Mannheim Water Tower

Explorer Tom Swansea's Mission Gallery occupies an old seamen's mission near the waterfront, which is fitting for a place still sending ideas out into the world. Art now fills a building once made for another kind of gathering. Tom has volunteered as harbour pilot for the paintings; the gallery has politely pointed him towards the front door. Benjamin Bucknall designed St Nicholas Church here in 1868 for sailors and the local community. Artists opened the Swansea Arts Workshop Gallery in the building in 1977, first as a volunteer effort. It later became Mission Gallery and grew into a home for contemporary work by artists from Wales and beyond. The building's church shape gives exhibitions a distinctive setting without requiring the work to behave reverently. Tom imagines the old walls comparing each new show with the last, then refusing to choose a favourite. Look at the current exhibition before deciding what sort of gallery it is. Painting, craft and installation have found space here, while workshops and learning events bring people into the making as well as the viewing. The Maritime Quarter outside makes an easy next step after a visit. Inside, let the building's scale and light influence how you see a piece; a small work can hold its ground in a room with a long history. Mission Gallery is a public venue on Gloucester Place, with free general admission. Its programme and visiting times change, so use the gallery's own page before travelling, especially for a workshop or event. Take a little time to look both at the art and at the former mission around it. Swansea has been remaking this waterfront for generations, and this room keeps finding a fresh use for curiosity.

Explorer Tom Swansea Castle now stands in the middle of a busy city centre, where buses and shoppers give Tom's imagined medieval guards a great deal to complain about. Only part of the old fortress survives, but its elegant arcaded parapet still catches the eye above Castle Square. This is a ruin that asks you to picture the coastline and river as they were before Swansea grew around it. A castle occupied the site by the early twelfth century, guarding a harbour and an east-west route across south Wales. The visible masonry largely dates from the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Once, the stronghold stood above the River Tawe; the modern city has shifted the setting so thoroughly that it takes effort to recover that older geography. Look at the south block and its arcades, then imagine how much building has disappeared. The parapet resembles work at the bishops' palaces of St Davids and Lamphey, an unexpected touch of style for a hard-working fortress. Young Dylan Thomas worked as a newspaper reporter on this site when offices stood here, adding another layer to the place. Nothing of those offices remains, but the connection hints at how many different Swanseas have occupied the same ground. Tom wants to claim he once filed a report beside the gate. His dates, as usual, do not add up. The castle can be viewed from outside in daylight throughout the year without a ticket. The upper levels are closed, and barriers mark areas you should not enter. Stop safely in the square, read the walls from street level and let the surrounding city be part of the story. Swansea Castle is small in what survives, but large in what it makes you imagine.