Seville

Yes we are back in Spain again and will be for the next 6-7 weeks. Seville is a large city that sees many tourists and for good reason. It has one of the oldest bull fighting rings, the third largest church in the world (St Peters in London and the Vatican in Rome are larger) and has plenty of entertainment and nightlife to offer. The previous night we parked outside an Ikea and made use of their cheap food and washrooms. We thought we had parked near a bus stop and planned to take it into town, but upon further investigation we learnt that it was a taxi stop, not a bus stop. So with that we had to make the drive into Seville. This was a stressful time. There are so many motorists, pedestrians and cars that seem to be parked just about anywhere and everywhere. We had some difficulty locating a spot for our large van. If we had a smaller vehicle, it would’ve been slightly easier. We found a spot that was “just” large enough for us but was difficult to parallel park into easily. Thankfully, the woman who owned the car in front of us was heading out. This made it much easier. I noticed then that we were almost covering a driveway entrance (the lady’s car was blocking it before). We were right along the river and could see the round bull fighting ring from where we parked. The tourist office was also within 2 km from us. The spot we had was pay parking and only allowed up to 2 hours of parking so we had to hustle. Up until now, Julie has been navigating when we drive and when we are on foot, but lately she has been having some difficulty reading the map or the GPS. So I gave her the camera and told her I would navigate if she took the pictures. Like every tourist office in Spain and Portugal, the employees were once again fast and efficient (which isn’t always a good thing). We made our way to the bull ring, where I tried to convince Julie to take a tour but we ended up taking some photos of it instead. She was protesting because she believes that the sport is cruel and does not wish to promote it at all. I don’t blame her for this view, it is a cruel sport, but it’s also a cultural thing for Spain. I did want to tour the ring itself, but didn’t push my luck (and was glad I didn’t, especially when Julie learnt that we would have seen a show during the tour). We then made our way towards the church. The church was huge and impressive. I wanted to head up the bell tower to view the city from there, but with a price tag of 8.50 each we moved on (8.50 to visit a church, neither one of us wants to promote that!). From here we wandered briefly through the old Jewish quarter past many small shops and into a park. From here we proceeded to the Spanish Square. When we read up on this square, we did not expect to see what we did. It was a huge semicircle square with a fountain in the middle. Walking along the half circle you can see tile work with pictures depicting the many popular cities and towns in Spain. Each one was unique. It was pretty awesome to see, plus it was free. Julie assured me that we could see a Flamenco show when we are in the Costa Del Sol and that it isn’t just Seville that has the shows. So we moved on to Cordoba.