Wednesday 16 February - Cadiz

Where's Bertie? He's in a car park next to the busy port (container ships) in Cadiz. The special rate for motorhomes is €3.10 per parking space per 24 hours (we expect to pay €6.20 as although Bertie is short, these bays are even shorter). There's a toilet here, open when the parking attendant is present. Exact location: 36.53849, -6.28984.
Weather: Gloriously sunny.

A cool start today. We put the heating on for a short while first thing.

Because of the cool start, we were later than usual in heading out to trot off in different directions. As Mick turned one way, I turned towards one of my 'chose a path almost at random' routes. My selection didn't work out well (again!) today, featuring increasing amounts of deep, soft sand.

Not a good running surface

So, I turned back and ran my speed intervals up and down a section of promenade alongside the harbour. I passed Mick on my way who nearly said something to me, until he realised that I was focussed and going fast. It's a pity, as he was going to tell me what a treat I had to come, and if he had, I would have continued rather than running back and forth along the same 700m. It turns out that had I carried on for just 100m more, I would have seen that there's a promenade that runs alongside the huge (wide and long) golden sandy beach of Barbate:

I didn't miss out completely, as we walked out that way later in the morning, although not before we'd used the showers at the marina. That nearly didn't come to pass, as the entrance code had changed, so the one printed on our receipt (which worked yesterday) now buzzed as invalid. Fortunately there were two Spanish women also trying to gain entry, who indicated that we should go with them as they walked purposefully along the dock towards the office, although we didn't get that far as on the way they nabbed a member of staff who came and swiped us in.

Suitably clean, off to the beachfront we went, before venturing further inland, to see if there was anything interesting in the town. Maybe there is, but we failed to find it; the roads along which we passed mainly had a seedy/down-at-heel feel to them. We thus returned to the prom, and back-tracked a little to give some custom to one of the few open bars. We'd already had two breakfasts apiece, but at noon it was too early for lunch in Spain, so a third breakfast it was:

Mick looking rightfully smug that we were served exactly what he thought he'd asked for.

Back at Bertie there was no reason to hang around, so we didn't. Everything was stowed in double-quick time and towards Cadiz we headed.

Our first objective approaching the city was diesel, as Bertie had just reported to us that he was running uncomfortably low. We pulled into the first cheaper-than-normal station we found (139.9/litre), but then found that the payment machine required us to choose either to fill the tank, or a specific value (not volume). We can't fill Bertie's tank (yep, still not had that issue fixed), so some quick sums were done to chose a suitable value. The problem then was that there was no option between €60 and €100. The latter was too much, so we had to settle for the lower amount (we did consider, but discounted, going around again for another €20).

I'd just got the receipt when I noticed that the garage also sold LPG, so we put €25 in the gas tanks (at 82.9/litre). On reflection, there may well have been a 'fill' option on the LPG too, which would have been the better choice.

Onwards to the car park we came and after a ridiculously late lunch, we adjudged there to be enough time before tea to head across Cadiz to the cathedral/old cathedral/Roman remains. It's a small city, so it was only a 15 minute walk to get there.

We meandered our way through the maze of streets on our way back, eyeing up menus, even though we'd already had three breakfasts and a good lunch.

Statue of the day, and the only photo I'm sharing from Cadiz. I don't specialise in quality snaps at the best of times, but I outdid myself on poor shots today.

We don't need to leave here until early afternoon tomorrow, so we'll see more of the place before we go.

As I type this at 1930, there's a lot of noise going on behind us, with a container ship being loaded. This car park has the advantage of being exceptionally cheap for one so close to a city (the one on the other side of the city is €28.80/24 hours, versus €6.20 here), but with lots of bad reviews based on noise. The majority of those complaints are about weekends, when the nightclub opposite blares out its music until 5am, so (being midweek) we thought it'd be okay tonight. However, there are also a few reviews about the disturbance from the port activities. As we're usually pretty good at tuning out traffic noise, I didn't think that would be a problem, however, if the revving of engines, rumbling of heavy vehicles and clanking/banging of the container-moving process goes on all night, we're not in for a restful time.

(Forgot to mention: I also gave Mick a haircut this afternoon. This is something that heretofore has required us to go somewhere to get mains electricity. We now have a small inverter, so rather than having people stare at us as I clipper his hair on a campsite or Aire, today he got a hairdo in a car park. Sometimes we do consider that our lives have taken a bizarre turn, but haircuts in car parks barely register on our 'this isn't normal behaviour' scale.)