(Still no wifi in hotel so typos are due either to BB thumbs or my inability to correctly work th Spanish keyboard on the computer in the hotel lobby. )
We’re trying very hard to like Sevilla but the city and circumstances are not cooperating. We started today by making one more attempt to ship home the sword. Unfortunately, this meant a journey in the car through the streets of the city which isn’t something I’d wish on my worst enemy. We eventually found a DHL shipping center but alas, no joy – it can’t be shipped, reason unclear. We’ll have to pray that Ryan Air will take exorbitant amounts of our money to put it on the plane on Wednesday. Otherwise, anyone prowling through the dumpsters at Malaga airport will find a nice surprise!
Trying hard not to hold it against Sevilla, we parked the car and wandered out to try to restart the day. We found what looked like a lovely cafe in one of the plazas where people appeared to be eating breakfast – fresh squeezed OJ and coffee cups were in evidence – so we joined them. And were promptly informed that the only things on offer were tostadas, no huevos, so I got to watch everyone eat. Eventually we found a greengrocers and I got an apple but I confess that I was taking this personally.
We continued on, however, to the northern part of the tourist map to the Plaza de Espana and things started looking up. The government building and beautiful plaza with a fountain were charming – ceramic tiling everywhere including the railings and lamposts! The circular courtyard around the fountain was a popular place for horse carriages to drive leading my cynical teens to make jokes about Spanish NASCAR!
We then proceeded to the Real Alcazar – a group of palaces and gardens that is nothing short of amazing! We may not yet appreciate the city itself but the historical sites are incredible! Room after room of moorish architecture blended with Castillian style and colorful ceremics that was truly amazing! And the gardens inside the walls were also incredible – trees growing on multiple levels of the palace which I’m not sure I fully understand but appreciated nonetheless.
After we were historied out, we made our way to a lovely place for lunch and then hit a few of the local touristy shops before siesta (which might be habit forming!)
I opted for a shorter nap so I could have the bathroom to myself for a lovely bubble bath. Once we were all up and moving we picked up supplies for tomorrow at a local convenience store and then headed to the river.
A river walk may be just the ticket to make one appreciate a city. We saw lots of people in kayaks – including some who appeared to be playing water polo in their kayaks! Being resigned to being one of a zillion English speaking tourists, we took a river cruise which was far more relaxing than informative – possibly because I don’t appreciate bridges built in the 90s or the buildings constructed for Expo 92. But we did see our first clouds of the trip! Yup, it took 7 days for us to see even the whispy white ones we saw tonight.
Then dinner at a a “real” restaurant – meaning not a tapas bar – which was delicious albeit confusing: they brought Gillian the wrong chicken dish which we didn’t realize until she had eaten most of it and then they brought what she ordered but it was too late. An FYI: both restaurant today charged us for baskets of bread we didn’t actually order and at dinner we were charged “por entrada” – 4 euros entrance fee that went with our bread.
Three thing we noticed today:
1. Hotel shower gel is very versatile. You can use it to hand wash that extra pair of underwear and when you pour it in the jacuzzi bath tub and turn the jets on, you get the most amazing bubbles!
2. Business men on scooter are both fearless and frightening. They are usually dressed in suits and dodge in and out of traffic in a very scary manner.
3. Dry heat means you need to consume ridiculous amounts of liquids – even sailing on the river, you get parched. We’ve opted for a combination of agua y sangria and have fared pretty well, thank you very much.
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