The Albatross
Sunday 18 May 2014
I’ll get back to the gold in a moment, First of all we headed off to Seville today, a two and a half hour jaunt up the motorway, it was early morning Sunday, and so the driving was easy and fast. We did take a couple of wrong turns in town, but arrived about 12:30pm at our hotel having managed to park without crushing anything. We’ve been upgraded to a suite which was nice as we get a bit more space. The first priority was lunch, as we had walked from the car park to our hotel, we went up a pedestrian street, and I noted which restaurants were packed (people were just out of church and were pounding beer) and which were empty. I noted one which had huge groups at it, and as we walked back half an hour later one big group had just left. It was a good choice, a huge plate of stunning seafood, fabulously cooked for 11 euro, beers 1.50 a glass. It was a cracking lunch. The only downside was it took half an hour to pay the bill; we just couldn’t get the blokes attention. Eventually we wandered off.
We wandered over the bridge and into town, keeping to the shadows as the sun is hot. Sunday is walking slowly in large groups and ignoring the rest of the planet day, so progress was slow. We thought we’d pop past the Cathedral (It was Sunday and according to our Lonely Planet, which is a few years old, allegedly free) but that didn’t open to 2:30pm and there were massive lines standing in the hot sun, so we bailed on that and wandered up to the Arab Baths. Due to our lack of research, they are still functioning, and looked rather pleasant, but I hadn’t bought my speedos so we had to ditch.
Back into the centre, we thought we’d try our luck at the Alcazar, which we had tickets for at 5:00pm, but it didn’t look bonkers and they let us in early. This is a wondrous building; the first part was a palace of the Moorish rulers and in better shape by miles than the Alhambra, with a lot more colour and tiles. The second half had been home to the Spanish Monarchy for century’s, and is equally wonderful. The gardens were also very pretty, but in the sun, so we parked on a bench for a few moments and got accosted by a randy peacock that squawked quite a lot and attracted other tourists. It really is a brilliant place.
Eventually off to the cathedral. Now it is impressive, the main point is an old Moorish tower which is now the bell tower and the rest of it is massive and ornate, especially the exterior, covered in intricate carvings of dragons and other beasties. The interior is a huge gothic cathedral, showing all the splendour of the gold pillaged from South America. They have room after room celebrating the riches of the church and displaying huge ornate pieces, plus huge gold walls (which are being restored with more gold, all this for an 8 euro entrance fee, the free Sunday thing has disappeared). One huge thing missing was anywhere to sit and contemplate in peace. I wonder where the Catholics go, cos there is bugger all god in this place. Safe to say I was a bit disgusted.
Apparently Christopher Columbus is buried here. They aren’t quite sure so it might be some other bloke.
Back towards home, we paused past the bull ring, which had a minor match on tonight (we did contemplate it as a spectacle then both decided that wasn’t something we really want to watch).
So instead had a couple of glasses of wine near the hotel and some lovely tapas while we watch all the ladies strut past in there Sunday finest, then off for a shower and a sit before a late dinner as we have a slow day tomorrow.
