Tarifa - what a city

Text: Edeltraud Konradt Phtos: firmm

The travel guide "Andalusia" describes Tarifa as follows: "The atmosphere tastes a little like Goa and Australia mixed with a dash of Moorish past.

Here at the southernmost tip of Spain, the wind blows through the Strait. Surfers like that - Tarifa is a high wind area."

But not only the wind is at home here, Tarifa is also the location of the foundation firmm, which offers whale watching from April to the end of October.

Visitors arriving to the city from the direction of Cádiz should drive down the main street - the Batalla del Salado - until they reach the old city gate PUERTA de JEREZ, then turn right into the Avenida de Andalucía and the next left into the Avenida de la Constitución. It is recommended that you look for a parking space for your car here. In the port, parking is not allowed.

Also look for a free parking space in front of the harbour gate on the right towards the beach, here in this street is also the Centro, the course location of firmm, it has a small shop and the employee there helps to find the way to the harbour and provides information. On the way back to the harbour gate, you have a beautiful view of the well-preserved Castillo de Guzmán El Bueno.

When you pass the harbour gate, there is a small staircase on the right. If you go down there, you will find the office of firmm straight ahead, from where the whale watching trips start.

Before the trip information is provided for the participants:

• about the foundation
• about the Strait of Gibraltar
• about the whale and dolphin species that can be observed here

Katharina Heyer, the founder of firmm, searches the marine mammals on the trips. On loudspeakers she informs about the species that can be observed at any given moment and tells when sponsored animals are sighted.

Back to the harbour gate, passing the Castillo, you are already in the old town. There are narrow streets with many shops selling all kinds of goods. Small hidden squares to linger in. Bistros, restaurants and cafés are lined up one after the other, and here, right next to the Café Central, is the office of the foundation firmm at Pedro Cortes No. 4. In the street in front of it are kiosks selling lottery tickets or sweets. There are similar ones on almost every corner of the city.

Especially charming are the road sweepers. They rattle their carts over the cobblestones and sweep a butt here and there onto the dustpan, of course something is always left behind for tomorrow.

Unless the wind can use it on its way through the city to deposit it somewhere else. The encounters during a stroll through town are nice. Right in front of the church, visitors are greeted by one of the town's many four-legged friends. Tarifa is surrounded by beaches and you have a view of the Strait of Gibraltar from practically everywhere. Almost all paths end here in the ocean.