Sunday 2 March 2014

Friday and yesterday were  stay-put days, dealing with domestics, chatting to the neighbours and generally relaxing on this pleasant site which we had enjoyed so much last year. Having been made aware that it was Carnival time, we discovered that the big event was on Sunday evening in Cadiz, starting at 1800, so made our plans.

Not wishing to spend all day and then half the night in Cadiz we elected to go book the ferry tickets in the morning and travel over later in the day to see the Carnival. So in mid-afternoon we joined two other couples and caught the 1600 ferry from El Puerto, forgetting how windy it has been over the last few days...........

BIG MISTAKE! Once out of the river and into the Bay of Cadiz the sea conditions were appalling and our little ferry was tossed about like a cork. Bren was absolutely petrified, almost hysterical but Terry managed to hold her together until the nightmare ended some 30mins later with us vowing, never again under any circumstances. We'll find another way back tonight.

Palm tree shadow at sunset

So after a calming cup of hot chocolate, we recovered to walk up to Plaza de la Constitucional via the bus station (last bus 1930 - hmmm) and find a suitable spot to view the parade. Not sure of the direction or route, whilst thousands of folk streamed past us, lots in fancy dress, many had parked themselves here just off the Plaza so we did too. And waited. And waited. And at 1930 it arrived.

Is that it? 3 ambulances and 4 police horses?

But of course it got better as the evening wore on and we took over 80 photographs. All credit to Brens little camera, from our less than elevated position it's amazing that any turned out, but after a bit of doctoring, here are a selection of the best.

Il Papa

Folk dancers?

Local dentists?

Our ferry - not!

Let me down!

Cage contained tiger cubs - hmmm.

Hollywood

Call the fire brigade - it's alight!

No idea, they were very enthusiastic though

After 2hrs suppose boredom can set in

More dinosaurs

Titanic

Disney

Finale - the Carnival Queen
She looked perished!

A spectacle probably worth seeing but if we're totally honest, not the best parade we've seen and not up to the hype. We learned later that there were in fact more floats scattered around that did not feature in the parade and we could probably have seen had we known about them and allowed the time.

But it was over and time to find a way to get home. So we joined 100,000+ people all fighting to get out of the Plaza, which was actually the end point of the parade. At times it got a bit worrying with all the pushing and shoving, small children in buggies etc. and with hindsight we should have perhaps done what the others did (we found out later) and have a meal before attempting to leave.
Nevertheless we escaped intact to the bus station to find, as expected, there were no more buses from here - although again later we discovered that the ferries had been cancelled and replacement buses had been provided! Ah well.

So the next alternative was the railway station - Cadiz has all it's transport connections together so it was just across the car-park - where we found that indeed yes there were at least 7 trains, and the afore-mentioned thousands of people trying to get on them. But this time it was far better organised, although it was still a madhouse trying to get onto a train, no matter get a seat. However we were successful (well Bren got a seat) and "enjoyed" a smooth 40min trip back to El Puerto.

Unfortunately we had absolutely no idea where we were, it was dark and there were no signs - except for taxis. So €6 later, we were safely back at the campsite, exhausted and hungry.

Beans on toast (it was 10.30) a pot of tea then bed. We'll not forget today.