As my time in Cadiz flashes by towards a very hasty end, I've been taking time to wander the streets and soak up all the things I'll miss about the city. This blog is more intended to be a photo blog - as I really don't have the words to try and describe what Cadiz means to me! I'm going to start with my flat. I've never lived in such an old or beautiful building, and we have a woman who comes to keep it clean every day. Probably originally a merchant's house - the house was split into four flats and retained many original features. I loved walking up our marble staircase, I loved looking out my balcony out towards the sea, I loved how at home I felt there and of course I loved ... read more

In the province of Cadiz there are three towns which form the famous 'sherry triangle' of Spain: Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlucar de Barrameda, and El Puerto de Santa Maria. Any bottle labelled as 'sherry' must have come from this region, which has been producing wines since the times of the Phoenicians (1100BC). Having had absolutely no appreciation for sherry in the past, I decided to visit a bodega in Jerez to sample some different types and educate my palate. Arriving on a sunny May bank holiday, I went to the Gonzalez Byass bodega near the centre of town, where they produce Tio Pepe brand sherry. The company was founded in 1835 when Manuel Maria Gonzalez Angel, under advice from his uncle the famous Tio Pepe, founded a winery in Jerez. Soon after he created a ... read more

Our second day waking up in Fes, and we had planned a day-trip to a nearby city called Meknes, one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco. After another delicious terrace breakfast of flaky pancake with honey, we caught a bus from the crowded and hectic bus station- literally buying our tickets from a man on the street telling us that it was going there. An hour later we arrived beside the old walls of the Medina. While Fes was the Moroccan capital in the 13th century (and late 19th/early 20th), Meknes was made the capital under the reign of the famous King Moulay Ismail (1672–1727). He was responsible for a large amount of extravagent construction work including numerous edifices, gardens, monumental gates, mosques, as well as the absolutely enormous city walls with a length of ... read more

Easter week brought with it a chance to travel, and Ben and I planned a trip to Morocco. Easter week is also very important in Spain with religious processions held daily, so I decided to shorten my trip to see some of them. We caught an early bus from Cadiz to Tarifa, where bought our ferry tickets before breakfast and went on a brief tour of Tarifa. The beach looked lovely, the sea was calm and for once there wasn't much wind, but we could see ominous dark grey clouds gathering all the way out to sea. The area around the port was very heavily fortified as Tarifa has been a frontier city since before the 8th century. We saw the Guzman Castle, an old Umayyad castle built around 970AD, but it was closed while we ... read more

While looking up things to do in Cadiz, I came across a pamphlet in the tourist office entitled "Four walks through Cadiz". These were details of walks around different areas of Cadiz that are relevant to different parts of the city's history. Cadiz claims to be the oldest city in Europe, reportedly founded in 1100BC by the Phoenicians, and has played a central role throughout Spanish history. I knew that Cadiz had a lot to reveal. So one free sunny morning, I took myself off with my map and camera on walk number one: through the medieval district and Puerta de Tierra. Cadiz, as a city built out on a narrow peninsula, has always had a strong maritime history. One of the more famous, or infamous, events was the "singeing of the King of Spain's beard" ... read more