were in Chipiona, we decided to take a day trip to Cadiz. Part of the fun was just getting there. We took a 15 minute bus to a nearby port and then hopped on a catamaran to Cadiz (45 minutes). The kids loved being on the second floor and sticking their faces in the ocean breeze, but it quickly it got really foggy and cold so we went down to the first level, which was indoors. To my surprise, I learned that Cadiz is one of the oldest cities in Europe and was an important port for the Roman Empire. As such, it contains an impressive collection of Roman archaeology and we considered it one of the loveliest cities of southern Spain.
This is the Cathedral of Cadiz, which is style differs greatly from the typical Gothic cathedrals of Spain. Cadiz is pretty touristy, laid back and very sunny. As we walked around the center of Cadiz, we noticed that painted along the street in every direction were different colored lines. These turned out to be walking guides around the city -super useful. All we had to do was stick to the colored line and we would come upon the monuments we wanted to see.
We were really impressed by these incredible monster-like trees!! They are amazing and a real treasure for the city.
It was a real treat to have visited Cadiz, a place where we would definitely go back if given the chance!
So pictures that follow are of us just hanging out in Chipiona. As you can see, the kids were absolutely enthralled by something on the other side of this window...that something was Abuelo Santiago making very funny faces!!
One day we took the tourist train around Chipiona, where we sang "Como me pica la nariz" and all the kids joyfully sang along. Another day we took them to the carousel and then for an evening carriage ride for little people (mini-horse, mini-carriage!) -which they loved!
On one of the last days, we got our act together and took a family picture after Mass.
On the final day with Valen and Miguel we went to Sanlucar de Barrameda, which is another little town on the banks of the Guadalquivir River (one of Spain's longest rivers).
Here we had stopped to have some ice cream and we snapped a few final shots of the kids together.
As a nice coincidence, it turns out that Sanlucar is famous for these horse races that take place once a year along the riverbanks and it just so happened that we were there one of those days. Apparently, these races have some high stakes involved and horses come from all over the world. The cutest part is that all of the local kids set up cardboard betting booths where other kids can bet on the winning horse (triple your money if you win!) and it was thrilling to watch the horses race.
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