Seville is lovely, and it's dominated by its huge Cathedral right in the centre. Unfortunately they were digging up quite a few roads for a tramway, but it didn't detract from the ambience of the place - it was just buzzing. It's hard to describe, but the place just felt alive, whereas Lisbon didn't. I stayed in a rather lovely Hostel as well, right in the centre and was fortunate enough to have the room to myself one night after spending the previous night trying to drown out the snores of my bunkbed mate. Seville proved itself to just be a lovely city to walk around and get lost in.
The central Alcazar was quite a surprise. It's an Islamic building that contains Seville's walled garden, and it's so tranquil, yet right in the centre of the city next to the Cathedral.
I visited the bullring as well out of curiosity and was left rather unimpressed with the whole thing. The arena was impressive, but the whole idea of the sport left me cold and struck me as rather pointless. I guess the sides are more even than they are in fox hunting, but still.
So, yes, Seville was lovely and on the second day I made a mistake in leaving it to visit Cordoba which I'd been assured was worth a visit. I'm not quite sure it was. It was certainly pretty and full of little winding streets, and the Cathedral, being a converted Mosque was architecturally curious, but the place felt a little dead and the dearth of tourist shops in the centre spoilt the feel of the place.
Maybe if it hadn't been a one-and-a-half hour train journey away it would have been worth the detour, but Sintra it wasn't. It did though have the only 'We Speak Dutch' sign that I saw on my trip.
After two days in Seville I caught a bus to Tarifa which I slightly worried, being the most southerly town in continental Europe and being a mecca for windsurfing, would turn out to be like Newquay. Fortunately my fears were misplaced and it actually turned out to be a charming town much more like St. Ives (and we all knows that St. Ives > Newquay by a long way). On one side it touches the Atlantic and on the other the Mediterranean, so I was quite excited about seeing the latter for the first time.
But that wasn't quite the most exiting thing. Hopefully in the photo above you can make out an African mountain range in the background. Being able to see Africa was incredible. It's always been this place that I've read about and seen pictures of, but being able to see it myself was quite something. Of course, it was still 15mks away, but I was in Tarifa to catch a ferry to Tangier in Morocco (see next instalment), so I was full of anticipation going into the next day.
After spending the day in Morocco it was time to head to Gibraltar before finally heading to Malaga for the night to fly back to Amsterdam. Malaga is not a place that I ever imagined I would go to. Its associations with sun, sea, sex and sangria had never really appealed and I was curious as to what I'd find, but not for the first time, my expectations were misplaced. Regardless of how you feel about the four S's, Malaga is actually a city that's worth visiting for the sake of seeing the city itself. It's in a wonderful position on the Mediterranean flanked by hills and an old fort.
Again, all the beaches were deserted despite it being 28C and, if you ask me, distinctly inseason. I think that actually applies for everywhere I went - if you're going to go, go at this time of year as hot enough to have a lovely time, but not packed with people.
So Spain was indeed fantastic, and I'd be happy to go back at any point. I made good use of the opportunity to try out numerous tortilla's and other Spanish produce, and was even invited to a tapas party yesterday evening which was great fun, so perhaps, I haven't really left!
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