Where the Sea Clouds Meet

The most beautiful approach to the Portuguese capital is to travel up the River Tagus. One of the city's most famous landmarks has been greeting visitors right on the estuary since 1521 - the Torre de Belém. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and transports you back to the glory days when Portugal was a naval power. There are many landmarks, such as the facades of the houses decorated with azulejos tilework and the ancient trams that rattle through the city. But Lisbon has many different sides. Joie de vivre comes face to face with the melancholy of Fado music, winding lanes in the old city meet wide boulevards, while magnificent churches and austere monasteries show the two sides of former religious faith.

Enjoy the onboard amenities at the Sea Cloud II.

The old city of Cádiz, around 3,000 years old, has a picturesque location on a narrow headland, right by the Playa de la Caleta with its elegant beachside promenade. Visit the Andalusian capital of Seville and be transported back to the heyday of Moorish splendor and rule, but also the age of discovery. This town sits on the Guadalquivir River and was a center of Spanish maritime trade with the New World. Many buildings in the old town are registered as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the splendid Moorish Alcazar fortress and the huge Gothic Cathedral of Santa Maria de la Sede. Seville is a fun-loving city that is still at the center of Andalusian culture and is considered the proud birthplace of Flamenco.

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Málaga has spruced itself up. In 2003, the Museo Picasso opened in a 16th-century Renaissance palace and is dedicated to the artist's extensive life's work. This historic old city invites you to take a stroll and its buildings gleam like new. And above everything towers the Alcazaba, a mighty walled fortress. The port was completely redesigned when the city was opened to the sea and you can now take a lovely stroll along the promenade. In Málaga's hinterland you can see the most beautiful aspects of traditional Andalusia. From a distance the typical Andalusian villages look like white dabs of paint shining out from the brown of the barren mountain landscape.

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On one corner it's centuries old and around the next totally modern - Valencia is everything all at once. Today the beautiful old town and the old silk market "La Lonja de la Seda", which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, still bear witness to the city's wealth in the Middle Ages. A brand new part of the city is situated in a drained river bed and has avant-garde buildings including a futuristic opera house, the largest aquarium in Europe, a botanical garden, and a public park. Valencia is one of the few cities that has a heritage of over 2,000 years and is also so intriguingly combined with the future. No other city in Europe can proudly make the claim that the America's Cup has already taken place twice right on its front door.

The Spanish island of Mallorca (Majorca), located in the western Mediterranean, is home to the resort city of Palma. Overlooking the Bay of Palma is the enormous Santa Mara Church, a 13th-century Gothic landmark. A Moorish-inspired Arab stronghold turned royal home is the nearby Almudaina. Bellver Castle, a hilltop medieval fortification with a recognizable round shape, is located west of the city.

Spain's Catalonia region's cosmopolitan capital, Barcelona, is renowned for its art and architecture. The city is filled with modernist structures, including the spectacular Sagrada Famlia church. The namesake museums of Picasso and Joan Miró exhibit contemporary works of art. Roman archaeological sites are included in the city history museum MUHBA.