Thursday: Conversations & Catamarans

As a continuation of our IDS research, we were the beneficiaries of a special visit to class this morning by Fernando Rodríguez Izquierdo, from Sefarad Judería Cádiz, who spoke with us about Jewish heritage and culture in Cádiz. His talk, which took us from early history to the Franco era to the present day, was enlightening and we left class looking for the many secret symbols all around Cádiz left by the crypto-Jews throughout the centuries.

Our afternoon class took us across the bay by catamaran to El Puerto de Santa María, where a walking tour took us past one of the largest bullrings in Spain as we made our way to the Castillo de San Marcos. The castle, erected in the 12th century by Alfonso the Wise, was another living opportunity to understand the history of Spain through its mixture of Arabic and European influences. The remote and not so distant past came to life as learned castile defense by imagining knights of centuries long ago charging the castle’s ingenious defenses and by witnessing the bullet holes made in the castle courtyard by firing squads during the 20th century Spanish Civil War.

A refreshing boat trip out of the harbor from which Christopher Columbus sailed on his second voyage brought us back to Cádiz and our Spanish families.

Our nearly perfect day was topped of by an elegant group dinner at Balanadro, one of the best restaurants in Cádiz, where we all lamented the speed with which our wonderful days in Spain have passed, and celebrated the ease with which students understood the morning’s tour of El Puerto after their two weeks of intensive immersion.