The culture continues …

Captain Clarke and I attempting one of those ‘Selfie’ things in the restaurant.

Yesterday evening followed pretty much the same pattern as the previous ones. Having had a short siesta (well Captain Clarke did anyway!), we wandered down to the centre of the city to find dinner. We decided to take the short route although it turned out once again to be a long route because we took a wrong turn or two. Gorgeous calls this lost, I call it exploring a new area! It was, in fact, Gorgeous who found the correct route to where we wanted to be which was, believe it or not, an Italian restaurant. Now, I should say at this point, for all those that think I do not like Italian food, I do – I do not like Italian food in Italy because all of the decent chefs have left and setup restaurants elsewhere. One of these is l’Oca Guioliva. Captain Clarke and I visited this restaurant the last time we were in Seville and it was so good that we wanted to go back. It didn’t disappoint – the food was excellent, as was the service and the welcome.

The Real Alcazar is a Moorish mosaic palace in the heart of Seville.

On the way back to our hotel for the final time (at night) we stopped off for a last libation before retiring at around 1am. This morning we had a relatively early start as I had pre-booked tickets for the Real Alcazar (the Alcazar Palace in Seville). We made our way down to town and stopped off at the restaurant where we had experienced the ‘no hay’ (we have no …) on the first morning. This morning there was ‘no hay’ service. We sat there for about 15 minutes and no waiter showed any interest in us – in the end we got up and left. We found another bar very near to the entrance to the Real Alcazar, had a quick coffee and made our way to the entrance. Captain Clarke and I have visited the Real Alcazar on a number of occasions but we found more to it this morning than ever before. You will see that all of the photos (except the one above and one more) on this missive are from the Alcazar, but we have many, many more. I shall upload an album on my return to the UK. The palace is truly beautiful and dates back to the Moorish occupation of the Iberian peninsula. The mosaics are stunning as is the architecture and the sheer size and scale of this beautiful ancient palace. It has been the home, or holiday home, of many kings and queens over the ages and was occupied as recently as the 19th century.

The queen’s bathroom in the Alcazar – now that is one big bath!

There are parts of the Real Alcazar that we have not seen before, such as the queen’s bathroom which is huge and, frankly, amazing. They are under the main palace and must be 150 feet long. The lighting that is used just adds to the overall wonder, but to think that this was built over 500 years ago (or more) is just amazing! What we found more incredible though, were the gardens. We have seen small parts of the gardens on previous visits, but we never imagined the size and scale of the actual gardens. Whether they have been open to the public on previous visits, I cannot remember, but I am certain that we have never seen them before. The formal planting is just stunning. I can think of no other superlative! We have often spent an hour or so looking through the palace; at the mosaics, at the rooms, the tapestries and the architecture, but today we spent almost two hours in the gardens and could have spent more. The gardens are huge and must cover an area four times the size of the palace itself. There are formal areas that are surrounded by beautifully kept boxwood hedges that are filled with orange trees and roses, there are less formal areas that are surrounded by tall palm trees that tower above grass carpets and oleander plants and there are huge Bougainvillea plants that, quite literally, tower above the height of the palace.

This chap just walks up the palm tree trunk (even if vertical) with special spike strapped to his feet.

Whilst we were there we saw one of the garden maintenance staff trimming the palm trees. He has a special climbing device that is strapped to each foot and has rubber spikes that grip to the trunk of the palm. He can literally ‘walk’ up a palm tree trunk and then take a machete to trim the tree (after removing the dead leaves by hand). Just watching this process for five minutes was amazing! He drew quite a crowd and Captain Clarke asked his assistant if he had a hat to collect tips, but he really didn’t understand what Captain Clarke was on about – he shrugged his shoulders and with a ‘no intiendo’ (I don’t understand) turned away to smoke a cigarette. Talking of cigarettes, it is quite clear that in a nation of smokers the number of actual smokers is declining fast. When it was decided that smoking would be banned in restaurants and bars in Europe, Spain had a special agreement and bars could either be opted ‘in’ or opted ‘out’ and displayed a sign saying whether they were a ‘smoking bar’ or not. Now, there are no visible ‘smoking’ bars left. The number of people that you will see smoking is minuscule compared with only a few years ago. Fortunately, e-cigarettes do not seem to have taken much hold here and the air is not filled with the disgustingly sweet smell of people ‘vaping’. Personally, I far prefer the smell of someone smoking if I am going to smell them at all!

“I’m surprised they let Cabin Crew in here drinking”, said Captain Clarke

As I sit here typing this missive in the VIP lounge at Seville airport (there is no BA lounge which is upsetting all those that have booked a BA Business Class ticket, but we knew of this lounge before we left and booked it so that we could use it on our return!) typing this, the penultimate missive (there will be just one more to account for our journey home and to add the gallery of photos from the trip) I am amused by a comment made by Captain Clarke. I am sat here typing and he turned to me and said, “I am surprised they let Cabin Crew in here drinking”, if you look at the photo to the right you will see what he means! Fortunately, the lady in question is Russian and had no idea that Captain Clarke was commenting on her, or what he said! This has been a wonderful break with lots of laughter and frivolity. Those that are wondering why I have not mentioned the recent addition to the household should know that I was banned from mentioning the ‘M’ word for the duration of our trip! I am sure there will be future trips, but they may include a canine friend too. But for now, Mother don’t worry, we’ll be at the WHB tomorrow night and I promise to be armed with some daffodils, despite the fact that they are largely over. We hope you have been a little entertained by our adventures, but now it is time for me to go and remove my shorts and put on appropriate clothing for our return to the UK. Too much information I am sure, but as you know, it is RudyMenTerry!