Hadrian's Wall to Cadiz and Back, 2017

I am thrilled to introduce Christopher Tolan-Smith as a guest blogger to my site.

When discussing road trips on my social media pages, I was fascinated to find out Chris and his wife Myra had been on a meticulously planned adventure taking in some amazing historic sites. Luckily for us, they have agreed to share their adventures for a bit of inspiration!

Without further ado, I'll hand you over to hear all about it...

In 2017 we drove 2000 miles from our home near Hadrian’s Wall to Cadiz in South-West Spain. We planned to fulfil life-long ambitions; to see the great Islamic architecture of Andalusia and to drive a transect across Europe from the far North East corner to the equivalent, the equally far, in the South West. And also, living near his Wall we wanted to visit Hadrian’s birthplace near Seville. Not liking flying, we chose to drive. It took us a month, mostly staying in private accommodation – meeting some great people – but we allowed ourselves a few luxurious nights in Parador hotels. Others might choose to visit many of the same places either by flying to Malaga or taking the ferry to Santander and hiring a car there.

Driving through the tunnel we spent a few days in France on our way to sneak around the north end of the Pyrenees to avoid the high passes. We reached Zaragoza, our first major Spanish destination on the 9th May, five days and 1205 miles from home. Zaragoza is a lively, multicultural city, claiming to be the home of tapas. We were keen to see the Roman remains; Zaragoza translates as Caesar Augusta, but there are many other striking buildings, particularly two vast churches, a cathedral decorated with Islamic tiles and the baroque monster of Nuestra Senora del Pillar, which is proud to display two, unexploded shells from the time of the siege during the Civil War. An Act of God perhaps? There are also a great range of shops and pavement cafes, but for us the best was the Gran Café on the Calle de Alfonso I, be sure to try the sugar-coated croissants for breakfast.

Granada has the most spectacular collection of Islamic buildings in Spain, the famous Alhambra. We arrived on May 12th, the odometer on the car reading 1712 miles from home. First thing we met Cosme, the host of the accommodation Myra had booked months before. He brought a friend to help translate but this proved hardly necessary with a few bits of Spanish, some French and a lot of hand waving. The apartment was obviously Cosme’s own and he had moved in with his mother downstairs to make way for us! This was great, but even greater was the roof-top terrace with a view of the Alhambra.

There are not enough superlatives to describe the Islamic palaces which cluster in the Alhambra. Stunning, magical, transforming gets you nowhere and the press of other visitors almost added to the sense of the life that must have been there, though maybe a fewer of them would have been better! But the rest of Granada has a lot to offer, and we were glad we allowed enough time to explore the old town down the hill, eat lunch in the shade of the castle walls and take tapas of an evening in the bar around the corner from the apartment.

From Granada we headed south-west to Cadiz, stopping on the way at the little gem of medieval Ronda perched on its cliff. Cadiz was to be the end of our North East to South West transect across Europe and we arrived at lunch-time on May 17th; 1912 miles from home. We loved the city and were glad that we had planned to stay there for the best part of week to allow us and the car to recover from the long journey. The car was particularly grateful to spend the week in an underground carpark!

Cadiz is the most south-westerly point of Europe and is a beautiful, interesting city quite unlike anywhere else we know in Europe and quite North African. It is a city of lookout towers from which merchants scanned the horizon for treasure ships returning from South America. The cathedral is called the ‘Cathedral of the Americas’. We stayed in a lookout tower with splendid views of the whole city. Getting there, under our own steam, fulfilled a life-long ambition and allowing ourselves a few days we could unwind, eat great seafood, swim at the beach and do a bit of cultural tourism.

A short drive of 86 miles took us from Cadiz to Seville where Myra had booked an airconditioned apartment a short walk from the city centre. Both the air conditioning and the short walk were important as temperatures touched 40 degrees plus while we were in Seville. We found Seville more overall ‘European’ than Cadiz, busy with tourists but even busier with getting on with its own life. The main attraction for us was the Real Alcazar, a palace built by the medieval Christian King Pedro I but using Islamic architects. Rather like the palaces at Granada but on a more extensive, less personal, scale. We found a great family run restaurant virtually tucked into a corner of the palace and spent our evenings there watching the floodlights come on. Round the corner was the government cigar factory that was part of the inspiration for Bizet’s Carmen. Seville is also a very modern city as demonstrated by the Metropol Parasol, an immense wooden sculpture in the Plaza de la Encarnacion. 

Italica, the Roman city, lies in the northern suburbs of Seville. Birth place of the Emperor Hadrian it was a strange feeling to think of our home, just beside his Wall but 2000 miles away. Italica has some great Roman remains and best for us were a spectacular series of mosaics, especially of birds. The best ‘bird watching’ event of the whole trip.

Another 122 miles got us to Cordoba. This small town is dominated by the Great Mosque but before paying our visit we enjoyed the spectacle of a grand parade with many women in beautiful traditional costumes and men on horse-back in smart ‘guacho’ gear. Folks at the hotel told us it was part of a local festival, which was due to go on for weeks!

The Great 10th Century mosque at Cordoba is an absolute must and didn't fail to overwhelm us. Even after having a Christian Cathedral plonked down in the midst of it, the forest of red-and-white columns and horse-shoe arches seem to stetch in all directions to infinity while busying tourists were like beetles wandering around in a forest.

The castle at Gormaz, claimed as Europe’s largest, is a site where Chris dug (Editor: he's an Archaeologist!) in the 1980s. We reached the nearby town of Burgo de Osma on May 28th after a 320 mile drive from Cordaba including a night in Toledo and a frantic drive across central Madrid. Not recommended. The castle was built in the 10th century by the Caliph of Cordoba to guard the then northern frontier of Muslim Spain. It is like a film set from El Cid! The 1980s dig was with a combined Spanish and English team partly funded by the British Council – those were the days. Work started at six in the morning and finished on site at twelve because it was too hot to work outside after noon. A second shift worked at the base camp in the evening washing the finds. It was a great experience and led to life-long friendships.

By the time we moved on we had driven 2500 miles. From Burgo we headed home at a relatively leisurely pace stopping once more in Spain at a parador in the Pyrenees and three times in France. On June 3rd we stayed with friends in Rutland and reached home on the 4th, exactly a month since leaving home.

If you have been inspired by Chris and Myra's road trip and would like an adventure of your own, get in touch to see how I can help make your dream a reality!