No hay …

The busy baggage reclaim at Seville airport

Once again it is time for Rudy to awaken from his slumber. This time, on a departure (pun intended) from the usual destinations Captain Clarke and I find ourselves in Seville with our good friends Gorgeous and her husband ‘S’. This trip was planned last year and long before there was any thought of acquiring a certain hairy friend however, he is being well looked after by the Lovely Lady and her wonderful Husband. It is only right to explain at this point that we travelled on Good Friday on a British Airways flight which went without a hitch. The taxi arrived on time to take us to the airport, there was no queuing for baggage drop or through security, a small libation was taken before a gentle stroll to board and then we departed on time, took a smooth flight down and arrived in Seville half an hour early. All very satisfactory. Seville airport is neither the biggest nor the busiest in the world and despite an unusually slow baggage belt, we were out of the airport and on our way to the hotel in no time.

A Church (one of many) on the way into town.

Our hotel, whilst not the most expensive in Seville, is OK. It is described as having a safe – true, you have to pay €20 deposit for a key which you have to carry around, but it has a safe – it is described as having a desk – true, although you would find it difficult to put anything other than a folded map of the city on it – it is described as having tea and coffee making facilities – true, but not in the room, you have to go downstairs to reception and pay €1 for each drink – it is described as having a flat screen TV – true, although you do need glasses to see it because of its petite size. The hotel is OK though, although somewhat of a trek out of town (more on that later). And so, baggage dropped at the hotel we headed out for our first night in Seville. Not a barber in sight, but we discovered that this small city was heaving with visitors! It transpires that the Good Friday parade is one to behold and not to be missed – although we did because you can’t get near for the thousands and thousands of people milling around the streets. It does on for hours, but we didn’t actually see it other than a glimpse from several hundred metres away.

It transpires, that my thought to photograph the bar was wise as it turns out I was right all along!

Since we did not see the parade, I was charged with the task of finding the bar where I had had tostadas con salmorejo y jamon Serrano on our last visit here. This was a dish that was so wonderful that, having eaten one plateful, I actually ordered another. I found it quite difficult to get my bearings with several hundred thousand people milling around and got chastised for my incompetence. I did find a bar that I thought was the one and, although dismissed by Captain Clarke as completely wrong, it turned out in the light of day today that I was, in fact, correct. However, at night in a very busy environment, even I was unsure of my confidence, so I accepted I may be wrong and we found another bar, somewhat quieter than in the centre of the city and had wonderful tapas, a couple of bottles of wine, coffees, brandy and good ‘bon vivant’ all round. It transpires on reflection that it is 10 years since our last visit to Seville, so I feel somewhat permitted to have doubts about finding a bar in a back street that I only visited once!

Empty streets in Seville on the way to get breakfast.

This morning we arose and decided to find a bar on the way into town for a breakfast. It turned out that none were open and we had to go all the way to the centre before we found one that was open. That said, it was memorable … not necessarily for the right reasons. We sat down at a table outside (it was a little chilly but ‘S’ insisted that it would be hot any minute – he turned out to be wrong by a few hours, but he is now forgiven) and a waiter duly delivered menus. We perused the menus and the majority of us chose a dish with eggs, since this seemed the predominant ingredient of the menu. The waiter returned and, in our best Spanish, we ordered our breakfast – “Huevos con jambon Serrano, por favor”, said Captain Clarke. “No hay huevos”, came the response immediately – we have no eggs. Ah, thought I, I shall order my second favourite thing, toast with Serrano ham, olives and tomatoes. “Por favor, yo quero tostados con jamon Serrano, acietunas y tomate”, said I. “No hay tomates”, came the response – we have no tomatoes. OK, I thought, no tomato, “Bueno, tostadas con jamon Serrano y acietunas”, I said. This was accepted as my order. “I’ll have the same”, said ‘S’, so that was easy. Gorgeous asked if she could have an orange juice, “Un zumo de naranja”, said I, ordering on her behalf. “No hay naranjas”, came the reply – we don’t have any oranges. Gorgeous was forced to settle for a glass of Cava instead, something she did with grace and no fuss at all!

Accepting that a small glass of Cava will have to do instead of orange juice!

After breakfast we had a short walk around the Cathedral and into the street I had led our party to last night to try and find the bar that I had apparently failed to find previously. As we stood, once again, outside the bar that I had found yesterday evening, I got, what can only be described as a ‘PC World moment’ when a very supercilious Captain Clarke said, “Nooo, the bar we went to was opposite the Italian restaurant we liked”, I advised my good companion to turn around and, after seeing the Italian restaurant, he suggested we should move on! We wandered into the old town of Seville on a mission to procure new shoes for Captain Clarke. This had become necessary because his shoes that he might have worn with shorts have been somewhat eaten and are beyond use by humans anymore (enough said). After a faltering start, shoes were procured and our day was planned. We would walk back to our hotel where Captain Clarke could change into shorts and his new shoes and we would then get the ‘Hop On, Hop Off” tourist bus to see a bit more of Seville. We wandered back to our hotel (which it turns out is about a mile or so from the city centre) where I first tried to procure tickets via the Internet as they seemed to be discounted there, but I could find no way of getting the tickets following payment, so I cowered out of this and went down to reception where I would procure them at a slightly discounted(ish) price and ask about the nearest stop etc. (It transpires that the advertised price is higher, but anyone can purchase at the ‘discounted’ price).

La Giralda – difficult to miss in Seville!

So we took the bus and began our journey through Seville. We travelled along by the river before turning towards the Plaza España which is the ‘number one’ attraction in Seville according to Trip Advisor. ‘S’ had said on several occasions that he had got a list of the top ten tourist attractions in Seville and he would like to make sure he saw them all. I suggested that we stop at a bar for a small libation having dismounted from the bus and look at the list and plan how we might see them. Top of the list was the Plaza España (we were already there) followed by the gardens surrounding the Plaza España (another tick was to be had shortly) and then ‘La Giralda’ which is the tower attached to the Cathedral (next on the list) which we had already seen. Then there was the Alcazar (Moorish palace and gardens) which we are visiting on Tuesday, followed by a couple of other places that we had seen from the bus. All in all, we had already seen, or were planning to visit, seven out of the top ten and none of us were interested in seeing the other three (museums). ‘S’ said he didn’t think he had seen ‘La Giralda’ and I pointed out to him that he had taken a photograph of it this morning. “You’re going to have to point out these things in future”, he said, so now I will!

The beautiful Plaza España in Seville

We first walked through the gardens on our way to the Plaza España which are truly beautiful. Using my trusted Apple Maps we seemed to walk an awfully long way in the gardens before we finally reached the Plaza de España. I will be the first to admit that I am not entirely sure that my Apple Maps was 100% reliable. It transpired we walked around in a huge circle and, had we left the bar that we had stopped in when we first arrived in the opposite direction, the Plaza de España was actually behind us! However, had we not taken a rather circuitous route we would never have seen the extent of the beautiful gardens that we did, something I do not regret and nor do my companions. Once we had seen the Plaza España we returned to the bus stop to pick up the bus and continue our tour. Having done a fair amount of walking already, we decided to continue on the bus all the way back to the Plaza de Armes which is actually only two stops before returning to the Plaza España. We dismounted with the aim of getting some lunch – even though it was, by now, 3.30 in the afternoon!

Tapas for lunch in the old town of Seville

After yet more walking, we found a bar that offered a suitably varied menu that we could enjoy. We ordered a variety of tapas ranging from the inevitable ‘jamon Serrano’ to ‘pulpo’ (octopus), ‘gambas’ (prawns), ‘ensalada de atun’ (tuna salad with delicious roasted peppers) and ‘pimientos rellentos’ (stuffed peppers), which was all delicious. This was washed down by cold beer for most of the party and local rosé wine for me (I like beer, beer does not like me!). A wonderful time was spent whilst enjoying the afternoon sunshine (by now it was 32 degrees celcius) and watching the world go by. Having finished lunch we had a short walk around the shops where some very small purchases were made (no more than €5 in total!). I made one of these purchases and, as I walked out of the shop, I remarked to Captain Clarke that I was somewhat surprised that the shop assistant hadn’t understood me when I asked the price of the item I was purchasing … after all, I asked her the price in perfect French! (Oops, this speaking foreign can be a bit confusing sometimes!) Finally, we walked back to our hotel, although we had tremendous problems crossing yet another Easter parade that was being attended by thousands and thousands of people! We were forced to stop off at a bar for some sustenance to give us sufficient energy to make it back to the hotel. Consulting my app I discovered that today we have walked 9.7 miles (yes, Great Uncle Bulgaria, it really was 9.7 miles!) and we have yet to go out for our evening meal! I honestly thought I had come away to get a little rest from my daily average of 4 miles nowadays. It appears I was wrong, we have walked far more – it’s RudyMenTerry!