Saturday

We arrived in Sevilla last Saturday afternoon after an easy 5 hour drive from Madrid. The roads were wide and in good condition with no tolls; actually we’ve not had a toll since leaving Andorra. The city of approximately 1 million people lies in the SW corner of Spain, an hour and a half to the Portuguese border in the Gulf of Cadiz (if we kept going West, we’d end up in Washington DC). Until this week, we called this city Seville. But it’s actually written as Sevilla and pronounced Ce-ville-ya (we are so cultured…). Our apartment is in a block with a narrow, paved road leading to the underground park in the suburb of San Lorenzo. Initially it’s hard to gauge what’s around, but we unpack and head to get some groceries to give us our bearings.

Our expedition to find a small market (the Dia) put us in the middle of a huge square (the Alameda de Hercules) which is loaded with restaurants and cafes – we find the Dia squeezed between two of these restaurants. The story is Hercules founded Sevilla, thus the huge square, road and Greek-looking columns in his honour. I am not joking when I say there are probably 40 restaurants in this area. We decide to come back for dinner. We have already walked past another square where people are sitting outside eating and drinking. Spain is great like that; we grumble to each other about the lack of the same back home. At the local square (not the Hercules one) Rod notices a road/tunnel that is opened, but we don’t go and look, we leave this until later in the week when we find out what we thought was a road was actually the doorway to a church.

Our dinner does not disappoint with fresh fish (me), burger (Hamish) and a local traditional meal for Rod – stewed pork cheek.

Sunday

Hamish has been nursing a sore throat for a day, but says he’s good to go for our first full day of exploring. Our aim is to walk along the canal to the Plaza of Spain, then try and find the Cathedral of Seville (it’s huge, it wasn’t hard) and then maybe the Real Alcazar (palace) before coming home.

You need tickets for the Cathedral and the Palace, and to date (it’s currently Thursday afternoon) we’ve not bothered with the Cathedral tickets and were unable to get tickets for the Palace, even though it’s shoulder season!

The Plaza of Spain is gorgeous – we love the tiles and mosaics, there’s boats and you can have a horse and carriage ride.

After quite a bit of walking, we get some frozen slushies and head home, as Hamish is now not feeling great – “dreadful” is the descriptive word he used! We get some washing out on the rooftop clotheslines (something else we love about Spain and Portugal!) before walking in a different direction, but ending up at the Hercules Square for wine and tapas. The weather is a perfect 23 degrees. You can pick the locals from the tourists: locals dress for the season, tourists dress for the weather. We are in shorts and shirts, but the locals are in jeans and puffy vests.

Monday

Hamish’s head cold has worsened overnight, but you’ll be pleased to know he was well enough to stay home on the couch and play games on his Switch. Rod has a plan that involves the two of us exploring the local area, so that if Hamish needs us, we’re close by. We find the Macarena Church, which is (free) incredibly ornate inside, the ancient city walls and the Parliament of Andalucia before we stop for a late morning tea. Andalucia is the name given to this province and the green and white striped flag is the Andalucian flag.

On our way back to the apartment we have stumbled across markets, each one dedicated to a different food type: fruit and vegetables in one, fish in another, meat and small goods in another, sweets/baked goods in another. We are sorry we’ve already done some grocery shopping; the tomatoes are rivalled only by Dad’s! Another accidental discovery on our way home is the Setas of Sevilla – the largest wooden structure in the world, affectionately called ‘The Mushroom’ here. You can pay to walk up top, but we wait to do this until Hamish is well (although he doesn’t get well in time and then the weather is against us!).

Once home, we all have lunch and a siesta. After this, Rod and I go out for an hour or so exploring the area on the other side of the canal near our apartment. The World Fair in 1992 was hosted here and there exists eerie relics, buildings and a water fountain, which we turn into an idea for a post apocalyptic movie as we walk along. There’s barely anyone around, save for a couple of people on scooters and a handful of cars, but plenty of empty buses cruising by. We navigate back home via the Tower of Sevilla, whose modern design looks out of place in our movie set.

Tuesday (by Rod)

With Hamish still under the weather, we leave him on the couch (with a ready made baguette in the fridge) and head to the Nao Victoria museum. This place is designed to celebrate both the first vessel to successfully circumnavigate the globe and the skipper of the fleet – Ferdinand Magellan. Whilst it does not make Tripadvisor’s “top 25” things to do in Sevilla it certainly captures our imagination! A mixture of relics, videos, photos, etc. paints a vivid picture of this epic and incredibly significant voyage. Of the five ships and (about) 270 crew who started the trip, only 1 ship (Victoria) and 18 crew made it back to Sevilla. (Magellan met a violent death in The Philippines; trying too hard to convert the locals to Christianity is a dangerous pastime.) The tour is completed with a thorough inspection of the rebuilt Victoria berthed in the canal, just outside the front door of the museum. Our minds struggle to comprehend the hardships they must have faced living in these cramped and often miserable surrounds.

We repeat our late lunchtime routine (check on Hamish, eat, siesta) then walk around our neighbourhood to find a church (it’s actually a convent which we can see from our roof) whose bells are manic! Irregular tolling, and fast as if the Nuns are running late! We find this, get Panadol (which comes in 1g tablets and costs about 4 euro ($6) for 10 tablets – very expensive!) and meander home through the streets of our suburb.

Wednesday

Earlier in the week I had booked a haircut at a salon on the corner “David Franco – Stylist” about a 2 minute walk. David doesn’t speak any English and his client (mid cut) pops over to help out with the booking. We’re all set for Wednesday morning 1030. I go armed with a couple of pictures and after a wash and condition by his apprentices, he gets to cutting. The very first thing he does is grab clippers and a huge wooden Afro comb. God. My heart rate elevates, but I figure what’s the worse that could happen? Long story short (no pun intended) my hair is a bit shorter than usual, but he’s done a fab job. The cost? $43 AUD! Can you, my female friends, remember the last time your ‘wash, cut, blowdry’ was less than $50! We are getting ripped off in Australia!

Hamish is up for a half day of exploring, but I have woken up with a sore throat. It was bound to happen…I actually feel OK and our plan is based around a trip to the Plaza de Toros – yes, it’s the bullfighting ring. We have since found out that bullfighting still occurs in Sevilla and Madrid (and probably a few other places too). We don’t like the idea of bullfighting, but the hundreds of years of history and culture are hard to ignore. The stadium is impressive and I think still looks like it would have back in the day. It’s easy to imagine the crowds, the Matadors, Toreadors (on horseback) and the huge bulls co-existing in this arena.

Our next plan is to go on a boat trip up and down the canal. It’s starting to get cold and there’s an hour to wait. We grab some food, but the service is a bit slow so we miss the next boat too! Never mind, we explore the canal side a bit more and board the boat. Everyone is shutting windows due to the weather and Rod gets me a coffee (and himself a bucket of wine!).

I am dressed for the weather, but I am still cold – Hamish tells me I need to picture warmth to get warm. It doesn’t work, so he and Rod sit a bit closer to me to help. The boat cruise was OK, but we found it a bit boring. I think it would have been better with a warmer day and if we’d not done so much exploring in the days prior! We walk home via the Aldi where we’ve found sushi and a NZ Sauv Blanc (the wine is cheap here, but those NZ SB’s are incredible). I’m positively freezing and feel myself going downhill.

Thursday (today)

Well I am now pretty sick and Rod has a sore throat. I haven’t been sick since I had COVID 2 years ago! Hamish is on the mend, but has less energy than usual. I’ve spent the day sleeping, my body is aching and my head is pounding! I’ve not had the flu, but feel I may have it. Or, as Dr Rod says, just a bad cold. We leave tomorrow for Lisboa (Lisbon) which is about a 4-ish hour drive. This weekend in Lisboa, we are catching up with Rod’s Uni buddy Gerard and his wife Fiona, which we are really looking forward to. Not looking forward to the hills, of which Lisboa is renowned for!

We’re there for a week before flying to Vienna next Friday, where we will crack out our winter gear. We’ve been blessed with (mostly) beautiful weather in the past 7 weeks and will tough out the cold for 5 weeks until we leave for Thailand/Malaysia after Christmas.