As you can see from the picture we have made it to the west coast of Spain.  Cadiz in fact.

We left Seville with quite a bit of unfinished business.  There is so much to see in these old cities, but even with six weeks of holiday you can’t do Southern Spain complete justice.  There is just SO much to see.  It’s extraordinarily ancient.

Cadiz is in fact Europe’s oldest city, it’s first port and where Christopher Columbus set off from to discover the Americas.   If you expand the picture you can see at the end of the “bathers” the Cathderal with the gorgeous golden domes.  The dome was tiled and painted gold to reflect the sun to guide the ships into port returning with their finds from the Americas. Read More…

The temperatures are winding up in Seville with 30 yesterday and 32 forecast for today.  Yesterday we spent orientating ourselves with the Old City which we liked very much.  Not as big and buildings don’t appear to be as massive as Madrid, the squares not so large – in the Jewish sector this was because they were only allowed so much area and as the population of Jews increased they had to narrow the roads and actually remove the Squares to fit their people in.

We like to do a City Tour as soon as possible as this gives you such insights into the history and current workings of a city, plus tips on where to spend your limited time and in this case, how to avoid some queues.

Continuing on from the City tour was one of the Alcazar which is still the residence of the Royals when they visit Seville and they inhabit the upper floor. Read More…

The black footed pig that produces Spain’s most famous food product.  Iberico pork.  We’ve practically OD’d on this, especially in the first week in Madrid and Salamanca.  The Spanish are very proud of their pig and it’s products and I must say, deservedly so.

If I hadn’t been told it was pork I was eating as an eye fillet the other day I wouldn’t have known.  Very hard to describe – something in-between lamb and beef perhaps.  Not with a gamey flavour at all as I’m not a fan of game meat in particular.

The famous Iberian pig has an extremely good life.  It’s allowed to roam practically wherever it likes and during the summer finds it’s way underneath as many Cork Oaks as it can where it literally stuffs itself day in and day out with Cork Oak acorns which flavours the meat – until the uninitiated, such as myself, can’t tell what they are eating – just that it is magnificent.  The salami type product that is made from pure iberian pig sells for over 100 Euro a kilo.   This is from pigs that are finished off completely underneath the Cork Oak trees – not a bad way to end your existence if you are a pig!