Sweltering Seville

Ah, the not-so-sweet effects of jetlag. It's 4:30am on Monday morning, and we are home-- but I am wide awake. After 24 hours of travelling, I was beat, but I don't think I'll have a good rest until tonight.

May 9 - 13, 2015

Tom and I spent three sweltering days in Seville. Sure, 15 degrees at 8am sounds pretty nice. How about 36, 36 and 37 degree highs during the day? I don't think I've ever sweat so much in my life-- and that includes all the half marathons that I've run! Seville was HOT. Too hot for me.

Sunny in Seville.

Tom and I arrived in Seville on May 9th. From Granada, the drive should have taken about 2.5 hours, but we swung south into Nerja, a beach town on the southern coast of Spain, also called the Costa del Sol. We considered cutting our days short in Seville and spending a couple days 100% dedicated to the beach, but changing our plans at the last minute did not work out. So instead, we settled for a beach front lunch.

Beachfront lunch view in Nerja.

Although the views were stunning, this was basically the worst meal I had in all of Seville. It was a mixed salad comprised of wilted iceberg lettuce, canned asparagus, canned olives, hard boiled eggs, tuna, strangely pickled (but not quite pickled?) carrots, shredded beets and deformed corn. Sounds delicious, right? This was the only meal I had to choke down.

Balcon de Europa (Balcony of Europe), Nerja.

The first thing we noticed in Seville were the beautiful purple trees. After a bit of googling, I discovered they are called Jacaranda trees, and they are a sure sign of spring when they start to bloom (ha, although where I come from, it's not 36 degrees in spring!).

 Jacaranda trees bloom in the spring in Seville.

Our first stop was a stroll through Plaza de Espana. This beautiful red brick building was used for the set of Star Wars, and is also being used for the set of Game of Thrones. Plaza de Espana was absolutely crawling with people! It was a Sunday, and there was some sort marathon/half marathon/10km race going on, and the finish line was in the Plaza. Again-- I want to mention, it was about 30 degrees when people were crossing the finish line. A bunch of crazies, running in the heat! I guess... You just get used to it?

Plaza de Espana

Plaza de Espana is attached to Parque de Maria Luisa, and we took full advantage of the park so we could stay in the shade. There were many grimy ponds and pools in the park, and also a lot of birds-- like this guy (or gal?)!

 A really ugly bird.

The cathedral in Seville was absolutely beautiful on the outside, but lacking some of the splendor that we've seen in other major cities (again-- apparently I'm now a cathedral snob!). A service was going on in the morning when we visited, so we got in for free, but the cathedral was cordoned off so that church-goers were not disturbed by annoying, camera happy tourists!

Cathedral de Sevilla.

We spent a good portion of the afternoon in the Alcazar, the royal palace originally developed by Moorish kings. Some areas of the palace are still used by the royal family when they are in residence in Seville. The architecture, plaster work and tiling were similar to what we saw in the Alhambra in Granada, but not quite as ornate. The Alcazar was used as the set for the court of the King of Jerusalem in the Ridley Scott movie, Kingdom of Heaven. And it will also be used for several shots in the fifth season of Game of Thrones. The Alcazar was named a World Heritage Site in 1986, along with the Seville Cathedral.

Wall tiles in the Alcazar.

A closed courtyard in the Alcazar.

And ornate domed ceiling in the Alcazar.

Sprawling gardens in the Alcazar.

We went back to the cathedral in the afternoon to climb (what we thought) would be the steps of Giralda Tower. This is one of the better vantage points in the city and we wanted to take in the views. The tower functions as the bell tower of the cathedral, and has been standing since 1198. It's hard to fathom a building that old, considering at home, the oldest building is from 1876. Surprisingly, you did not have to take stairs up the tower, but a set of spiraling ramps. This meant that enterprising Spaniards and tourists were taking their strollers up the tower. There wasn't a tone of room to maneuver up there, so it was a tight squeeze.

Giralda Bell Tower at the Seville Cathedral.

View of the Cathedral, city and river from Giralda Tower.

On our last day in Seville, we had planned to take a day trip to Cordoba. We had planned to take the train-- an easy 45 minutes from Seville. The train turned our to be considerably more expensive than we thought it was going to be, and we decided not to go. In retrospect, we should have gone anways... When are we going to have the opportunity to go to Cordoba again? Who knows!

Instead we caught some tail end sights in Sevilla that probably wouldn't have otherwise piqued our interest. We walked about 40 minutes to see the Metropol Parasol, some strange mushroom-like wooden structures over a plaza in old town. The structures were finished in 2011, and created much public controversy due to cost overruns, location and appearance. The engineering company who built the structure informed municiple authorities that the structure could not stand as it was currently designed because many of the materials could not withstand that load that would be required of them. Some estimates say the structures cost about 100 million euros!

Metropol Parasol-- the mushrooms.

Cityscape from the Metropol Parasol.

We also visited the Casa de la Ciencia, but we were disappointed by how small the building was, and with the lack of English translation.

Seville was not our favourite city in Spain, but the city had many warm nights and plenty of sights to offer.

Although we didn't make a day trip to Cordoba, we did make a day trip to a hill town called Ronda. So stay tuned!