ANDALUSIA (1/15) - From Vienna via Seville to Cadiz

Tuesday, April 12

With the alarm ringing at four in the morning, I want to start this travel narrative in a sober and possibly mundane manner. The alarm at four in the morning was quite arduous and anything but uplifting, after which a rather heady taxi ride, reaching speeds of up to 140 on the almost deserted highway at that hour, followed a brief, automated morning routine that culminated in locking the apartment door. My dear companion and I sat in silence in this taxi, enduring the consistently irritating procedures at the airport over the next two hours before our flight. The only uplifting moment was a small breakfast with coffee, and then amusingly, the elderly gentleman also waiting for the flight, dressed strangely in a blue suit, a large Panama hat, white shoes, and extremely eye-catching purple socks, looked like a freshly minted Earl from some English county, only to ultimately reveal himself as an ordinary Viennese. We wondered what the guy sitting with us on the plane was up to as the aircraft took off at 7:05 from Vienna-Schwechat, landing punctually at 10:25 in Seville, where my dear companion and I took the bus to the Santa Justa main station to catch a regional train of the Spanish railway company to Cádiz and reach our provisional day's goal in the early afternoon.

The ambiance of our pre-booked hotel, located in a former monastery with an arcade-adorned courtyard, was extremely pleasant and inviting, and the subsequent exploration walk over the Plaza San Juan de Dios with its Neoclassical town hall towards the Nueva Catedral became exciting. Its predominantly Baroque main façade was truly hard to capture in pictures, while dark red lacquered and appropriately embellished wooden boards, barriers, and numerous folding chairs set up in the streets and squares referred to the lavish Semana Santa celebrated throughout Andalusia during Holy Week. My path alone then took me through narrow alleys to the Torre Tavira, which is regarded as the highest point in the city, from where the cathedral with its prominently bright yellow dome, as well as the very distinctly placed old town of Cádiz on a narrow peninsula, could be beautifully viewed.

This strenuous, exciting, and really very long day was then concluded later in the evening with an excellent rice dish, after which emerging headaches and leaden fatigue soon forced me to bed, while my now somewhat more resilient dear companion set off to witness the truly exceptional and uplifting processions of the Semana Santa until well past midnight.