For the last few years during our UK summer trip, we have travelled to visit friends at their villa on the Portuguese Algarve. It's a break from the cleaning and DIY chores at our Hampshire home and relief from whizzing along the M25/M1/A1 etc to visit relatives.
Supping a glass of rose on the villa terrace which is set in a stunning valley where all you can see are hills and blue sky, one truly gets the chance to 'chill'. This year however, our friends decided to take us on a road trip to Seville, prompted by the fact that my husband had just bought a new camera and wanted to take some photos of the quaint old city.
We set off from the villa on Thursday lunchtime, via the E49 motorway, for mainland Spain (my first time). The motorway is fairly new and unlike our M25 was practically deserted. Travelling through the changing countryside, we were soon crossing the border into Spain.what border?! If you blinked, you missed the small border post and not a customs booth in sight.
We continued onwards through the Spanish Algarve and by one-thirty we were on the outskirts of Seville, even passing an IKEA. Heading into Seville centre was the time to turn on the GPS system, fondly labeled 'Janet'. As Janet started to direct us and struggled a bit with the Spanish pronunciation, we wondered what it would be like to have a 'Janet' in Thailand!
Seville looked lovely with lots of beautiful old buildings with a lovely wide river flowing along one side of the city. However, all did not work out well for Janet, since a number of roads in the old city are under construction whilst they install a tram system. So, after many arguments with Janet about turning right and taking a u-turn, we had to switch her off and resort to phoning the receptionist in our hotel, who stayed on the line to 'talk us in' road by road through the narrowest of roads around Seville. Thirty minutes later and having seen quite a lot of old Seville from the backseat of the car we arrived at our hotel, the Dona Maria, which was conveniently located adjacent to the stunning cathedral.
After checking in and consuming a swift drink (badly needed after the arguments with 'Janet') we set off on foot to explore, walking through the warren of extremely narrow streets where one can quite literally shake hands with the neighbours from your bedroom window. Walking through the maze of alleyways and stopping frequently to take photos of the colourful architecture we finally stopped for a late lunch (mid-siesta) at a tapas bar in one of the many paved areas.
We then decided to do the tourist thing and headed off for a tour of the old city in a horse and buggy.
Our driver, with only a smattering of English took us on a 45 minute tour of many of the famous buildings, an architects dream! One building had a huge forecourt where one of the Star Wars movie's had been shot, which is featured in the photo below.
It is easy to forget just how long the lighter evening's are in Europe, so early evening saw us break from walking the streets to enjoy the view from the roof terrace of our hotel, where we had a great view of the cathedral and the skyline across the old city. We passed up on watching the sun go down and took the opportunity to visit the Palace of Alcazar. What a beautiful palace, we could have stayed for hours. Originally built by the Moors, one could see a whole host of Moorish connections, beautiful gardens and many ancient artifacts, truly a "must do" whilst in Seville. The cathedral looked absolutely enchanting illuminated at night and once again many photos were taken before heading off to dinner at a street café, with Paella our only requirement.
Following long afternoon siestas, the Spanish tend to eat quite late so Seville at 10pm was truly lively and we had quite a search to find an empty table. Four, full and happy diners returned to the hotel roof terrace for more photo opportunities and a night cap. Day two of our 'Spanish Adventure' saw more walking, more eating and more photographs. All happy we headed back to Faro and were home and in the pool by 4pm.
Seville is a fantastic city to visit and only a short hop from the beaches and holiday centers on the Portuguese Algarve. If you are thinking of visiting Seville we would definitely recommend an overnight stay since the city looks fantastic at night and really buzzes after dark. We stayed in the hotel Dona Maria in the centre of Seville, which we booked on the internet the day before. This compact hotel is in an excellent location for a short break, and reasonable value overall but would recommended elsewhere for breakfast. A twin room cost 60 Euros per night. Driving in old Seville is very difficult with very narrow streets and numerous one-ways so we would suggest parking on the outskirts of the old city (easily done in underground car parks) and take a taxi into the centre.