Unseasonal Cyclone Gabrielle hit the coast of Portugal, meaning our next two ports of Oporto and Lisbon were closed to all shipping. Our captain had no choice other than to stay at sea well away from the Cyclone. The revised itinerary has been, a day at sea, followed by two nights in Cádiz (the z makes a "th" sound). Again the destination services teams scrambled to find tours for us on the extra day in Cádiz, but amazingly by midday on the day at sea they had new tours organised. The tour we chose was an eight and half hour day that would take us to Sevilla - the home of the Seville Orange. The drive from Cádiz is one and a half hours so that is why the tour was so long.
We love getting out into the countryside to get a bit more insight into the character of the area. The first thing you notice is how dry and relatively flat the southern end of Spain is. Our tour guide tells us that they have sunshine 300 days of the year. Of course this is perfect for the Olive Trees that are planted on every available acre. The next surprising thing we see is cotton. Who would have thought that this would be a cotton growing area. There are irrigation channels to support the cotton and I googled later that they get the water from the Guadalete River. However this area is subject to drought so cotton is a "maybe" crop. Spain has a love of horses and although we don't spot any of the famous Andalusian's I'm hoping to spot them tomorrow on another tour in another area.
Sevilla is a large town with a population of around 700,000 and I remember Sevilla hosting a world expo that our guide says was 1992. As we enter the city centre we drive through the heart of where the expo was held, passing all the impressive pavilions that different countries built.
Our first stop on this tour is at the Plaza de Españo that was built between 1914 and 1929, for the Iberio-American Expo of 1929. It is a massive and magnificent sight to see with its 117 buildings or pavilions built in a semi-circle around a central plaza with a lovely fountain. There is a large amount of ceramic used in the buildings that adds a lovely softness.
There is a flamenco dancer entertaining the crowd and later we see another. In fact there is a lot of street entertainment and even over lunch we were serenaded. Of course they all come around with a hat for a donation after the performance.
Our tour guide now leads us to the old quarter for our full walking tour of around an hour and a half. We are lead through Maria Luisa park before we reach the old quarters and we are told the park borders the royal palace. Our guide takes us through narrow, almost hidden alleyways, and we look up at some very elaborate Juliet balconies. We come across secret courtyards and everywhere are the orange trees. There are 50,000 orange trees spread throughout the city. Don't eat the oranges though. Our guide warns us, as they are very sour. We eventually make our way to the another central plaza that is home to the magnificent Sevilla Cathedral where Christopher Columbus is buried. This Cathedral is the largest gothic cathedral in the world and has a floor area of around 12,000 square metres. Inside, there are 80 side chapels and the bell tower stands a magnificent 96 metres. It was also declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1987.
Our guide now gives us a choice. Follow him to the Metrosol Parasol or spend free time by ourselves. He then says, "I don't really like the Metrosol Parasol" so our choice is made. As it is now around 1pm we decide to go and have some lunch. I googled Metrosol Parasol later and this is what it is. It is made from timber and is actually a remarkable structure.
It was easy enough to find a place to eat. The place is literally packed with restaurants to cater for the 10 million tourists this place attracts each year. We were looking for a feed of Paella and the one we ordered was spot on. We also ordered a pizza so we could have two dishes to share. And of course you cannot come to eat in Spain without washing it down with a glass of Sangria or in our case, two.
It was an enjoyable lunch and we got talking to the couple sitting beside us. They were from Glasgow and travel to this area often. Lucky them. After lunch we still had around an hour to kill before meeting up with the rest of our tour group so we decided to hop on one of the horse drawn carriages. The course took around 45 minutes that was the perfect amount of time. We passed the Palacio de San Telmo that is not a residence but home to the Presidency of the Andalusian Autonomous Government.
Then the Costurero de la Reina. A very small castle ,with its four turrets, built around 1893, that sits at the entrance to the Maria Luisa park that we had walked through earlier in the day.
And then this beautiful fountain that I will call the Fountain of Love. I didn't notice the couple standing in front of it until I edited my photos. I would normally edit out this couple but they kinda go with the photo.
We drove down an avenue of these bougainvillea's that have been shaped into trees. I wish I had have seen this when we were living at Kuramar with our bougainvilleas's that were out of control!
We were so lucky to get on this tour that was "waitlisted". It was our butler that managed to secure us tickets. I didn't ask how :-)
Although it was a long day but it was definitely worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment