spain

Sevilla

~ Bel Dunbar ~ Leave a comment

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.

A Week in Madrid

~ Bel Dunbar ~ Leave a comment

East Coast Floods

As you may have seen on the news, Valencia, Barcelona and Malaga (and many smaller places in and around these cities) have suffered due to severe rain and flash flooding caused by a weather phenomenon called a DANA – or a ‘cold drop’. This is basically when a warm front meets a cold front over an area of torrential rain. We are reading on the local news (and have heard the same from some locals) that this is getting worse with climate change. With over 200 known deceased, half the roads to Valencia have just been reopened. The Gvt has troops on the ground helping with the clean up, as well and thousands of locals turning up with shovels to help clear the debris. It truly is a very sad disaster.

MarioKart Scavenger Hunt

When we arrived last week, we started mapping out ‘the usual’ types of things to do in a new city. Not wanting to be too dull, I searched up ‘things to do with teens in Madrid’ – from this, we had a few new ideas to add to our list, including scavenger hunt, theme park (sadly only open on weekends) and illusion museum. In the last blog, Hamish briefly mentioned the MarioKart Madrid Drive (MKMD) – we quizzed him further on this. The race circuit is actually based on the real city of Madrid, complete with famous squares, buildings and statues. From there, we hatched a plan to play “MKMD Scavenger Hunt” (do not steal this original idea…).

Hamish listed the sites from the game and have walked all over the city finding them. What a great way to explore Madrid!

Here is a list of some of the sites we have crossed off the list this week:

The Prado Museum – El Retiro Park – The Palace – Plaza Mayor – The Madrid Bear – Gates of Europe – Puerto del Sol – Carlos III statue – Real Madrid Stadium – Mercado de San Miguel

Public Transport

We all agree, Madrid has the best public transport system we’ve encountered on our travels – ever. Our hosts left us a multi use card (with one fare on it) and it has been easy to top up from our metro station, which is a mere 25 steps away. You can purchase 10 trips for about 6.5 euro and we’ve used this just about every day we’ve been here. We are well North of the city, but it’s only a quick 20-30 minute metro ride, changing lines once, to reach the centre. Unlike other public transport systems we’ve encountered, the trains arrive on time, they are clean and uncrowded, there are usually seats and it’s easy to work out how to get to the next line. 5 stars, highly recommend.

Museum of Illusions

If you have been to Phillip Island, you’ve likely been to ‘Amaze n Things’ and the Museum of Illusions is similar to this. Lots of mind bending displays, rooms and puzzles. It was a bit of fun before our night tour.

Dark Side of Madrid – Night Tour

We had booked a night walking tour advertised as ‘free’ and ‘scary’ – free tours are not free, there is an expectation you pay ‘what you can afford’ and/or ‘what you think the tour is worth’ (but there’s a fair bit of pressure to pay 15 euro per person). For over 2 hours, our guide (trained actor and flamenco guitarist, Paul) regaled us with stories of torture, ghosts, murder and the Spanish Inquisition. It was a large group, with guests from the US, Germany, Netherlands, UK and Australia (us!). There’s a gentle hint of crowd participation, but Paul dropped many guests in it with his stories about blood lust from their own countries! Rod and I have since watched the Netflix movie ‘Veronica’ loosely based on Police reports from 1991 about one of the stories of paranormal activity.

Interestingly and disturbingly, the ‘garrotte’ method of death (basically a seat where your spinal cord is severed by a huge kind of wooden spike) was last used in 1974. In 1975 firing squads were used to off criminals on death row. Capital punishment was outlawed in 1978. The Spanish Inquisition was the longest running, from 1478 to 1834.

Rest Day/Explore Local Neighbourhood

After two fulls days completing many many steps, we had a bit of a rest day, where Hamish did some school work, we caught up on washing and explored the neighbourhood. There are a couple of supermarkets within walking distance we have visited: Dia and Tedi. Prices are much lower than Australia even with our poor exchange rate! My store bought sangria cost about $2.50 (plastic bottle, 1.5L, no judgement required thank you…). We are in a high density suburb, but you wouldn’t know it. There’s green spaces everywhere, wide roads with easy flowing traffic, lots of shops and cafes, as well as a very large shopping centre that takes about a 10 min walk. Rod had a haircut in the street across from our apartment. Underneath and next to our apartment block, there’s a fruit and vegetable shop and a pharmacy next to that. We feel Madrid has been well planned with its’ citizens in mind to suit the quintessential Spanish lifestyle.

Telefonica Museum/Art Gallery

This was a bit of a flop. It’s a museum dedicated to the progression of technology, which we thought would be interesting. All the signs were in Spanish, but the displays spoke for themselves. We liked the wall of mobile phones from ‘brick’ to smartphone. Rod and I discussing the pros and cons of the phones we’d once owned, got in trouble for touching the phones by a passive aggressive staff member (the second one we’d encountered in this building). We heading to the next level, which was an exhibition about something way too avant guard for my brain. Not wanting to waste more precious minutes of our lives, we dumped this museum and moved onto our next activity for the day.

Bike Ride – El Retiro Park (by Rod)

We then headed towards El Retiro Park. We had been previously, dear reader, and thought we would head back for a more comprehensive exploration on some hire bikes (e-bike for Hamish to persuade him to participate.) The bike hire place was very efficient, with friendly staff and located within 100 metres of the entrance to the park. We had a self-tour map, pointing out points of interest, but it was again in Spanish and not terribly meaningful. However, the park is full of interesting sites, which speak for themselves in any language. It was a beautiful day for a ride and we all enjoyed meandering through this spectacular park.

Boat Rowing – El Retiro Park

After this (and the worse afternoon tea we’ve ever had) we booked a rowing boat, as is per the custom on the man-made lake in this park. Most people weren’t skilled in the art of rowing a boat, but they did their best, with only a few minor collisions. Rod took the oars to begin with, with me navigating (as usual) then Hamish was keen to try his hand at rowing too. He did a great job and rowed us back to the dock when our time was up. Definitely a fun little activity to do if you’re in Madrid.

Drinks/Tapas in Sol Cafe

To eke out the last of a beautiful day, we stopped in a cafe for tapas and a couple of drinks. We chatted, did our ‘daily puzzles’ and enjoyed the general ambience of being in this gorgeous city. We have absolutely fallen in love with Madrid! After our first day, Hamish summed up our sentiments nicely: “Why can’t we live in Madrid?”

Real Madrid FC Tour (by Rod)

Hamish and I navigate our way to the home of Real Madrid – Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. (Named in honour of a former President of the club.) We are booked in for a “Premium (guided) tour” at 1 pm. As usual, the Metro is super efficient and we arrive 30 minutes early. Thankfully there is free wifi and we do a few online daily puzzles to fill in the time. Our tour guide corrals us at precisely 1 pm and we are off. There are trophies everywhere on this tour, as Real Madrid have won the UEFA Champions League/European Cup a staggering 15 times (Milan is next best with 7 wins) since its inception in 1956. There are 36 La Liga titles, loads of Ballon d’Or, Golden Boots, yada yada yada. It’s trophy city. I do enjoy the stories about some of the legends of the game, such as di Stefano, Puskas and Ronaldo, et al, and Hamish said it was fun. The view of the pitch was amazing and the museum was vast (largely due to all the trophies they had to squeeze in.) The stadium just sits in the middle of the suburb. We had lunch literally across the street and the stadium just looms large 30 metres away. It is surreal. Lunch was a couple of cheap bagels form a bakery. Hamish suggested this might not be enough food to satisfy his hunger. I promise another stop, which could include some more food.

We grab a different train to seek out another landmark on the MKMD scavenger hunt; Torre Realia, or Gate of Europe. Emerging from the Metro the landmark is unmissable and impressive. There is also another structure here, the Calatrava Column. It gets some interesting reviews on Google maps, but it catches the eye. We grab some frozen yoghurt and I notice lots of young people enjoying th food from a plaza/cafe next door. I check out their menu and find bagels for 1 Euro! Nothing on the menu is more than 3 Euros. No wonder the young locals love it. I am feeling like we were ripped off at that bakery.

Shopping

With the boys headed to the football club, I planned some me time at the shopping centre. I had a lovely day exploring the shops and buying some bits and pieces. I finally sat down for lunch at 3.45pm in an Asian restaurant and ordered the daily plate (it might not actually be called this, maybe daily menu?) which consisted of 3 courses and a drink for 13 euro. I was able to choose from a number of options, but chose: tempura vegetables, a chicken salad and a Diet Coke. I couldn’t fit in any of the dessert options after this and to note, I could have had red or white wine as my drink. We have embraced the Spanish eating hours: tonight we sat down to dinner at 845pm!

Apartment Block Fire

Not to stress anyone, but as we both return from our different outings, from different directions, we notice there are multiple emergency services heading in the direction of our street – lights and sirens. Sure enough we look up and find smoke coming from the top floor of our building. I arrive and stand in front of the Pharmacy, message Rod to say ‘there’s an emergency at our building’ – just as I press send, Rod and Hamish emerge from the front door. We wait on the sidewalk with other residents and the crew of 3 fire engines, 2 ambulances and 1 police car. After about 20 minutes, the crews head off and we are free to get on with our lives.

Exit Strategy

Today we will do a bit of packing up, then head back into the city centre for last minute souvenirs and a slow, late lunch at the San Miguel market, which we adored on our first day here (see pics below). Yes, it’s touristy, but we’re tourists! It’s a busy place with lots of different Spanish cuisine on offer. I particularly loved the huge green olives stuffed with pickled herring, Rod’s favourite dish was chorizo in pasty and Hamish loved the dumplings. We might go ten pin bowling at the shopping centre tonight and get some dinner there. Saturday we drive to Seville and are there for 6 days – currently the weather in Seville is a glorious 23 degrees!