Delightful surprises
Seaflute
Tue 4 Oct 2016 21:22
something about Seville, literally pronounced 'Sebeelya' in Spanish. Spal
for short, the oldest name known for Seville, an hour and a bit from Cadiz,
the city we are currently moored up in. Well, what can I say other than it
is absolutely fantastic, and nothing like Portimao our last delightful
stop.
Okay, so it's an awesome city with so much to see, is situated on the river
Guadalquivir and is the Capital and largest city in Andalusia. But I do not
have enough superlatives to do Seville justice! Amazing, beautiful,
captivating, dynamic and exciting! You get the gist so I won't go through
the whole alphabet. We started our day early with a brisk half hour walk to
the local train station, only to find the time table we had been given bore
no resemblance whatsoever to the actual train times, in fact they seemed to
be running much more frequently. Anyway we bought our tickets and hopped on
to the next spotlessly clean and comfortable train. Unbeknown to us, all
seats are allocated and Ian found himself on the end of a very harsh
Spanish
stare and mutterings under her breath from an old lady who's seat he had
parked himself in. Nevertheless when she realised we were just stupid
English people she easily found another. When we arrived at Seville the
lady
in the tourist information centre was very helpful so we booked tickets for
the city sightseeing, hop on hop off bus tour. Dave Tom and I jumped into a
cab after we had organised with Ian and Liz to meet up later. We headed
straight for the Royal Palace of Alcazar which was developed from a
previous
Moorish Palace. Construction of which was started in 1181 and continued for
over 500 years. For those of you who are fans of the popular television
series, Game of Thrones, this is where they have shot lots of scenes,
especially for the 'Water gardens of Dorne'. The Palace and its surrounding
gardens are absolutely stunning and provide a quiet and cool haven from the
hustle and bustle of the city outside its walls. We spent a delightful hour
or two here just meandering around. After that I had to have my obligatory
visit to a house of God. The Cathedral is just opposite the Palace so we
entered via the back door only to be told we had to go through a different
entrance. Well we had a good look around while we were in there because we
didn’t want to join the end of the very long and growing queue at the
front!
Just next door to the Cathedral was another beautiful church, so I had a
proper word in there instead. From here we decided to hop on the bus to get
our bearings of the city. We then spent the next hour taking a tour of all
the traffic jams of Seville in the baking hot sun on the open air top deck!
We hopped off at the stop which was in the district of Macarena, (yes just
like the song!) here the streets are narrow, winding and cobbled with lots
of little café-bars, boutiques and markets. We meandered with a purpose and
found a nice little Sushi/Tapas fusion café, where we rested up and cooled
down with beers and delicious grub. Another hop on the bus brought us back
to where we started, near the Torre D'Oro. Of course this had to be climbed
so we spent the next half hour reading about the naval history of Seville
(which I won't bore you with Mr Eakin) and enjoying the views from the top.
Meanwhile Liz and Ian had had enough and were headed back to the train
station. Remember I said all the seats were allocated? Well, unfortunately
for them all the trains back to Cadiz were full until nine O'clock. There
is
no standing on the trains in Spain! Walking through one of the main Plaza's
near the Palace we sat down under an umbrella for some more refreshments.
But, very annoyingly for me it sprayed a fine mist of water every thirty
seconds or so, which Dave and Tom found delightful but I could only think
how frizzy my hair was going to get! Once I'd gotten used to it and
realised
the truth in what my Mammy always said, "who's going to be looking at you
anyway" I relaxed and enjoyed the beauty and ambiance of the place around
me. While I was people watching I noticed a Man and woman bounding towards
us who looked incredibly like Ian and Liz. Rather than wait for hours at
the
station they had decided to come back into the city where we all 'bumped'
into each other. Another Taxi and train ride later and we were back 'home'
again. Seville really was so full of interesting and delightful surprises
for us and we all agreed that we would definitely come back for an extended
trip, when this extended trip is over!
Remember that nice family restaurant we were going to eat in at Figueira Da
Foz? Well I can tell you now, the food was delicious!
Ta Ta for now me lovelies. Lindy x
