Seville is exceptionally well placed for day trips. Córdoba, 45 minutes north by AVE high-speed train, has the extraordinary Mezquita-Catedral — a 10th-century Umayyad mosque with a Christian cathedral dropped into the middle of it, now the city's defining building. Cádiz, 90 minutes south by train, is an ancient sea port on a tongue of land poking out into the Atlantic, with the oldest continuously inhabited city centre in western Europe. Jerez de la Frontera, an hour south, is the home of sherry and one of the best places in the country for tastings and cellar tours, along with flamenco and Andalucían horses. Doñana National Park, about 100 km south-west, protects the vast wetlands at the mouth of the Guadalquivir — Europe's most important bird sanctuary, and one of the last refuges of the Iberian lynx. Further afield, Granada and the Alhambra are three hours by train — a long day out, but possible.