Tarifa — Where Europe Ends

What you will see

• The Fortress Above the Strait

  The Castillo de Guzmán el Bueno was built around 960 on the orders of Caliph Abd ar-Rahman III. Its fame dates from 1294: the defender Alonso Pérez de Guzmán is said to have refused to surrender even though the besiegers held his son. One of Spain's best-known stories — I will tell you what the chronicles record and what can actually be verified.

• The Old Town Behind the Puerta de Jerez

  A network of lanes built against the wind. We pass through the medieval gate, by the Iglesia de San Mateo, across the Plaza de Santa María — and I will explain why this place was fought over for more than a thousand years.

• The View to Africa

  From the harbour the view reaches across the Strait of Gibraltar. This is where the Atlantic parts from the Mediterranean — geographically measurable, not merely symbolic.

• Dunes and the Levante

  Punta Paloma and Valdevaqueros: white shifting dunes, turquoise water, hundreds of kites in the sky. The same wind that made Tarifa the kitesurfing capital of Europe once determined when ships could pass through the Strait.

• Lunch with a View of Two ContinentsApril–October

  In season I will reserve you a table above Playa de Valdevaqueros — Costa de la Luz cooking, red tuna from the almadraba, and the African coast in front of you. In the winter months we eat in Tarifa's old town instead.