Marmalade Jam.

Thursday 6th December 2018 - Visit to Seville.

We had to get up in the dark...what a shock....to catch the train from El Puerto de Santa Maria to Seville.  We actually took our bikes on the train with us as we thought we could move around easier in the city.

It was a fairly quick journey, about an hour and ten minutes.  Unknown to us it turned out to be Constitution Day and therefore a public holiday, so after a quiet start the city became quite busy with locals as well as tourists.

We didn't try to do too much but we wanted to have a good overview of the city centre attractions.

Janice was trying to decide which horse and carriage to choose!  

This is the Giralda Tower that is part of the Cathedral.  It is mainly a moorish style with a neo classical top!  

It is difficult to get a picture of the Cathedral that shows it all because it is so big....according to the guide book it is the biggest Cathedral in Europe.

It is impossible to photograph it with any justice to show its magnificence.  They have lots of paintings by Murillo who lived locally.  He seemed to be very good at painting Archbishops who became Saints!

It has the mausoleum of Christoper Columbus, not a bad one either.....

We didn't pay to go into the Real Alcazar (Moorish Fortress).

There was a bit of a queue but we later sneaked into the exit area and I pinched a couple of oranges.  I could use them for marmalade!

We had a good walk around.  Saw the bullring and the Torre del Oro, Tower of Gold by the River Guadaquivir.

Our biggest wow factor was probably the Plaza de Espana which was built for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929.

It is a complete semi circular building of beauty with fantastic ceramic tiles depicting regional scenes of Spain. There were Spanish guitar players and Flamenco dancers around too.

It was lovely to see the Spanish people at leisure.  The atmosphere was very calm and peaceful despite the numbers of people. There are many more places to see but too much for us to try to cover in one day.  We did manage to squeeze in some tapas for lunch, including garlic prawns, cod in tomato sauce, pigs cheek and...

It is fried Aubergine chips with a gazpacho sauce, nice.  No sherry today though.  One thing we noticed in all the restaurants and souvenir shops......you couldn't buy a jar of marmalade anywhere.  They are missing a trick!

We considered doing the Basilica de la Macarena but Janice already knew the dance moves, so we didn't bother.

We are looking forward to a second public holiday on Saturday....to celebrate the 'Immaculate Conception'.....so check the blog on Sunday for exciting/surprising news!!