Advertisement
Published: August 30th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Seville Southern Spain 25 Aug 2013
The day started overcast and with one or 2 spots of rain but by 11 o’clock it was 32 degrees with fluffy white clouds in the sky.
After calling my Dad and Tom doing some diary, we walked from the camp site for 10 minutes to the bus stop. We met an Italian family from Bologna, with 11 and 6 y.o. boys who were also going into Seville. We found that we had an hour to wait for the bus so we nearly all caught a taxi but got chatting about travel and before we knew it, it was 11.30am and the bus arrived.
After a 30 minute ride, we arrived in the centre of Seville. The Italian family and us were approached by the red Hop-on-hop-off bus company and as they offered us a special group deal (13 Euro instead of 17 Euro) we took up the offer. As it turned out, because it was Sunday the frequency of the busses was low so we ended up waiting at the bus stops so it was slower that we wanted it so we didn’t really take advantage of the tour.
None the less, we had a fantastic day in Seville which is a beautiful city with abundant features. I had been looking forward to visiting Seville as I had read and seen many photos of the city. It is also home of Flamenco dancing and famous bull ring as well as many other features. We did and saw the following:
· Visited the biggest Royal Palace in Europe – Alkazar. I hope the photos do it justice.
· Visited the biggest cathedral in Europe, which started being built in the 12
th century, with its huge bell tower – what a beautiful Gothic and Moorish design. This building started as an Islamic mosque and when the Christians fought for and claimed Seville as theirs, they built onto it rather than pull it down.
· Barrio De Santa Cruz the old Jewish quarters made up of a maze of narrow streets – they were quiet on this Sunday
· Walked past many Tapas bars, souvenirs shops, guitarists playing and good restaurants.
· Saw many buildings such as the Toros de Oro and many other buildings.
· Attended a traditional flamenco dance concert – magnificent. I had
wanted to fee a performance for many years and saw it at the Flamenco Museum. Flamenco is “an artistic impression of the joys and sorrows of life”. It originated from the informal dance of gypsies in the Middle Ages. It wasn’t until the 18
th century did the dance develop into its present form. It was colourful, energetic and the performers were very talented…including the guitarist. We also went through the Museum.
· Visited the Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza bull fighting arena which began in 1761. We did a guided tour which took 40 minutes. There was a Bull Fighting Museum which gave us more back ground to this Spanish tradition. During July & August there are no bull fights in Seville as it is too hot.
· Went on a walking tour through the old centre and learned much of Seville’s history
At 7.45pm after missing the bus back to the camp site, we found an outside restaurant and started with a very cold cervecia (beer) and olives, followed by a salmon salad (Spanish style – olive oil, walnuts etc), all of which was magnificent after a long, hot sightseeing day. The breeze was blowing
as the sun lowered….beautiful.
We ended up catching a taxi back to our camper and had a much needed shower, followed by a coffee. The simple things in life end up being wonderful when you REALLY need them.
Seville has lived up to my expectation and is a clean, friendly, easy to get around city with stacks of character, history, services etc.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.14s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 19; qc: 34; dbt: 0.0664s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb