On our first full day In Cadiz, we had a tour of the old city with our very nice and energetic tour guide, Lily. She gave us an initial orientation in the local museum showing us the ancient history of the city and how it was occupied by Phoenicians, Romans, Visigoths, and Moors before Ferdinand and Isabella claimed the city for Spain. She showed us some incredible bronze artworks that could almost be considered "modern art" if you didn't know they were made thousands of years ago: Phoenician Bronze Artworks in the Cadiz Museum

The people of Cadiz are justly proud of their long history. For example, when Spain was briefly taken over by France in the early 1800s, the only major city in Spain that did not submit to the French was Cadiz. And after the French were ejected from Spain, Cadiz was the birthplace of the first Spanish Constitution.

Lily took us to an outdoor bar in the central market of Cadiz where she knows the owner, which was important because tables are hard to get around lunchtime in Cadiz, and the owner had reserved a nice table for us to sit and appreciate the local tapas, which included some delicious potatoes, shrimp, deep fried pork, a selection of sherries, and some great local Spanish cheeses.
Reservado! Our tapas table at the busy Cadiz market.

Some tapas at the market.

After our visit to the tapas bar we went back to our hotel and relaxed for a while. Later in the afternoon we took a walk along the harbor seawall and got to see some of the local people enjoying the seashore. They've had a very wet winter so everyone seemed happy to be out in the sunshine enjoying the coastal atmosphere.
We saw a group of young men practicing carrying what would eventually be a very heavy float for Semana Santa:

Practicing for Semana Santa

After our walk, we ended up at a little cafe that is renowned for its churros, so we ordered some churros y chocolate (for dipping):

Enjoying churros at a renowned churros bar.

Los churros calientes.

Shortly after we finished our churros, it was time for Jane and Alex to depart for the airport to fly back to Bellingham, Washington where they live. We were very sorry to see them go but glad that we got to have them along for the first part of our trip.