Days 186 to 191: Andalucía country – southern Spain

Day 186 of our big adventure saw us in Cadiz – situated on the south-western coast of Spain about halfway between the Portuguese border and Gibraltar. It was a fair distance from our yoga retreat in Portugal, around 400km, but on these fast toll roads it seemed amazingly quick.

Cadiz is old – really old. Oldest city in Western Europe with remains from the Phoenicians still strongly in evidence. It’s an important port town and base for the Spanish navy. Looking on the map, it’s a strange piece of geography with the city jutting out on a long thin strip of land into the sea. Not surprisingly, it was prone to frequent attack from the sea.

We stayed in the old part of town – full of tiny winding streets and blissfully free of cars. There is a certain status to staying or living in old Cadiz according to Pablo our walking tour guide. Apparently you can say “Cadiz Cadiz” if someone asks where you live, as opposed to just “Cadiz” if you live in the more modern part. Well there you go then . . .

The free walking tour, a service which has sprung up elsewhere in Europe we noticed, is such a great way to see a place you have newly arrived in. As an aside, the word “free” is somewhat of a misnomer as you are meant to pay what you feel the tour is worth – I like that. Walking around Cadiz with a local was great as you got not only the historical stuff but also some of juicy bits – like how the mystery of a strange shadow at night was eventually pinned on the bishop, caught one night heading off to “Pay-Pay”, the local brothel.

We also got some tips for places to hang out – the best one of which was a local place offering decent vegan options (man, its hard to eat vegan in Spain!) and flamenco jam sessions. Magic . . .

From Cadiz we drove back up north to Seville, the capital of Andalucía and home to about a million people. It’s a hot city with the temperature usually reaching the high 30s in the middle of summer. Even now, in October, the temperature peaked today at 32 degrees with a high of 35 expected tomorrow. In contrast its now 17 degrees in London and 16 degrees in Amsterdam.

Wow Seville is beautiful. The Guadalquivir River runs beside our apartment and its full of life – walkers, bikers and runners and, on the water – kayakers and rowers. Mornings are the time to do things here in Seville when it is cooler. The central city itself is one big photo opportunity with tree lined streets, masses of street art and centuries old buildings.

Incongruously, one of the most impressive squares was constructed in 1929 – a relative baby in these parts. The Plaza de España (Spain Square) was constructed especially for the Ibero-American Exposition of that year – which seems amazing that something this big and impressive would be constructed on some promotion exercise. If you remember Lawrence of Arabia (well I do), some of the scenes were filmed there.

Tomorrow we leave for a tiny place called Pavia – another 4 hours drive from here, but closer to Lisbon where we return to Holland in three days time.