Is this the only beach in Spain?

I grew up a 2-minute drive to Lake Michigan, and even before I could drive it was a 10-minute bike ride (when I was in good shape at the age of 14…). Thus, I grew up at the beach swimming and doing all the other awesome and spectacular things that go along with being so close to the beach. And if there are any doubters out there saying “Oh, Lake Michigan is a lake, not that cool or a beach (which I have heard from several East and West Coasters…)” check out these pictures:

A

B

C


Which one is Lake Michigan A, B or C? The other two are of the Atlantic and the Pacific. I can't tell either; long live Lake Michigan and its un-saltiness...

Anyway, I digress. What I am saying is that I’ve spent much time on the beach growing up dealing with crowds and fighting for towel space. That’s why I have moved towards going to smaller county and township beaches at home in West Michigan—to avoid the crowds. Well, I wished I were at one of my small township beaches this past weekend (in regards to crowds…).

After spending all day Saturday sweating in my room getting organized at my Senora’s house, me and about 10 other CIEE teachers (and two other European language students from Germany and France) decided that we were going to take the train to Cadiz and spend all day Sunday at the beach. We had been warned by multiple people that the entire city of Sevilla does this—migrates to the beach on Sundays, but we wanted to get out of the Sevilla heat.


View Larger Map
Note: We took a train, this is the path by car


At 10 o’clock Sunday morning we met at the train station, bought our tickets (round trip was 22.20 Euros) and were off by 11:15 AM. We arrived in Cadiz around 1 and made our way west from the train station where we met this:


Click on the picture for a better view of umbrella land.

I have never seen so many beach umbrellas in my life. Not only that, but the beach umbrellas went off into the horizon. We weren’t fazed—we snapped some photographs with the Atlantic behind us and trotted down towards the beach where we found some room to put down our towels. The beach itself was sandy, but from all the beach goers it was pretty dirty—from cigarettes, to plastic bottles, to random pieces of paper. This went for the water as well. However, we were all too hot to worry about that and I was the first one diving into the water.

After sitting on the beach for about an hour and half we headed up towards town where we found a pizzeria for lunch. After stuffing ourselves on a 2 for 1 deal (two 3-topping mediums for the price of 1) we headed back down to the beach, but in a different spot. Here we hung out for the next 4 hours. We walked down the beach, played Frisbee, and explored a small rock jetty near where we were sitting. This jetty gave some spectacular views of the Cadiz coastline. Enjoy.




We eventually made our way back to the train station, which left at 8:15, and we arrived back in Sevilla shortly after 10.

Consider the day seized.

Note: I want to thank my house roommate Steven Mote for the above pictures of Cadiz. I blanked and forgot my camera. Oops.