Last weekend, I experienced what was less of a mini-break, but rather a 24-hour marathon through Seville... The four hours in the coach, driving through every single pueblo in Andalucia were a pain, but my two flatmates and I forgot about it as soon as we arrived in Seville. We walked along the river, admiring the colourful riverside until we got to the Torre del Oro. Not much of the gold is left, but, hey, old buildings are awesome!
I have to say that I was a bit dazzled to be in a big city again, with loads of cars and huge roads, but once we were in the city centre, it was truly beautiful. We watched a huge wedding coming out of the cathedral and joined the crowd of passers-by who was applauding and shouting their wishes. The shopping streets were full of people. What confused me at the start were the big linen cloths stretched across the streets from rooftop to rooftop. Desi solved the mystery explaining they meant to protect from the sunshine. A sunshine that we didn't get to see until Sunday, because rain had accompanied our coach trip and had stayed with us in Seville.
After we got the general flair, we took a taxi to go to our charming couch hosts... Raf and Ned unfortunately lived a bit outside the city centre, in such an obscure (!) place, that the taxi driver didn't know the address... After a bit of confused explaining, where I probably broke about 20 grammatical rules of the Spanish language, the man got us to the right area. Unfortunately he wasn't too right about where he left us and we walked in the pouring rain... but in the end we made it and had a chilled evening around a few bottles of beer and some serious catching-up!
The next day, the guys left to Lisbon, and we only made it to the centre by midday. This is when the sprinting really began... from the still closed cathedral to the castle, where we decided that the queue was too long, back to the cathedral, which once inside was more than impressive. Through our eaves-dropping on German guided tours we understood, that the Catedral Santa Maria de la Sede, was the third biggest cathedral in Europe and in the World, after the St Peter's Dome in Rome and St Paul's in London. Indeed the building is breath-taking and the side chapels, which sum up to a number of 80, are all different and beautiful in their own way. We were also able to have a look at Christopher Columbus' grave, or one of them because apparently other places claim to hold some of his remains. 7 years ago, they cross-checked Columbus' DNA with his brother's and proved that the 150 grams lying in the cathedral actually belonged to the explorer.
The next step for us was the Plaza de España, a great piece of architecture, crowded with tourists but we didn't have much time. So we sprinted back the 3 km to the bus station to make it just on time for our coach to leave. At 9 we were happily back at home, looking forward to a good night's sleep.
The visit was too brief- Seville needs to be visited again!
I have miles to go before I sleep...
I have to say that I was a bit dazzled to be in a big city again, with loads of cars and huge roads, but once we were in the city centre, it was truly beautiful. We watched a huge wedding coming out of the cathedral and joined the crowd of passers-by who was applauding and shouting their wishes. The shopping streets were full of people. What confused me at the start were the big linen cloths stretched across the streets from rooftop to rooftop. Desi solved the mystery explaining they meant to protect from the sunshine. A sunshine that we didn't get to see until Sunday, because rain had accompanied our coach trip and had stayed with us in Seville.
After we got the general flair, we took a taxi to go to our charming couch hosts... Raf and Ned unfortunately lived a bit outside the city centre, in such an obscure (!) place, that the taxi driver didn't know the address... After a bit of confused explaining, where I probably broke about 20 grammatical rules of the Spanish language, the man got us to the right area. Unfortunately he wasn't too right about where he left us and we walked in the pouring rain... but in the end we made it and had a chilled evening around a few bottles of beer and some serious catching-up!
The next day, the guys left to Lisbon, and we only made it to the centre by midday. This is when the sprinting really began... from the still closed cathedral to the castle, where we decided that the queue was too long, back to the cathedral, which once inside was more than impressive. Through our eaves-dropping on German guided tours we understood, that the Catedral Santa Maria de la Sede, was the third biggest cathedral in Europe and in the World, after the St Peter's Dome in Rome and St Paul's in London. Indeed the building is breath-taking and the side chapels, which sum up to a number of 80, are all different and beautiful in their own way. We were also able to have a look at Christopher Columbus' grave, or one of them because apparently other places claim to hold some of his remains. 7 years ago, they cross-checked Columbus' DNA with his brother's and proved that the 150 grams lying in the cathedral actually belonged to the explorer.
The next step for us was the Plaza de España, a great piece of architecture, crowded with tourists but we didn't have much time. So we sprinted back the 3 km to the bus station to make it just on time for our coach to leave. At 9 we were happily back at home, looking forward to a good night's sleep.
The visit was too brief- Seville needs to be visited again!
I have miles to go before I sleep...
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