So, this was a trip to find out if we could really see ourselves living in Cadiz (if we ever settle down).
On the plus side, Cadiz is on the sea and has some beautiful beaches. It has some lovely old architecture (from an 18th century boom when all the gold from the Americas was unloaded here) and a fun-loving atmosphere. Plus, it has some excellent tapas bars and great seafood.
From a real estate point of view, the only negative is that the old city centre is crammed onto a small peninsula, which puts good property at a bit of a premium, and it's a bit run-down in places.
So, before heading into Cadiz, we decided to pay a quick trip to the town of Chiclana about a 30 minute bus ride from Cadiz, to see if there was more room there and whether it would be a nice place to settle down. Chiclana definitely seemed a nice enough place, but we both concluded that it's a bit too "small town" in atmosphere for us. So, we briefly explored its busy streets, stopped for a coffee, and got the bus back to Cadiz.
Back in Cadiz for lunch gave us the difficult (but pleasant) task of choosing where to have lunch – should we have an alfresco seafood lunch, or head to one of its atmospheric tapas bars? We headed for a recommended bar which we couldn't actually find, but instead happened across another great tapas bar where we could see ourselves whiling away many an evening. Each tapa was delicious, huge, and cheap.
To walk all this off, we went for a stroll around the sea walls that surround the city on three sides, past the beach and through the tropical gardens – on a warm spring day with clear skies and gentle breezes blowing off the Atlantic, there can't be many better places to be. You could definitely feel at home in Cadiz.
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