Castillo de Guzman

November 4, 2009

Just before breakfast down at the groovy cafe I wandered around the landing outside our room, looking down onto the reception on the first floor landing through a kaleidoscope of coloured glass framed in wrought iron. Highly impressive. This is a beautiful building - a bit shabby outside, wonderfully maintained and styled inside.



Even the hallways and staircases featured lead window mosaics, and the morning sunlight streamed through onto elaborate hanging lampshades.



My wife had headed off to the courtyard market place whose architecture was Moorish in its influences. I hurried along afterwards to take another look on my own.



Strolling back through the narrow streets I couldn't help but stick my tourist's nose into many of the courtyards, but this one impressed me with the simplicity of its style and the juxtaposition of ochre and blue - colours I suppose we associate with northern African countries.



We had a relaxed breakfast at the cafe opposite the apartment, and it was great! Sinful - toasted panini and jam, wonderfully strong coffee, watching the world go by, and even recognising some faces from 2006. Looking up to our apartment building we admired the tiled facades of the buildings, the balconies, the wrought-iron railings. I particularly liked the curved outer windows that enclosed the inner apartment windows on the balconies.



Small wonder the local world gathers to sit here and chat and smoke while their dogs bark and chase poor stray cats. Very picturesque, and mostly all Spanish, it seemed. Loved it, and looking forward to our last breakfast there tomorrow morning before driving up to Malaga for the flight home. Maybe, if the weather plays along, we'll be able to stop at the pull-in on the road between Tarifa and Algeciras for a stunning view over the Straits to Morocco - easily my favourite view of all time.

After breakfast we toured the Castillo de Guzman, which served as the main defense position for the city for long centuries. The name comes from a Christian commander who threw down a knife for the Muslims to slaughter his son whom they had captured, rather than surrender the fortress. And they cut the son's head off in front of the commander's eyes. The attacking Muslim forces were in collaboration with a Christian army that was a rival to Guzman. Men and power, eh?



The castle offers impressive views over to the coast of Morocco from the ramparts - more impressive than the photos manage to show, which is another way of saying I took a few lousy shots of a grey sea under a lowering sky. Even so, if I look really carefully I can see small coastal towns picked out by shafts of sun. If I look really carefully.



However, equally interesting were the cats, and there were many of them, which relaxed casually inside a small courtyard at the base of one of the towers. They demonstrated through their unhurried stroll up and down the various staircases that this was their territory, and that sightseers are welcome only in so far as they do not disturb their peace.



On the other side of the castle, looking over to the roofs of Tarifa new town, it was hard not to believe we were not looking onto any modern Arab town, so much has the architecture benefited from its proximity to North Africa. Here the dark sky provided an emphatic backdrop against which the colours of the roofs of the modern high-rise apartment blocks stood out prominently, almost glowing. The question occurred to me, as it often does when I see successfully executed modern architecture abroad - why are there so few new towns in England (read: none) where any real consideration has been given to pure functionality?




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