One thing that never ceases to amaze me when visiting Mediterranean countries is the odd opening hours kept by the shops here. To be honest I still haven’t worked out exactly when, or in some cases, even if they DO open. There is, of course, the loooooonnnnnng siesta that is taken from about 11 AM to 5 PM but not many seem to be open that early in the morning. Nor do they seem to be open that late in the evening to compensate for the lack of being open any time in the afternoon. How do the places make any money?

The shops here also seem to be very individualistic unlike the incessant chain stores that are to be found in the UK. A small haberdashers, a butchers, bag shop etc. That’s not to say that there aren’t chain stores here, including the ubiquitous Costa, but it is mainly small stores that never seem to open.

By this stage we had pretty much “done” all that we wanted to do in Seville with the exception of going into the cathedral. So we went over at opening time (11 AM, it seems the Catholic Church isn’t keen on early starts either) to get a head start but there was already a sizeable queue there. After dithering a bit and having a coffee we finally joined the queue and eventually got inside.

As I hinted at yesterday I am not a huge fan of the over-blown style of Catholic churches and the Seville cathedral very much fitted into this category. The adjoining tower, however, was interesting and would have been perfect were it not for the rude tourists that we had to share it with. They all seemed to be from the same country which I won’t name lest I slight the wrong one but they weren’t a great advert for whichever country it was.

The afternoon was spent pottering before taking an open top bus ride around the city. While the weather has been very pleasant for a January it was probably still a bit too chilly for an open top bus. We did, however, get to see parts of the city we had not previously explored. This included the areas built for Expo ’92 and the cantilevered Alamillo Bridge. Like every country the highlights were bigged up as the biggest, best, first etc. but there was a bout of honesty when describing the bridge. There was, it seems, supposed to be a twin bridge but due to “economic difficulties” it was never built. The architect was said to be “extremely disappointed”!

So that’s Seville done. I can imagine coming back here again and revisiting the Alkazar and other sights. It was also very pleasant to get some vitamin D so early in the year. It’s going to be a struggle returning to the UK where it is currently snowing.

The hotel we are staying in is lovely, especially as we are in a “junior suite” which has a separate lounge as well as the bedroom. We weren’t supposed to be in a suite but swapped with the mother-in-law so that she could have the bath that the standard room we had paid for offered. Result! When it comes to hotels we are, to be honest, cheapskates. We regard it as somewhere to sleep and so given we spend so little time there it doesn’t have to be that posh, just clean and tidy.

Similarly we won’t overpay for breakfast. The current hotel want €16 per person and there is no way I’ll ever eat that much. So we tend to wander out and find a local cafe and have a coffee and a croissant there. This is what we did today and ended up paying about €3.5 each for what was billed as coffee with croissant and marmalade. Seville is, of course, famous for its oranges and marmalade is made of said oranges. So it came as a surprise when the marmalade turned out to be jam! I suspect that this is because the Spanish for jam is mermelada.

Anyway, despite not having had my marmalade, we still went out to visit the Real Alcázar de Sevilla. The Alcázar is to Seville what the Alhambra is to Granada – a royal place left by the Moors. Unlike the castles left in England by the Normans which were boxy affairs the palaces left by the Moors are intricately detailed places with fascinating geometric designs (some shown below). It must have taken decades to achieve the quality of workmanship on display.

What appeals to me most is that sense of order and regularity. Everything seems to be in place and is aligned symmetrically with clean lines. I have always had a fascination with repeating patterns and it is still my favourite boring meeting doodle involving different sized boxes radiating out.

We wandered through the palace and the gardens before heading out and towards the Plaza de España built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. We approached it from the back and from that side it was pretty uninspiring but there was a real wow factor from the front. There is an ornate building in a U shape with the plaza in front of it which also has a small canal on which you can row. It was very attractive but it did also remind me of the front of the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas so make of that what you will!

Today was my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday and the reason for making this trip. In celebration of that we had booked to go for a special meal at a restaurant that bills itself as the oldest in Seville (they are clearly proud of this fact as the Est. 1670 is printed on everything). So it is fair to say that they have had plenty of time to get the experience just right.

I knew before we arrived that the place was going to be quirky. It is basically a bar with a couple of small rooms at the back sat out as a restaurant. If you are at the bar area you can only stand but you can have tapas. The rooms, such that they were, at the back are seated but there is a more traditional menu. We arrived and it was packed, always a good sign that somewhere is popular. We had difficultly attracting someones attention to get our table but finally tracked it down and seated ourselves.

Menus were provided in a number of languages so this made it relatively straight forward for us to be able to choose a starter and main course each. When the old fella that was to be waiter for the evening finally deigned to take our order it was quickly obvious that we were to be an inconvenience to him. When one of our party couldn’t find again the in the menu with the item he wanted the waiter let out a very audible sigh and rolled his eyes!

When the food started to arrive it came in dribs and drabs rather than all at once. So first the quick and easy cold cuts came. Fair enough we thought, next must be the rest of the hot starters. This was confirmed in our minds when next arrived a soup. At this point there seemed little point in wait so those that had their starters started. While we were not more that a few bites into these than the main courses began to appear (and far too quickly to have been cooked from fresh I felt). This led to some interesting juggling of plates as the table wasn’t big enough to accommodate all that had been ordered. Finally all the main courses had arrived but we were still short of one starter – mine of course. This finally arrived pretty much as I was half way through my main.

It should be said that the food was very good even if it did arrive in a peculiar order. Had we been having tapas it might not have been a surprise but given the menu was laid out into starters and main it was very odd. We got the bill and went to pay by card. The waiter arrived with the card machine and no sooner had he done so but another waiter came over and sent him away so off he went without a word but another obvious huff. We were left with no idea what had happened and had to wait another five minutes before he arrived back again and finally took payment.

All in all it was an entertaining meal!

Our first trip in 2018 is for some early sunshine in the Spanish town of Seville. I can’t remember the last time we went away so soon after Christmas but based on today’s experience I might be tempted to do it more often.

Getting here required an early flight on the smallest plane I have been on since my honeymoon to Guernsey some 27 years ago. At least this time there was somewhere in the hold for luggage. On that occasion our bags were placed behind netting at the front of the plane! To go with the small plane was the small airport and we were through passport control and out in next to no time. Let’s hope it’s the same in Orlando in April…

It’s an odd experience to board a plane with the temperature being close to freezing and grey and to step off at the other end and it be (almost) tee-shirt weather and brilliant blue skies. The other thing that is a little different is that this time we are here with my mother-in-law and her husband to celebrate her birthday.

Armed with approximately zero Spanish we managed to get a taxi from the airport to the hotel. Even without a shared language the driver did manage to mime how pleased he was to see the sun. Not as pleased as I was I can assure you!

The afternoon was spent orienting ourselves and trying not to do too much that we have allocated for other days of the holiday. Normally decisions on where to go are relatively straightforward with only two of us travelling. As on this occasion there are four of us and more weight is given to the birthday girl it is more, complex.

In the evening we went out to a local tapas restaurant that had been recommended by the hotel. Unfortunately it was still closed post New Year (that must have been one hell of a party!) and so we moved onto the next one on the list. This too was shut but only because it was still early as far as the Spanish were concerned (it was just before 8pm). We walked on and found ourselves in an open plaza with a number of restaurants around it. We rejected a few before finding one that looked welcoming and ate there.

Even as we walked the short walk back to the hotel it was a pleasant temperature and you could easily forget that it is still January. It is going to be a real shock to the system when we get back to the UK on Sunday!