Sunny Seville

With the royal wedding coming up, giving us an additional public holiday, Mia and I were able to take only a few days off to provide a total break of nearly twelve days.

We had already decided that we didn’t want to be around for the royal wedding itself; neither of us being particular monarchists nor wanting to deal with the throngs of tourists invading the city of London for this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Our rooms courtyard

We booked ourselves a couple of tickets to Spain and left on Easter Monday night down to Gatwick airport to sleep over at a hotel to catch our 6AM flight the next day. Once in Seville, we caught the bus to the city center and found our hotel, the Hotel Convento La Gloria, a remodelled convent. It was nestled in a few side streets quite close to the main attraction of Seville, the cathedral. We dropped off our things and began to explore.

The first thing that struck us was the abundance of orange trees all through the city.  They line the streets and are dotted around corners. It is the time of year when they are in full bloom although neither of us was adventurous enough to pick any. We were able to try some freshly squeezed in a number of places, and this was quite tasty.

An orange tree in front of Torre del Oro

We wandered around for most of the day, moving from the cathedral up through the north-east part of the town and then back down through the central area, tourist map in hand dotted with interesting looking landmarks and symbols.

It turns out that nearly all of these landmarks were churches, all in various states of use and disrepair. If Adelaide has the title of ‘City of Churches’, then I think those who gave it such a title should consider a visit to Seville.

Some of the old wall

There were a couple of more interesting things to see, such as a good section of the old wall that would have surrounded the city at some point, as well as some of the governmental buildings that were also very old. It is interesting to note that most buildings have small courtyards, usually with a water fountain or feature in the center. Also quite prominent were elaborate mosaics of painted tiles all over the city. Seville clearly has a rich history of ceramics and pottery.

As the day drew to a close we wandered back to a pub we’d stumbled upon earlier in the day with an old wooden bar and many legs of cured ham hanging from the ceiling. It turns out that it is the oldest bar in Seville, and we quickly made friends with the bartender who could speak a few words of English and recommended some excellent (and cheap!) wine, as well as a great selection of ham and cheese. He also introduced us to the idea of drinking a white wine after dinner instead of the stronger spirits, and that turned out to be very refreshing; a concept we intend to pursue further.

Tapas in a 300 year old bar

The following day we decided to examine the two main tourist attractions, being the royal palaces followed by the cathedral. The royal palaces were interesting enough, but in my opinion once you’ve seen a couple you’ve seen them all. Windsor Castle, Edinburgh Castle, Seville Royal Palace… which one are we in again? To be fair, it was quite unique, as Seville used to be an Islamic state, and the palace had been taken over from the days when it was used by the Muslim royal equivalents. As a result, much of the architecture has a strong Moorish influence, as well as the gardens outside.  The gardens themselves were quite enormous, extending well out behind the palace with plenty of water features adorning corners and pathways.

Courtyard of the Alcazar Palace

Inside there were a variety of massive tapestries, paintings and the like, as well as an innumerable quantity of mosaic tiles covering all of the walls. Apparently the palace is still in use, however the Spanish royalty chose not to make an appearance amongst the thousands of tourists and tour groups piling through the place.

Gelato.

After a couple of hours in there I was properly bored, and managed to drag Mia out and back into the baking streets of Seville. She got in the rather long line to enter the cathedral whilst I sought out a cash machine, coffee, some water and gelato. Returning with my prizes, to find Mia quite a long way through the queue, we finished off these items and entered the third largest cathedral in the world. It was definitely massive, with many little chapels surrounding the central nave, each dedicated to a saint, king or other noble dignitary.

We made our way up the 34 ramps and 17 steps to the viewing area of the bell tower that provided views across all of Seville. To be honest, the city does not have much to offer in terms of tall views. The roofs are fairly plain, and few of the churches have spires or identifying features that would otherwise break up the splay of housing. It was quite clear to see from above all of the snaking narrow roads that reminded me quite a lot of what it is like in Venice. The difference here is that the roads are actually named, so with an accurate map it is not too hard to find your way around.

Inside the massive cathedral

The descent back down into the cathedral was fairly rapid, and we finished circling the inner area, finally finding what I was most curious to see: the tomb of Christopher Colombus. It is a very grand sculpture of his sarcophagus being carried by four kings, and it stands in the back of the cathedral. I spent a while checking it out, whilst Mia exclaimed ‘I didn’t know he was Spanish!’

Me 'n Chris

We had a look at the bullring, although couldn’t enter due to a bullfighting show that was happening in a few hours.

Bullring

It was quite expensive for a ticket, and neither of us was particularly interested in the spectacle. We had a look at the Plaza de Espanol, a huge semi-circle construction with an enormous water fountain in the center, and then spent some time in the surrounding gardens.

Plaza de Espana

Exhausted from the miles and miles of walking over the past couple of days, we went back to the old bar and had a meal, which was unfortunately not as great as the tapas we’d had there the day previous.

We then slept in until midday, rising a few hours earlier for breakfast and then determining that we hadn’t quite rested enough, and simply wandered around from bar to bar eating tapas and drinking orange juice, beer and wine. Finding ourselves at a recommended restaurant, we ate yet more pork for dinner with some great wine and finished the evening off at the ‘religious bar’, which is exactly as it sounds. With more figures of Mary and Jesus than most churches, it was most uncomfortable (for me) to be stared at by these lifeless effigies as we sipped on our ‘Blood of Christ’ cocktails, a mixture of whisky, champagne and grenadine.

Blood of Christ in the religious bar 'Garlochi'

Deciding not to stick around for a second drink, I scurried Mia and I out of there and recovered our senses with a white wine followed by the smoothest Anis I’d ever tasted at a more traditional Spanish bar.

So ended our time in Seville. The following morning we rose for another excellent breakfast in the hotel, made our way across to the train station and departed for our next destination, Cadiz.