Lazy Day in Seville

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Breakfast at our hotel was basic but still had everything to keep us satisfied; it just didn’t have the 30 plus choices from every corner of the globe that we probably wouldn’t have eaten anyway.

Went for a walk around the Cathedral opposite the hotel. Just that alone is a huge area. There were more souvenier shops than I’ve ever seen in the one area, literally every second or third shop was a souvenier shop with the highlight being all things Flamenco, I expected everything to be about the Bull Fighting.

There were plenty of horse and carts on the offering for rides. They looked a whole lot healthier than their counterparts in Egypt and Jordan. We never took up the offer of a ride and so can only imagine what the price would’ve been, bit of haggling involved I imagine.

Dogs are so popular here, and all well behaved and beautifully kept - so opposite to Egypt! Everyone is more than happy for any Tom, Dick or Harry to have a pat of their dog, or translated me and Tim!

Some women came up to us and shoved a piece of plant (similar to lavender but without the flower) into our hands. Then grabbed our hands and in Spanish started what I’m guessing is telling our fortune. When we figured out what was going on, we gave back their bit of plant, we had to literally shove it back into their hands and try to walk off with the sound of them asking for money ringing in our ears. We found out later they were gypsies. We saw some more later and gave them as wide a berth as possible when they came up to us, anyone would think we’d be sprayed with acid the way we avoided even letting the plant touch us!

Had lunch at small café near the hotel. It even had the menu in English as well, not many places that we came across did. English is definitely not a widely spoken language here.

A lot of cafes had sprinkler sprayers like in Singapore with misters spraying you. Really nice since it was so hot, pity Egypt hadn’t caught onto that!

Had some pool time - great view of Giralda at the Cathedral with all the bells from the pool terrace. Bit like at Egypt where we could see the pyramids, felt like we were in a postcard!

Our luggage still hasn’t arrived at the hotel by 3pm so we check with reception that the airline hadn’t dropped it off and they were just holding it in a storage room for us to collect. Instead we find out that the airport have phoned and left a message for us to call them. Thanks for letting us know. Then we discover the phone in our room doesn’t work so the girl at reception is nice enough to call for us, although given that our room phone doesn’t work I don’t think it was really an option for her…

Eventually we find out that because our flight originated in Dubai we had to go to the airport to collect it as it had to be opened. Back home, Customs would check it and send it on. But we’re not in Kansas anymore Dorothy…

So off we go to the airport to pick up our luggage.

On the way, we follow a small truck through the skinny minny streets, and the truck only just fits through. Eventually he gets to a corner and scrapes all down the side of the wall. I’m not surprised that a lot of the normal cars here are all missing paint down the sides. Everyone even puts their side mirrors in when they park up.

When we arrive they call the Police over and all they do is literally get us to open it, look inside (not move anything, not ask any questions - where we went, what we did, who we saw etc) then sent us on our way. So after 42 euros in taxi fares we have our bags, happy campers again, and nice clean smelling ones too!

On the way back to the hotel in the taxi, we got held up behind a car that on every corner had to try two or three times to get around, and they were only driving a small hatchback, not a Hummer! After a while our driver got out and went and spoke to them when they were stuck at yet another corner and it turns out they were lost! That would be every tourist’s worst nightmare I think!

Went to a Tex Mex place for dinner; because we have clean clothes, it means we can eat out in public! There’s only 2 other people besides us and the bar tender there because even though it’s 7:30pm it’s still too early yet for everyone else. Everything happens late here. It’s more of a pub than a restaurant and has 4 big TV screens playing baseball and Wimbledon. It would’ve been a great spot to watch the World Cup but tonight it’s not to be. There is loads of USA Marine memorabilia and photos from the Vietnam war, so we can only presume that the owner has a link to this, or just a really strong interest in all things war. There are also some military patches from events as recent as the Gulf war.

We have a bit of a stroll around all the little lanes before heading back to the hotel. Sunset is really late, after 10pm, great as a tourist, except that we’ve found we don’t go to sleep till late, which makes it a lot harder for non-morning people (yes, Tim) to get up and going in the morning. But still wouldn’t want to live with it - again so glad the No Voters for Daylight Saving won out back home (sorry to all those who wanted it!!!).

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