CADIZ CARNAVAL SUNDAY

SUNDAY 10^th/ FEBRUARY 2013.

CADIZ CARNAVAL;

We set off at 8-00am in the coach, at the same time there was three other coaches going from the area; Lucy our friend that works in the Cultural Department of the council looked after us along with the councilor in charge of the department Eva. We had a surprise stop for breakfast, on the council at a not very large but extremely busy coach stop at ‘La Palmosa’ on the way to Cadiz. It was typical Spanish bedlam with very load shouting, no space and every man or woman for himself! You have a ticket per person for your Coffee and ‘Tostado’ – in my case ‘Te-sin leche’ – tea with no milk! The Tomato concasse,Olive Oil and Garlic are on the tables and I asked for Mermelada(Jam) and Mantequilla(Butter) ! At any one time there was over a hundred coaches in the car park, strangely there was no waiting for the small toilets! A “ Helluva ”start to the day.

We entered Cadiz across the causeway and followed the hundreds of other coaches down into the center of the old part of the city next to the railway station and port; we had some luck as the coach parks were already full so we ended up parked on the side of a road, next to the port with only a short walk to the city centre. We spotted the ‘ Citysightseeing’ open top bus ( Not Cheap ) so we hopped on and got the front seats upstairs, it was very hot and sunny, in fact I needed to put my hat on to stop getting burned! You can hop on and off as it makes its way around the city with an earphone commentary in sixteen languages ! It goes around the city as you can see in the pictures below and stops by all the points of interest. The Golden Tiled Cupula(Dome) is part of the Cathedral next to the white sand beach. The ‘ Monumento a la Cortes de Cadiz’ is in the ‘ Constitution’ square and is where last year in 2012 the King celebrated the two hundred years of the signing of the Spanish Constitution.

We then got off the bus and walked into the main square by the Town Hall as you see, it was packed ,as was everywhere with hundreds of thousands of people, you have to fight to stay on your feet at times! This is where we took all the pictures of people in fancy dress and the ‘ Chirigotas’ singing groups as they paraded around; We found the Cathedral and other grand buildings before we hit the sea front and caught a taxi right down to the far end to go to the best seafood restaurant in Cadiz “ La Marea’ which just happens to be next to our favourite Tapas bar – ‘Arte Serrano’ It was our first time at ‘ La Marea’ but it wont be our last; We waited for our table so we enjoyed the view and a few drinks in the bar next to the seafood display and Lobster tanks as you can see. To start I had a ‘ Helluva ’seafood cocktail, to follow I had the fillets of ‘ Gallo( John Dory) simple pan fried ‘ A la Plancha’ with lots Lemon and ‘Patatas Fritas’ and Brenda had the same but fried in Garlic butter with Gambas and Red Peppers! Delicious, tasty firm fillets, three each and memorable; all around us in the very busy restaurant we could see and smell all sorts of fine fish dishes arriving at the tables along with spectacular seafood Paellas – on the next table to ours we saw something that we have had before in a very good restaurant in Guadalmina as a table starter – it turns out to be “ Tortillitas de Camarones ” They gave us a piece to taste, it is a very thin crisp fried egg mixture mixed with very small Prawns – it melts in the mouth and it is the tradition dish of Cadiz – we shall return soon!

It also turned out to be the right spot, as the restaurant was only a hundred yards away to the main ‘Avendia Andalucia’ where the main parade of the evening starts, the “ Gran Cabagata ” – with all the ‘ Carausel de Corus’ was taking place; the avenue is very famous as it is the longest straight avenue in Europe and is over 3 and an half Kms. long! – With over sixty sets of traffic light and three lanes in each direction!! The street is lined with rows of reserved seats behind the railings, four deep in places and then the rest of us stand behind at places seven/eight deep – it is a unbelievable sight with over a quarter of a million people, all Spanish except for two English people with Red Noses – which happened to bring lots of smiles to peoples faces!! The police riders lead it off with sponsor’s bus ‘ Cruz Campo’ following as you can see. We thought that it would be like a Brazil samba parade but is was in fact all the various ‘ Chirigotas’ groups walking and singing ! They are all dressed in weird and wonderful costumes as they sing satirical songs, we were serenaded by ‘Sea Urchins’ as you can see. It was then time to make our way back to the old part of the city though the old walls under the banner – over 4 and half Kms of literally fighting our way through the throngs ! To say that we were knackered was some what of an understatement !! We had a reviving coffee with brandy before walking down to the coach.It took us over an hour to get out of the city along with the other hundreds of coaches – we arrived back in Manilva at 12-30pm after “ One Helluva Day ”

Thoughts for the Day;

The happiest memories are of moments that ended when they should have.  We must always have old memories and young hope.

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