Tarifa

Mileage: 162711

Today we continued on to Tarifa, the southernmost town of the European mainland.

Just before our destination, we found a parking spot by the beach and took a siesta by the sea. From here, we could clearly see the Moroccan mountains just 20 kilometers away, with the 850-meter-high Jbel Musa.

As afternoon approached, we resumed our journey and drove the last few minutes into Tarifa to a parking spot. Since we were already in the city, we decided to explore it that same afternoon. Our walk took us along the beach first to the Castillo Santa Catalina and then onto the isthmus to Isla de las Palomas. The island itself was a military exclusion zone and off-limits, but on the peninsula, we stood between the two seas. To the west lay the Atlantic Ocean and to the east lay the Mediterranean Sea. So starting tomorrow, we would not be driving along the Atlantic coast anymore, but rather along the mare nostrum - as the Romans called it. From here, it was just 14 kilometers in a straight line to Africa or 30 kilometers by ferry to Tangier in Morocco. After taking a few photos, we continued walking past the harbor and up to the Castillo de Guzmán el Bueno, but we were too late for a visit there, as the castle was already closed. Since we were starting to get hungry and we had agreed on pasta with tomato sauce for dinner, we made our way back home. We wandered through the old town and through the Puerta de Jerez, which honored Sancho IV - the Brave. After just a few minutes, we were back, and then we had the best dinner in the world before winding down for the evening.