A Picture Perfect Town in the Southern Spanish Sun

I am pretty sure we could have slept all day today. Our hotel here in Seville is one of the few hotels where the air conditioning has worked without a hitch, that has had a comfortable bed, and where the way the buildings are so close together prevents the sun from shining in. We slept until after 10:00 this morning, and we enjoyed every minute of it.

When we finally made it out of the hotel into the hot Seville sun we meandered through the winding narrow streets of the Barrio de Santa Cruz to the city's Cathedral. The Cathedral was built on the site of the former Muslim Seville's main mosque between 1401 and 1507. We toured the Cathedral and walked up to the top of its adjoining tower, La Giralda, which was the former mosque's minaret dating to the 12th century.

After touring the Cathedral and tower we walked towards Alcazar, the former residence of Muslim and Christian royalty, and found an inexpensive place to grab sandwiches, cold drinks, and to get out of the sun, something one has to do frequently in the July Sevillan sun.

After lunch we toured Alcazar. Seville's Alcazar was founded in 913 as a Muslim fortress. The fortress has been expanded and rebuilt numerous times in it's 11 century existence. The Catholic Monarchs, Fernando and Isabel, set up court here in the 1480s as the prepared to conquer Granada. Its intricate architecture with its many courtyards, painted tiles, detailed carvings, wood panel ceilings, etc. as well as its ornate gardens were the highlight of Seville in my opinion.

By the time we finished our tour of Seville's Alcazar we were pretty tired and were in desperate need of an escape from the blazing heat, so we went back to the hotel with some cold beverages to relax and cool down.

Within a couple of hours we were ready to set back out. This time we headed outside of the historic center towards the Plaza de Espana and the Parque de Maria Luisa. The Plaza de Espana was unfortunately under construction, but we were still able to appreciate the grandeur of the plaza and could imagine how much better it will be when the renovations are complete. After wandering around the Plaza we walked through the Parque de Maria Luisa to the river. We then walked along the river, stopping after a while for another break from the heat for a cold refreshment and a snack. Revitalized, we finished our stroll down the waterfront at the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza in front of Seville's bullring, one of Spain's oldest. From here we headed back to the hotel through the narrow streets of the Barrio de Santa Cruz where we had a brief evening swim.

Refreshed by our swim and a bit of a rest in the hotel we set back out into the Barrio de Santa Cruz around half past nine to a restaurant we had scoped out earlier near the Cathedral. Here we enjoyed a variety of tapas: Croquettes, Pimientos Rellenos de Carne, Bruschettes de Pollo Morraqui, etc. and some drinks before heading back to the hotel. Tomorrow we take a morning train to Madrid. I am sad we don't have a bit more time to enjoy Seville, as it has been one of my favorite cities, but I am glad that our trip moves on and that the days continue to go by, as we are both in many ways, although we are still very much enjoying our trip, ready to go home.

A long but much better travel day

Friday, July 16th, 2010

David left early this morning, around 6:00, Tim and my train wasn't until 11:30 or so, so we slept for a bit longer before packing up and catching a cab to the train station. At the station we had an early snack and purchased our tickets back from Seville to Madrid for Sunday before heading out about 10 minutes late on the train. The train ride to Seville had quite a few stops and took in total about eight and a half hours. I tried to kill some time on the train catching up on typing up my blog entries, but unfortunately even though we had a first class seat, there were no power outlets on this train, so the computer battery didn't last long, although I did get a few done. Other than that we slept, looked at the dry arid scenery out the window, listened to music, and played games on our phones. In many ways it feels like a waste of a day when the majority of the day is spent on the train, but sometimes it is much needed downtime. We arrived in Seville right around 8:00 p.m. and took a taxi from the station to or hotel. The hotel was a very pleasant surprise, although a bit more expensive than the employee rates we have gotten in many cities, I had booked it on Priceline for a reasonable price and it was in an excellent location in the historical center of Seville and withing walking distance of all of the sites and numerous restaurants/cafes. And and added bonus, free internet, so I could finally get caught up on these blogs. After dropping our bags and relaxing for a bit we head out down the street and found a cafe to have dinner at. Unfortunately the dinner was not that good and not that cheap, tomorrow we will try to scope out a better place and a better value. After dinner we headed back to the hotel, picking up ice creams on the way and went to bed.