We stroll the streets of the historic centre. After getting a little lost as we plaza hop from one small square to the next, we eventually make our way to the Reale Alcazar. It's another moorish palace, situated in very close proximity to the cathedral. We enter in through the small gate in the large stone walls that surround the palace grounds. It's of the same scale and detail quality as that of the Alhambra. Large courtyards are wrapped by palatial buildings. Like the Alhambra theres a mixture of buildings from different time periods but throughout all of them there's an ever presence of Arabic patterned tiles on floors and walls and more of the ornate carved timber doors and ceilings. There's also lots more of the highly detailed plaster relief carvings with the polychromatic colouring. They're in great condition here. Still quite vivid in colour.
The highlight for me however is again the gardens which are quite extensive. It feels like a large green paradise in the heart of town. Again, it's mostly formal in nature with defined paths and hedge planting guiding you around the numerous water ponds and fountains that exist within the garden. There's a really interesting two storey wall that has a narrow path on top of it too. This offers you the chance to view over the gardens and take in the design and formal layout. Another interesting thing is how much relief from the heat the gardens, combined with the water features offer. They have that oasis effect within a hot landscape.
After a good couple of hours we head out of the Alcazar and make our way down Calle San Fernando where the tram line runs. The tracks for the trams in the centre of town are so unobtrusive, allowing for a large pedestrian plaza to dominate the ground plane. It's very busy. There's lots of Horse and cart coaches taking tourists around, as well as many cyclists and the odd Segway too. Seville is quite a flat city so it's very easy to get around. We opt for the good Ol walking option.
We stop at a small kiosk bar just before the Plaza de Espana for a Pepsi with ice, goes down a treat as we sit at the old fashioned bar to drink it.
We then peruse the monumental plaza. It's a large semi circular public square with a large circular fountain in the centre. A small canal wraps the perimeter of the square at the base of the surrounding buildings. Small arching bridges cross over the canal and allow us to follow a few small ducklings in the canal. Theres two small chicks and then an even tinier one that's struggling to keep up. Sim is captivated by them. The small one is really tiny, must've just be born.
Leaving the formal and grand plaza we enter into the large gardens that surround it, Parque de Maria Luisa. Again, like the alcazar gardens it offers a garden oasis from the heat. Entering into the more dense and lush gardens which are still formal yet more overgrown, the temperature seemingly drops by 10 degrees or more from the hard paved plaza areas. We grab an Agua from one of the small kiosks and peruse the garden grounds for a bit. It's a nice park. Heavily vegetated though, not so much open space but more intricate pathways with benches and seats to sit and relax.
We then head out along the riverfront, walking the Paseo de las Delicias. The riverfront is a little underwhelming and slightly disconnected from the city, due to the level change from the street. We head up past the Torre del Oro before turning just before the bullring into town to grab some lunch. Simone's not too keen to visit the bull ring now after watching the bull fight on the tv in the bar last night. So we give it a miss.
Instead we wander the streets and settle on a tapas place for lunch. I order up a storm. A tapa portion of beef cheek with potatoes, a tapa of grilled pork loin; a tapa of manchango cheese as well as a tapa of rusa salad. Russian salad they call it - basically a creamy potato salad but this one has tuna in it. Not a huge fan.
Sim orders another Mixte salad, specifying no carne, no pesce! It arrives and it's a monster salad. It's also one of the more expensive things in the menu. Says a lot!
Loaded up after lunch we stroll the streets some more. It's now 3pm and siesta time has hit. The sun which is almost directly overhead has a real bite to it. We see a clock that tells us that the temperature is at 36degrees. Time for a swim me thinks.
We again find ourselves disoriented and end up north of where we wanna be in plaza de alfalfa. We seem to be channeled here via the narrow streets as this is all very familiar from yesterday. We make our way back, get changed and head for the rooftop pool.
It's busy again. We're not as lucky today with scoring a sun lounge so we just stay in the pool for ages. Sim sets up a towel on the ground and gets some sun while I head to the bar. Eventually we score one sun lounge and an umbrella and settle in for an hour.
Loving the rooftop pool at the Hotel Fernando III. Not a bad hotel so far, although it is quite noisy. The glass in the windows to the street does nothing to stop noise. You can here the late night drunkeds stumbling home singing and carrying on during the night. Also the walls between rooms are paper thin. I can hear the person in the next room snoring. It's crazy.
After a drink and some diary time on the roof we head back down around 6ish to get ready to go out. Sims not feeling well all of a sudden. Hayfever rears its ugly head. I think the numerous incense burning street stalls we passed got her. They were quite pungent! Also it's been a hot day and pretty draining. I tell her to rest a bit and we can go out later. After a little lie down we head out after 7 to get dinner, pronounced dee-ner here. We head back up to the area near Iglesia de San Alberto and up Calle Francos. Weirdly we start our evening with churros. Sims been eager to try it. Strangely it's not as widely available as you'd think. The bar is awesome. It's an old fashioned bar with lots of tiling and old bottles filling the walls and shelves. It feels like an old milk bar from home. I guess that's what's nice in Seville for me, there's a nostalgic quality to things here. A strong sense of tradition and deep culture, more so than other parts we've visited, which have lost a bit of that old world character as things have developed and commercialised.
We order a Coke and a coffee cortardo as well as a full raccione of churros. It comes out as a big spiral of deep fried hot doughy goodness. Although strangely it's not covered in sugar or cinnamon or even served with a chocolate sauce. Perhaps that's a western thing. It's nice nonetheless.
We then wander a bit more up to plaza de alfalfa. There's a sunglasses shop sim wants to have another look at. We then stop at the busy plaza in front of the Iglesia del Salvador. It's busy with Friday night, end-of-week drinkers and we manage to score a table. We order some tapas of cheese and sausage (salami really) as well as some beers and sangria. It's a nice place to enjoy the evening, shaded by the buildings and the shade cloths draped over the square, the city is finally starting to cool down.
We stroll down to the cathedral and it's surrounds. Many people are out and about and the sunlight on the cathedral is casting some great shadows. We head back into the Santa Cruz barrio, sim stops to see a bride and groom take off in their bridal car near the cathedral. It's a beautiful evening. We stroll streets some more. It seems like with every corner we take it's worthy of another photo. What's weird is that many streets and lanes we've already walked in the last 36hours, but approaching them from different directions and at different times of the day and in a different light makes them feel new.
In search of some gelato for sim we instead somehow find ourselves at another bar. We take a seat in the crowded outdoor courtyard under the misty water pipes, and order some sangria. It arrives in a huge jug, more like a glass vase than jug however, with two ridiculously long straws. Looking around the courtyard and no one else has one. Have we been punked? Are we on candid camera España? After a while a few more people start to order them and we feel a little better. I also order a tapas of paella. Havnt been eating paella as a lot of places serve it as a minimum of 2 people and well frankly, there's been better things on offer, ie. Jamon. Lots of jamon.
Meanwhile sim, craving ice cream orders a couple of scoops with cream. The barmen taking our order has a confused look about our orders and we all have a chuckle. Anything goes I guess!
Considerably tipsy we head back to our hotel around 10. Early flight tomorrow. Not looking forward to the 4am wake up!
Still it's a nice inconvenience to have I guess as we will arrive in Paris in the morning!
Adios Andalusia. You've been a special place. Definitely coming back to visit.
mat + sim
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