Seville

October 29^th-31^st Gelves (Seville)

View from the campervan at our marina stop

On the 29^th we headed into Seville on the bus, easy enough, the stop is just outside the gates to the marina and the service quite frequent (though it does say on the timetable stuck to the post out there, “times approximate”, and over the past few days we have come to realise, the times are just that!!).  We hopped off the bus having worked out where we were by looking out the window at fast moving road signs and finding the corresponding name on our map. The map also had the good fortune (or more correctly it was our good fortune that the map had) symbols for where you could catch the hop-on-hop-off bus, which we had decided would be a good introduction to Seville. In actual fact we good tickets with a different company who does exactly the same thing, even virtually the same routes and deals, but this company the vendor seemed more enthusiastic so we went with them. It actually turned out to be a good decision because the company we did go with also had two free walking tours available, and they turned out to be really informative and fun.

Anyway we grabbed the first bus, and did the complete circuit. It took about an hour, Seville is quite a big city, 700,000 plus residents but the route the bus takes covers only a fairly small part of the city, mostly I’m sure because most of the older part and therefore the more tourist appealing parts are central and very close together, but also because many of the parts with these older buildings are in such labyrinths with very narrow streets, that a car can’t get down them, let alone a large double decker bus. I guess that is why they offer walking tours too, so that you can indeed get a good overview of the city. However, it is always nice to sit on an open topped double-decker (if the weather is pleasant, which of course it was) with someone else doing the driving and someone talking in your ear about what you are seeing. There are very many beautiful buildings and gardens in Seville. It is probably one of my favourite cities, especially as it still impressed after all the scenery and wonderful cities I have visited over the past few months.

Once we got off the bus we headed over to the bull ring only to discover the next tour in English wasn’t for an hour or so and we wouldn’t be able to fit it in before our first walking tour of the day started at 1pm so instead we followed a small part of a walking tour that is in our DK book, and looked at some gorgeous tile work on buildings and some artisan’s jewellery and ceramics.  Then it was time to meet our guide for the walk around the Triana area, which the home of flamenco and ceramics in Seville. It was very lively and very busy, our guide was excellent, very informative and friendly, not too slow and not too fast, and we were able to admire lots more tiles or azulejos  on our hour long amble. 

A typical Spanish scene

Street scenes around Triana (the gypsy quarter)

The top of a spire of what was an Arabic Castle before the Christians arrived and destroyed most of it

At one point we came upon a wedding, the guests were done up to the nines, apparently the Sevillians are known throughout Spain as being flashy dressers when it comes to times like this, and it really was something to behold, a bit like a royal wedding, though I’m sure the couple being wed were no more famous than I. All the women guests looked stunning with high fashion garments, hairdos and fascinators that sure did.

At the end of the tour our guide recommended a wee restaurant for lunch. We actually had our lunch with us, but instead sat in this very ornate Arab/Moorish style building and drank beer/wine and ate olives, different cheeses, bread, and an Iberian pork shoulder/salami style meat. Very tasty indeed.

Inside the little cafe where we had lunch

The outside of the cafe where we had lunch

Feeling somewhat  replete, and not completely on the right planet we walked back to the bull-ring where we had a tour around the arena and museum. It’s a funny sport really, I don’t quite “get it” as Hilary would say. I mean the bull doesn’t really have much of a chance and it is a whole team of people who attack it, I know sometimes the bull wins, but it does seem stacked in the human’s favour, and I’m not sure what the point of it is. I guess the same could be said of 30 big men running around a paddock chasing a ball and crashing into each other….. I don’t know.  Anyway, thankfully it wasn’t bull fighting season, it is a summer sport, and had just finished for the year so we just looked at the arena and some beautiful posters and sculptures of men and bulls and horses, oh and a few stuffed bulls’ heads hanging on the walls. 

Inside the bullring

Once we had seen the Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza (bull ring) we sat on a bench by the river in the sunshine reading our books/Kindle waiting for the next walking tour to commence at 6pm. This one was around Santa Cruz which is nearby the Cathedral another maze of streets with some as narrow as 3 foot (they call them streets, not alleys or lanes), this used to be the Jewish Quarter but is now given over to tourists with numerous souvenir shops and restaurants/cafes/bars, but very pretty. Our guide was the same one as had taken us around earlier in the afternoon and continued to impress with both her knowledge and ability to give a tour in both Spanish and English. She is actually the daughter of Swedish parents who moved to Canada when she was small and she came to Spain five years ago to study the language. I’m sure she speaks more than just English and Spanish, I would say Swedish too (obviously) and quite possibly French, though she lived in Ontario rather than Quebec.

A selection of tiles

One of the many horses available for hire for riding around the streets of seville

The outside of the Cathedral

The Cathedral Spire viewed from the Orange or Naranja  Plaza, beside the alcazabar

When we had completed this walking tour it was time to scuttle back to the hop on hop off bus for our next excursion (no wonder I’m tired!!!), we had a night-time circuit in the bus to look at the city lights. It was a different route from the daytime one, with another commentary and many pretty lights on buildings, statues and fountains. It was still quite warm, though we did put our light jackets on while on the top of the open bus as the breeze was a little cool.

Once we had completed this circuit we headed off to catch our city bus back to Gelves, it took a wee while to find where we could pick it up as the route out of town was not the same as that into town, so it was quite late by the time we got back to the campervan and settled in for the night, however the good thing was that we had an extra hour in bed as daylight savings was finishing for the summer that night.

Sunday 30^th.

We caught the bus into town again, today we learnt about the bus times only being approximate. The bus was 30 minutes later arriving to pick us up than scheduled, we weren’t the only ones looking down the road repeatedly wondering if we had it wrong. When it finally arrived it was still reasonably early as we had woken up earlier than usual (well actually the same time as usual only the clocks were back an hour), so that meant we had plenty of time in town. We weren’t exactly sure what we were going to do, there was the thought we would go to a service at the Cathedral, it being Sunday, and us wanting a look at the inside of the building. There were masses of masses scheduled for the day, every hour on the hour pretty much, so much of the interior was not open to non-service-attenders, we didn’t go to a service though (partly because we got there at the wrong time and everything gets blocked off during services (fair enough) and partly because you could see quite a bit of the cathedral anyway. We all feel a bit cathedralled out at the moment anyway so just a taste was plenty. We did have the pleasure of hearing a quick burst on the organ at the end of the service which was great.

We had planned going to the Real Alcazar but the line for people waiting to get in stretched out of sight, so we decided it might be better to go on a non-weekend day.  Instead we had a walk around part of the Jewish Quarter again and then headed to the Hospital de Venerables which the DK book recommended for its Baroque style chapel, a recommendation which panned out.

Inside the Hospital de los Venerables 

Inside the Hospital de los Venerables

Next we headed off to the Plaza Espana. We had just been expecting a pretty park here but were overwhelmed by the incredible building that dominated the area. It was stunning in size, architecture, beauty of shape, stonework and tiling. A masterpiece, after all we have seen on our trip so far, we were still blown away.

Sharing the rowing and a joke

A selection from Plaza Espana

It was sunny and hot and we felt good so I succumbed to Hilary’s desire to hire a row boat, so we took one for a thirty five minute row. We were pretty much the best rowers I must say, a really heavy boat, and heavy cumbersome oars, but both Hilary and I out-rowed the opposition, some of whom would still be out there now, ten days later if they hadn’t been rescued.

After our boat ride we headed back to the marina, and intended having a quiet early night. Try telling that to the Spaniards who seem to find any reason to party and party loud and long is what they do.

31^st Halloween.

We had a quiet day at the truck, I went for a bike ride to find some internet time/coupons and got a bit lost, not too bad but involved a bit more hill work than I intended.  The others stayed at the truck and relaxed and did a few chores. The afternoon was spent just chilling before an early night again. Of course this time it was Halloween, early night, yeah right!!