Seville - I love ya!

So I’m now 60! Celebrated over a number of days including a night out with the girls, a trip to London to see The Greatest Showman and 4 nights in Seville.

Had such a lovely time with my old school friend D. We travelled Club going out (a nice surprise c/o D’s husband) and there really is no other way of travelling! The lounge was nice with free bubbly and very tasty food, then on the plane we had gins and a 4 course meal!

The hotel said they’d book a cab to pick us up from the airport. We didn’t see it, but managed to easily get a taxi. The hotel was nice - although they didn’t have a twin room for us, and there were no tea making facilities in the room! We had an early night and woke afresh the next morning.

We’d booked a tour and the guide messaged me to see we were still meeting him. ‘Yes, for breakfast’ I replied. ‘You didn’t book breakfast’ - well that was a good start!! I looked on Google Maps to see where we needed to meet him, and then added a stop for breakfast. It was a lovely brekkie at Purita de vuelta al origen, and just one minute from where we needed to meet the guide. Or so I thought. Turns out we were 10 minutes away, and therefore late. Messaged the guide to let him know. He must have thought we were idiots! I was boiling by the time I arrived. I was in a t shirt. Looked at everyone else - all in coats - some with scarves!! We were shown various sites, and walked quite a distance, and I couldn’t believe where we ended up - the Spanish Pavilion. It took my breath away and I actually shed a tear. I so wanted to go there, and just hadn’t realised we’d see it then. Beautiful building, built on a curve in red stone with a tower at each end. A ‘canal’ within, and a fountain. All along the building were tiles representing a time in history for each of the Spanish towns. So beautiful. Even the seats were tiled, and so was the bridge, and even some of the floor! Absolutely beautiful. It’s in a park - a really nice park that had so many different water features, I couldn’t believe it. It also had a fab cafe at the entrance of the park where we stopped for lunch. We both ordered a salad but when D saw my salad she was very jealous, and I ended up agreeing to share our meals! I’m so kind! We could have sat there all afternoon in the sunshine drinking beer; it was so pleasant.

That night we dined at Perro-Viejo–Tapas - we hadn’t booked but managed to get a table outside. We had tapas and it was so good. I love getting several small bowls of food; egg and potato, chicken and rice, stuffed leek, and a couple of others that I’ve forgotten now. All very nice. It was here that we drank white rioja. Delicious! This place is just by the mushrooms - it’s a wooden structure and apparently has light shows. Later I learnt that there’s a walkway on top! Missed that when there!

Tuesday we started off with breakfast at Purita de vuelta where we got talking to some sisters who recommended a restaurant which we booked for dinner! We then went to the Hospital de los Venerables - unfriendly staff which annoyed me. The place clearly needs money from visitors, so at least give me a smile when I’m handing mine over to you! This house includes a church which has a wonderful painted ceiling, but also glass boxes containing skulls and bones! We returned to the same street where we had breakfast, for a beer, which turned into lunch: Bar Casa Funes. We sat inside, and it was interesting watching what people were ordering. We got chatting to a couple of young American women who were doing a quick tour of Europe. Again we had tapas - camembert, artichokes and prawns etc. Again, very tasty.

We had a rest at our hotel, before going to watch some flamenco (must book!) early evening. I wish they had given an explanation as to what was going to happen. It was only later that we found out flamenco is all about improvisation. It’s a very small venue, with live music and singing as well as the dancing. I bought a beautiful pair of earrings there! We then went on to dinner at La Cayetana Bistro. The sisters were there too! Here it was tapas again and amongst a number of dishes, we had fish. The food in Spain is excellent. D guided us around to all these places with the help of Google maps. (We’d learnt that I can’t be relied upon for directions!) How would we have managed without our phones?!

Wednesday was my favourite day I think, although I was struggling to walk. My knees and my feet were so painful! I was back on strong medication. Worth it though. We’d booked a guide to take us round the cathedral - this way we avoided queues (although to be honest they were non existent when we were there, but I bet it gets very in the spring/summer. This morning was actually quite cold. I put on a cardy and wished I’d brought another layer! Luckily the day warmed up and I wasn’t in the cardy for long. I was blown away by the cathedral - third largest in the world (just under St Pauls). It was clearly big from the outside - with lots of different sculptures and shapes - but it didn’t prepare me for the inside. I walked around with my mouth open I think most of the time! There are 50 chapels within. Some tiny. Some massive. And so much art. Magnificent art. If you look at my photos you’d think I had found God. Obviously all religious paintings, but so stunning. Something weird though. The Virgin Mary (or is the Madonna?) is shown standing on the heads of cherubs - and there may be a crescent moon too. This apparently represents when the Christians took over from the Muslims in Seville. Weird though. The cherubs (babies) look quite evil too!
There's a tower next door (entrance within the cathedral) and that was included in the price. It has 34 ramps to walk up - years’ ago men would walk up 5 times a day to pray - with a donkey! Too much for me. D went. She said there were nice views but it was very busy at the top. I was happy to spend extra time in the cathedral.

After a sandwich lunch (from one of those shop selling the meats) we queued (we’d booked but you have to queue for your timeslot) to go into the Alcazar - the palace where the King of Spain lives when he’s in Seville. What a lucky man! Such beautiful stonework - delicate Moorish plasterwork and stunning ceilings and tiles. I love the tiles in Seville! There are loads of courtyard gardens - you can imagine how pleasant they are to sit in when it’s stiflingly hot) and then a massive garden at the back which has a cafe (small, nothing fancy, but we had a drink sitting outside which was nice). Lot of peacocks strolling around looking for nibbles.

I was in agony with the knees and feet by now and not up to walking back to the hotel to get dressed for dinner, so we drank instead! We sat at an outside table at Bar Casa Funes and had a wonderful evening. We tried out the Sevillian orange gin (the staff didn’t seem to measure - just poured for quite a while!) and a second one (well we had to see if they’d measure this time! They didn’t). It was delicious. Then we ordered some tapas. Then a bottle of wine. By this time we’d got talking to Polish sisters, Kate and Sophia, who were just lovely. We ordered more tapas then the girls got us onto Tinto de Verano - a drink made of red wine, soda and fruit. We tried it. Went down well. Then we had a round together. We floated back to the hotel!

Our last day started with us checking out the hotel, but left our cases there. Coffee and croissant at Pasteleria Colette followed by some time at the Museum of fine arts - a nice building, with pretty courtyards and some lovely tiles, but I felt the art was better in the cathedral.

We hadn’t yet tried the paella and I’m pleased to say we found a tiny place on the way back to our hotel. We then got a tasty icecream for our pud! We knew we wouldn’t be getting much on the plane back. We really didn’t - a plastic cup of water and two chocolate digestives! Bit different from our outward journey!!

I loved Seville, and I’d recommend you go if you haven’t already.