I'm sitting in Viking Star's World Cafe, tucking into a cream-cheese bagel sprinkled with capers and piled with smoked salmon. Beyond the windows, sunlight skips across the Mediterranean as the coast of Spain looms closer. There are few more satisfying moments in cruising than breakfast before arrival in a new port. I drink coffee, gleeful with anticipation.
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Cadiz. The very name brings to mind buccaneers and peg-legged sailors of the Spanish Main; parrots and Americas gold; the sounds of cannon booming from seawalls and the creak of rigging. I know that Christopher Columbus made his second and fourth voyages from Cadiz, that it became a major colonial port, and that later both Nelson and Napoleon battled the Spanish off its coast. Arriving by ship could hardly be more appropriate.
If I weren't on a cruise, I'd probably not be visiting at all. Another joy of cruising is that you're lured by key destinations (in this case Barcelona, Lisbon and Santiago de Compostella), but end up discovering apparently minor ports that outclass them in enjoyment. Cadiz may be such a place, and I have a plan: a three-hour included shore excursion in the morning with a Viking guide to orient and educate me, followed by the whole afternoon to explore at leisure.
As we gather around our guide Almu on the waterfront, I feel I'm in good hands. She gives a quick summary of this southern town: raffish, energetic and outward-looking like many ports, quite unlike other Andalusian inland towns, with their introversion and suspicion of outsiders. Cadiz's flamenco is less melancholy. "And the gaditano like their gossip and sherry and plates of fried fish. But we're very Catholic, we have lots of Virgins and Christs," says Almu ambiguously.
As we head off into the old town I quickly learn Cadiz is no token stop on a cruise itinerary. It's considered the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in Europe, founded by the Phoenicians in 1100 BC or thereabouts. It was a major Spanish port for exploration and colonial expansion, its fortified layout coped in settlements across the across the Americas, most notably in Havana, for which it often stands in during movie shoots. In its 18th-century heyday, half the gold of the Americas flowed through Cadiz's port. In 1812, Spain's first liberal constitution was signed here.
Some of the looted gold ended up in the cathedral, but most of it was melted down to pay for wars with the French and British, leaving it rather bare. "We suffered a lot from Napoleon here in Cadiz," says Almu with pride. "But we gaditanos are great fighters and still we are Spanish." Indeed, the cathedral has that dusty Spanish solemnity that makes me think of hobbling widows and flayed saints. St Sebastian stands in a side chapel with an arrow through a shapely thigh. Virgins glitter with sequins and satin as if adorned for a samba parade. In the damp crypt, St Victoria lies mummified in a white dress, exotic as an Aztec idol, with a with a vial of red liquid between her feet.
"Once a tourist asked me if it was sangria," says Alma with a giggle. "But it is sangre, blood. And now we will look in the treasury, we have lots more Virgins in there. And jewels everywhere."
The guided tour has oriented me both geographically and historically, but I'm happy to move on to idle meandering that afternoon. The cathedral's limestone dome balloons above the old town, a convenient beacon allowing me to orient myself post-tour. Sea glitters on three sides of old Cadiz, giving me more reason to abandon my map. It's hard to stray too far without arriving on ramparts with views. Squint hard enough in places and you can see Africa across the water.
I walk the seawalls, a two-hour stroll through parks and along battlements. Between Santa Catalina castle and San Sebastian fortress is the sweeping beach of La Caleta, where Halle Berry emerged from the waves in Die Another Day (purportedly in Cuba). Above on the esplanade are fish restaurants, across the road a university. With 300 days of sunshine a year, this is a town that embraces the outdoor life. Old men loiter on benches, kids frolic in parks, and gossipers meet at outdoor cafe tables, crunching up churros.
Intense sunlight bounces of Cadiz's limestone buildings, making the shady embrace of its alleyways welcome. Cadiz seems to me more rugged, more edge-of-Europe, more piratical than Malaga, our port of call the previous day. Somehow Cadiz is overlooked by the marauding tourist crowds, retaining its laidback charm and weather-beaten architecture. There's hardly a modern intrusion on the peninsula that thrusts into the bay, and most of the old town is car free.
You can feel the age of Cadiz after three millennia of occupation, sacking and rebuilding. I stroll from Arab fortress to baroque palace, medieval church to 18th-century Syrian merchant's house. There are no big, bold buildings to steal the limelight, though Cadiz has El Grecos and Goya frescoes in its chapels. This is a composite town of cobbles and pastel houses, intimate squares and sea fortifications. Everywhere I come across delights: simple fish restaurants along Calle Virgen de la Palma; a gigantic monument to Spain's early constitution in blinding white stone; a seafood market piled with hairy-shelled mussels and beheaded swordfish.
Plaza de Topete is a blaze of colour from flower sellers. A kiosk in the middle of the blossoms sells little fried fish in paper cones. I crunch them up, dust salt off my fingers, stroll back to my ship. Viking Sea sails in late afternoon, long yellow light bringing beauty to the clawed cranes of the port as we leave. It's only April, but I feel that Cadiz might just be this year's top travel find.
TRIP NOTES
MORE INFORMATION
CRUISING THERE
Viking Ocean Cruises' 15-day "Passage through Western Europe" between Barcelona and Bergen calls in at 10 ports in five countries, including Cadiz. The next departure dates are April 16, 2017 on Viking Sea and April 22, 2017 on sister ship Viking Star. Prices from $8649 a person including meals, meal-time drinks, guided shore excursion at each port, port charges and Wi-Fi. Viking also offers various itineraries around the Mediterranean, Baltic and Norwegian fjords, and recently started cruising North America and the Caribbean. Phone 1800 131 744; see vikingcruises.com.au.
Brian Johnston travelled courtesy of Viking Ocean Cruises.