Cadiz

Cadiz is quite a small city that is crammed onto the end of a peninsula at the head of a large bay. We can see the city from the beach outside our campsite and we caught a ferry there for the day.
Cadiz is famed for the way it glows white in the intense southern light, and it didn't disappoint us today, as the sun shone brightly all day.
The city was busy with tourists because three cruise ships were already docked by the time our little ferry dropped us off.
We had to muscle our way through the crowd to get a very quick shot of the Plaza next to the port, before they closed in all around us.
We then went for a wander around the coastline, and within 10 minutes it was quiet and calm again, with no sign of the other tourists.
I did manage to find a new friend though, who was keen to photo bomb my landscape shots.
To finish off the day we sat outside a bar with a glass of Tio Pepe, admired the cathedral and listened to the buskers singing Flamenco.

Jerez - on the sherry trail

We caught a train for the 12 minute ride to Jerez de la Frontera today. We were very keen to visit as Jerez is home to some of the best sherry producers in the world.
We decided to go for a tour and tasting at Tio Pepe.
Unfortunately, my instructions to Darren were not very clear so only me and the sherry bottle posed correctly, while Darren did his own thing.
Tio Pepe actually means Uncle Pepe and was named after the founder's uncle, who gave him lots of advice when he was setting up the winery in 1835.
Uncle Pepe was also given his own private door and key to one of the cellars and a huge barrel with his name on it.
We weren't quite so lucky, but we enjoyed an interesting tour of the cellars and bodegas. One of the buildings was designed by Gustav Eiffel, of Tower fame, and there was a beautiful street that was completely shaded by vines.
There have been a lot of famous visitors over the years and dozens of them signed the bottom of the barrels. My favourites were Queen Victoria, Picasso and Bobby Charlton.
Finally, we reached the tasting area and we tried dry Tio Pepe, sweet sherry and an amazing super, duper sweet one that tasted like liquid sultanas - gorgeous!

Sherry and sandstorms

We drove to the south coast today, straight into sherry country, passing the huge road sign for Tio Pepe on the way.
We have settled next to the sand dunes in El Puerto de Santa Maria. It is blowing a gale and the sand is whipping across the beach. Surprisingly, there are palm trees on the beach and it looks like the Sahara Desert. All it is missing are the camels.

On top of the mushrooms

We first saw this amazing structure a couple of nights ago, but it took us until today to return for a closer look.
It dominates the Plaza de la Encarnacion in Seville and was completed in 2011.
The building has many layers, firstly directly beneath the building is the remains of a Roman town. It was discovered ten years ago when the city wanted to install an underground car park. Once the ruins were found the car park idea was cancelled, and the ruins are now restored and open to the public.
We had a good nosy around and there are some excellent mosaics and displays.
The next layer has a partially underground market, then a plaza area with bars and restaurants.
Finally, we caught a lift to the cap of the mushrooms and it found a windy walkway that meanders all over the top.
The mushrooms are honeycombed so you can look over the railings straight down to the Plaza below, so it was a little scary.
The views were great, right across the city in all directions. We also made a quick stop at the hidden bar right in the middle - from our angle it was sort of like a stuffed mushroom.

Carmen from the cigar factory

Tim and Vicky left us this morning, but not before trying to help us navigate the maze of backstreets in Seville with a customised map. It was made of dry biscuits with the Coke bottle representing a museum that we wanted to visit.
On our way there we stopped off at the Fabrica Real de Tabacos for a guided tour. The Tabacos was originally a cigar factory and is world famous as Carmen - made famous in the Opera - worked there.
In the 1800's 6,000 women worked there rolling the cigars on their thighs. (I thought that was just a myth.) They were a fun loving bunch who earned very good wages for the time, and were very proud of the independence that this gave them.
The factory is very ornate (pic 1) and is an enormous building, surrounded by a large paved area, a wall and a moat. These were there to stop employees throwing tobacco to their friends outside, and to spot people trying to get into the factory to steal the expensive tobacco. There is also a prison next to the factory for workers caught fighting or stealing. They were allowed out in the daytime to work, but then had to return to the prison to serve their sentence.
It was an interesting tour, but mostly in Spanish with only brief explanations in English, so it did drag at times. Note to self - must try harder with the Spanish tapes.
We then carefully followed the Coca Cola map, but we spotted a street sign leading to the museum, so we did cheat a bit. We were delighted with our success, although once there we decided that after spending so long inside the cigar factory, we couldn't be bothered to go around it.
Instead we decided to go to the Casa de Pilatos, a beautiful 15th century courtyard building.
Our entry ticket included audio guides so we switched them on and headed inside. The commentary was truly appalling, it sounded as if someone had translated the original Spanish into maybe Chinese, then into Welsh and then finally in to English. The result was just about unlistenable as there was so many words in completely random orders that seemed to go on forever.  
The commentary was read by an English speaker and I can't imagine how he kept a straight face as he did it.
We eventually left, feeling bamboozled.

Cycling around Seville

Tim and Vicky borrowed bikes from their hotel, we had our own, and we set off on a cycle ride along the Seville canal. The route was particularly beautiful, starting at the park next to the Plaza de Espana, see picture one.
We cycled about 10k to the end of the canal where we found a gigantic egg containing a statue of Christopher Columbus.
We followed the canal back on the other side of the water and I took over the navigation as we had to go inland because the riverside cycle path came to an end.
I confidently took us along various streets, with the plan of making headway inland while gradually heading back to the water.
After a while we rounded a corner and we were indeed back by the canal, unfortunately only a few yards past where we had left it but with a few extra kilometres under our belts. Fine for me and Daz, but not so good for Tim and Vicky's bottoms,
I rounded it off nicely though by then finding a route right along the waters edge that suddenly came to an end at the bottom of a large flight of steps.
Eventually we made it back to our car park for a quick look around our van, and then a siesta for some of us.
Early evening saw us on a walk around the Santa Cruz area with some interesting sights.
Picture three shows where I would like to live if I moved to Seville and picture four is an amazing mushroom building that we are going to explore further tomorrow.