An Ode to Cádiz

Cádiz, you have been so good to us

We arrived in September and it was love at first sight…...

You are a wonderful, slightly sleepy town

stunningly beautiful in many places and, when we looked more closely, we could see a little bit of shabby chic happening as well.

The colours of your ocean - so varied and so mesmerising

Your sky occasionally changes from its intense azure to being dramatically stormy, so dark and cloudy - and then a beautiful rainbow to mark the storm's end

Cádiz, we have loved walking around your perimeter, along your ancient city walls; and to your outer most reaches to be dazzled by your spectacular sunsets

Each morning we drank 'cafe con leche' at one many of your many cafes, often accompanied by our ‘second’ breakfast of bread with olive oil and tomato - too delicious to deny ourselves

We often walked along your beautiful beaches, and through your ancient narrow and cobbled streets…...

emerging from those narrow streets into one of your numerous plazas - Plaza de las Flores, Plaza de San Antonio, Plaza Candelaria, Plaza de San Francisco

Plaza de Mina, our favourite - coffee and desayuno in the springtime under the flowering jacaranda trees at our favourite cafe, Mediterráneo

Our home plaza of San Juan de Dios - where we would people watch from our corner apartment; recognising the locals - Covid, and our beginner Spanish preventing us from mixing

We were constantly awed by your colossal Cathedral…...

and loved ambling around your beautiful parks - Parque Genovés (often stopping for cafe con leche here) and the Jardines de Alameda Apodaca.

It was through you that we met

our Kiwi amigos - Lisa and Martin - and have great memories of times spent with them, including holding a fabulous dawn ANZAC service (to remember the sacrifice of New Zealand servicemen and women who lost their lives in wars) under flowering Pohutakawa trees on the seafront -

…..and our Spanish amigos, Covi and Paco - Paco to help us with our encounters with Spanish bureaucracy; English/Spanish lessons with Covi and then having them introduce us to local restaurants where we ate great Spanish food.

….and Paco the Second, with whom we walked around your streets as he told us about your 3000 year history, your art, and showed us inside some of your many, many churches

It was a real pleasure to be able to introduce you to our daughter, Olivia, who loved you as much as we do….

Becoming Spanish residents had us experience your bureaucracy through our contact with Town Hall officials, opening a bank account (where we were assisted by the fabulous Eva), and of course the Immigration officials at the 'Oficina de Extranjeria’ - an interesting experience for us to be on the other side of the Immigration counter.

Thank you Cádiz for welcoming us and

giving us such a wonderful, warm introduction to España and Spanish life. We will never forget you and it was with much sadness that we left you.