We flew into Seville to spend a couple of days admiring its Gothic cathedral with a Moorish bell tower (known as La Giralda), the Real Alcázar palace and gardens, the Plaza España, the spectacular site built for the 1929 world fair and the one you see in all the photos of Seville. We wandered around the city admiring the architecture and sampling our first tapas. I was also really curious to see the futuristic wooden structure officially called the Metropol Parasol, but popularly known as Las Setas (the Mushrooms) because it does look a lot like giant mushrooms.
Train to Còrdoba, where the highlight is the Mezquita, the beautiful mosque with a cathedral incongruously plonked in the middle. There is another Alcázar to visit there and an ancient Jewish quarter. More tapas.
Train to Granada to visit the fabulous Moorish palace and gardens of the Alhambra – a long-held ambition. Granada itself is also fascinating, with ancient winding Moorish streets, the inevitable cathedral and street art to bring us into the 21st century.
Then it was off to Ronda by train to marvel at its spectacular location on the side of a gorge and to feel both fascinated and repelled by its famous bullfighting ring (naturally Ernest Hemingway was here).
At this point we ran out of train track and took a bus to Arcos de la Frontera, one of the famous pueblos blancos (white towns) of the area. In fact, it looked grey because it rained non-stop. We spent one night there and then took the bus to Càdiz, where we spent two nights. Càdiz is a lovely seaside town and we spent a day enjoying all it had to offer. The next day we went to Jerez de la Frontera, to admire their dancing horses and sample sherry. Then we returned to Seville by train and flew home the next day. A perfect trip.