A bloody early start this one. With a 0720 flight, that means we had to leave home at 0230 as it was from bloody Luton. My least favourite airport. Last time we went, they were doing it up and there were road works galore. I managed to get three hours sleep before bundling the kids in the car, hoping they would sleep till we arrived at the car park. They almost did.
Luton Airport
The airport inside is actually decent. Nice shops and not too busy today. Had a Starbucks. Got called to gate, queued, got on plane. Nice and easy. Staff on the plane were a bit rude, which was weird. Bonus was, I had two spare seats next to me!
Landed at Seville. Not a massive airport. Got out after a bit of a queue. Jumped on an EA bus, costing €4 to the city centre. Taxi would have been about €25. Bus was full, but it was fine.
Our AirBnB wouldn’t let us do an early check in, from the 1400 they wanted. They asked for €20 to check in before this time, which was a no from us. We wheeled our carry on suitcases to a cafe/restaurant thing, had some toasted sandwiches and drink, and then walked through the city to get to our apartment.
Alameda de Hercules
Had a bit of a chill before heading out. Didn’t want to do a full on day out as we’d been up for ages. Walked to Alameda de Hercules, a big public square with a couple of Roman columns at either end. It’s alright, nothing too special. Apparently it’s the oldest public square/garden in Europe, at nearly 600 years old or something.
Kids played in a tiny park, where we saw one Dad reward his angry hair-pulling son with some banana each time he ran back with a clump of someone’s hair in his hand. Awesome.
Little fountain thing next to it. Kids ran in it, got soaked. Awesome.
Independent Shops
We then had a walk to find ice cream. That’s the great thing about Seville-everything is in walking distance. There are touristy horse and carts around, and a tram, and scooters to rent. Fair few folks ride a bike around, lots of mopeds zooming down narrow streets. I also like all the shops, well, not all the shops. That’s impossible to like them all. What I find nice is that they are all independent. No Greggs or Costa, or Top Man and Primark. Not even a WH Smiths equivalent!
Wooden Mushroom
Continued on to see the wooden mushroom as it’s called here. I don’t know what it’s actually called, hang on. Oh it’s Las Setas de Sevilla, which means Mushroom of Seville or something. It’s a weird wooden sculpture that you pay €5 to go up and have a nice view of the city. It’s actually nicer from street level to look at. There were some dudes skateboarding underneath, and some kids sliding down it’s white curved wall. It was ok.
Popped to a supermarket on way home, to get our usual staples of pasta, fruit, biscuits and cereal! It’s the way we keep costs down on these types of holidays. Came home, had pasta and sauce and salami and peas, bathed the kids, and off to bed. Bit cold in here, but have put the heating on!
City Sights
Late start to the first morning here. Mixture of early yesterday and late night. Nice to have a relax though! Left the apartment, and found some lunch. On the way, we went through a square called Plaza del Salvador which was well busy. Locals just having a catch up at the terrace. Me and Meelie saw 4 dancer types, and had a picture with them. They were just sat on the steps of the church, like models waiting for pictures.
Carried on down the street to Banco de Espana, with its two massive square trees outside. This is next to Avenue de la Constitution, which is a lovely wide street covered in sunlight. Saw a street band at El Arenal. It’s a spot where flamenco, buskers and performers stop off to earn some cash money.
Next it was on to the Golden Tower, alongside the river Guadalquivir. Nice little spot. We crossed the bridge into Triana, which was historically the poorer side. Architecture is noticeably different, as was the lack of tourists on that side! Bit of a waste of 10 mins, but was different!
Plaza de Espana
Crossed a different bridge back into normality to find Plaza de Espana, after walking through a bit of María Luisa’s Park. Bloody lovely. Best bit of Seville for me. Firstly, the park is really nice. Loads of different bits of gardens here and there, weird trees with mega roots, benches and ponds and tiles. There’s horse and carts knocking about, folks in peddle buggy things. Then, you see the Plaza thing and it’s magnificent.
A big curved building, with bridges over a moat type thing, massive fountain in the middle. Boats on the moat! Row boats. We thought it looked fun, and at €6 for 35 mins, we thought we’d have a go! I now know that the row can be said both ways! Ha, we would row and then row a bit! And then row some more. We weren’t very good at making it go straight, well, I wasn’t. Speaking of straight, we kept seeing men dressed in leathers, with the ‘police’ uniform on. Then some more with ‘Mr Leather Italy’ or Austria on a sash. There were about 100 men in leather, like a convention for leather-clad men! Just added to the awesomeness of the place.
We spent about an hour and a half just walking round this bit. Would defo recommend you go here. We tried getting a horse and cart back to the centre but, but was well expensive. Wanted €45 to take us round a bit. It’s a 10 min walk really. Another guy then said ‘what about €20?’ We tried for 15 but we were both too stubborn to budge. So we walked.
Headed back home in the dark. Saw Jesus carrying a cross. One of those ‘static model’ people. Put some change in his pot hoping he’d save me or something, but no luck. He was good mind! Didn’t see him move once.
Charlotte’s Birthday
New day, new dawn. I say dawn, we didn’t leave the house till midday. Nice having not much to do or planned! It was a Sunday after all. It was also Charlotte’s birthday, and she does like a sleep! Gave her some presents. Forgot to get her a card, so bought a post card the day before. Nice reminder though right!? *Edit – turns out it wasn’t! She went on for weeks after this!*
Went out and found some food. Opted for pizza. I love pizza. Got three between us. I ate one to myself, and the other three could have shared one as didn’t eat much!
At first, we sat down in a restaurant. It had a menu which catered to all languages. I normally find these suspicious, and my suspicions which were aroused were right to be suspicious. A quick trip advisor look found them to be restaurant number 2,300 out of 2,500 in Seville! No thanks! We moved on. Ate in Piano Piano just down the road instead.
Picked an orange off a tree. Not sure if it’s allowed, but we did. So lovely seeing oranges on trees everywhere! Seville oranges! Stan peeled one, juice everywhere, smelt so good, but he wouldn’t eat it as his hands were well minging from the juice!
Walked around the wall of the Alcázar, looking for a way in. Found the exit, then the entrance. Stared queueing but then saw it was free on a Monday, so went to the Cathedral instead. There are also free tickets here on a Monday too, but thought meh.
Cathedral
Quite nice this Cathedral! It dominates a lot of the streets, and quite rightly as it’s the biggest gothic cathedral in the world!! Huge. Inside is nice. Very cathedralesque. We went up the Giralda, which I think used to be part of the mosque. Was quite an Islamic place here back in the day. The cathedral used to be a mosque, but it converted a while back. I knew people could convert, but didn’t know buildings could! We walked up the tower, to the bells bit. Fair old walk too! No steps, just a ramp that goes all the way up. We arrived at 1550, and waited the ten mins hoping to be deafened by the 4 chimes. We weren’t. It was quite an anti-climax.
Chris Columbus
Oh, the other cool thing about the cathedral is, it houses Christopher Columbus!! Obvs he’s dead, but his tomb is there. We saw his statue in Barcelona, pointing the wrong way. In New York the other week he has a place on a roundabout, pointing the wrong way. And he somehow ends up in Seville!? Apparently he sailed from Seville to find the New World, which is why he is ‘buried’ here. Not actually buried though as he’s being held aloft by four blokes!
Went for a walk, saw some shops. I know I’ve already said it, but it’s one of the cool things about Seville-everything is in walking distance. And you get to work out your bearings pretty quickly too, despite the windy narrow paths, and places looking the same. Went home, had a play on the terrace. It’s cool-fake grass, a view across the roof tops, and the cathedral. Nice when the sun is going down.
Final day today. AirBnB hosts are being a bit unkind and not letting us store bags anywhere so we are leaving them in a place in the centre. €5 to look after a bag seems fair. Booked tickets to go to the Alcázar, and that’s where we are heading first.
Alcazar
After getting up and ready, and the cleaners coming in bang on 1100, we walked to bag drop and then to the Alcazar. It’s sort of like a palace from back in the day. Nice gardens and rooms and tiling and that. They are really good at tiling. As we had booked tickets online, we could ‘skip the line’ which was nice. I saw pics of the queue being well big! Maximum of 750 people in at a time. It also has the oldest tennis court in Spain there too, even though it’s not there anymore. Weird claim that. Like me claiming to have the worlds oldest unicycle, but not having it on me.
Had some lunch after this. Now, I know it’s not very Sevillian but, we had our first ever Taco Bell. It was nice too! Would 10/10 have another one.
Walk down to the river, bit of a chill watching the boats. Kids had a run around by the Golden Tower and then headed back. Picked bags up, waited for the EA bus. Bloody woman charged us for the kids too! Guy on the way on didn’t. What a swizz.
Sat in airport for a bit, got on flight. Used the ‘fast-track’ as Stan is 5 so still gets into the bracket! Bit of a queue behind us. As we started boarding, a woman who had been sat down while we were stood in the queue tried pushing in front of us, then let another woman push in front of her! Char gave her side eyes, then told her to get back. Had a bit of assistance from people behind us too. Bloody cheek!
Plane was fine for EasyJet. Nicer staff on way back. I finished the 2nd Adam Kay book, ‘Twas the night shift before Xmas’. Great books he has. My favourite bit was the Power Rangers bit. I cried laughing last night at that bit!
Really nice trip
All in all, great little trip. It could be done in 2 days truth be told. We had lazy mornings, and a chilled outlook about it all. Not too much to do and see, especially for kids. Buildings are lovely, people are friendly, food is nice. City is lovely and much nicer than Barcelona, even though I’d happily go back to Barca over Seville I think. Yeah I would. Not that it’s a competition or anything. Mucho gracias etc.
