Seville

February 1^st – 2^nd 2013 Seville

A new month and a new country.  Today we went back into Spain and had to adjust our clocks forward an hour.  We were both sorry to leave Portugal and we will especially remember our time in the beautiful Duoro valley and the sunshine in the Algarve.

We had had no access to services the past few days and we needed water and to get rid of our waste.  We pulled into an aire on the border where there was a hill fort.  Mike was initially keen to explore it but we decided that we ought to get on the road to Seville.  We crossed the border on a toll – free motorway and after an hour stopped at some services to brew some coffee.  Our back drop was an orange grove and an orchard of almond trees covered in their pale pink-mauve blossom.  The journey into Seville was an easy one although the city itself was busy.  Our overnight stop was nothing exciting being a motor home dealership that offered free parking.  We needed to get some oil and the offer of secure parking was attractive as Seville has not got a good reputation.  However the place was too far out of Seville to cycle in, there was no public transport and a taxi was going to cost 35 euros each way.  We decided we would have to drive into the City tomorrow and hope we could find a safe parking place.

On that note, Mike got me up at 6.30am (feeling like 5.30am) so that we could find a decent place to park before the City got busy.  In this he was successful as we found a good parking spot next to the river and in front of a café where we reckoned we were as safe from theft as anyway.  Seville looked lovely in the early morning sun.  We walked along the river taking in the Torre de Oro, a statue of Carmen and the bull ring.




We then walked through the streets to the Alcazar.  This was a truly splendid palace with very heavy Moorish influences.
 



 
 

From there we visited the cathedral; it is said to be larger than St. Paul’s (London) and St.  Peter’s (Rome) making it the largest Cathedral but it did not feel that big. We also climbed up the Giralda which did afford brilliant views of the city.  
 


  By this time we had exhausted the time on our parking metre so we went back to the van and drove northwards to Italica.  This is the remains of a large roman settlement just outside of the village Santé Ponce.  Mike loves roman ruins and this was a good one to visit (not only because it was free to EU citizens).  Outside of the roman city walls there was a large decaying amphitheatre and inside their were the remains of numerous houses and other buildings containing some well preserved mosaic tiled floors. We spent over an hour rambling around the site and then drove southwards again bypassing Seville and onto a campsite at Dos Hermanos where we spent the night.  At 18 euros it was a bit expensive but we have found that staying near the major cities has always been expensive.  However it did have free wifi so we could skype Millie and my mum and the following morning I used it to do some marking.