We left Portugal and drove to Seville. I loved Seville. And we didn't even get to wander around in half of the city so we have to go back. There weren't really any great sights to see in Seville, it just had great atmosphere. Tons of restaurants and shopping and there were always people out and about. The tiny streets made it cute and cozy too.
There is, of course, a cathedral in Seville. It is the largest gothic cathedral in the world and the third largest cathedral. It was impossible to get any more than a fraction of it in any one photograph since it was so sprawling and the roads were so narrow and the buildings high. Below are a few of my attempts. Also, Christopher Columbus' tomb is in there, in a statue (shown in the third picture below). To be honest I wouldn't say this cathedral was worth the 8 euros I paid to enter it.
We did a guided walking tour of Seville our first day there. It was free! The company that did it was founded by a group of students from the university in Seville who couldn't find jobs so they decided to give tours. Our guide joked in the beginning by asking who among us could use a philosopher because he needed a job. The city history tour is free but they charge for other more specific tours (there's a flamenco info tour and a Jewish info tour, for example). This tour basically walked us through all the streets of Seville over 3 hours and taught us the history of the place which was fascinating and I'd say a must-do because I learned a lot.
Our tour guide reminded me of one of my friends from college, Brendan. He was quite a character. So below is a pic of our tour guide followed by a pic of the bull fighting ring (we didn't go in there, I'm not a fan of bull fighting where they kill the bull which is what they do in Spain) and a pic of the oldest bakery in Seville (which also has our guide in it). In Portugal they don't kill the bulls but in Spain they still do ... apparently the younger generation do not approve of this so in time I think it will change otherwise nobody will go to bullfights anymore.
The huge building below is the Plaza de España. It was built for the world fair in 1929 to house Spain's technology and industry exhibits. Today it's just used for some government offices. And in some movies - it was in Star Wars as the palace on Naboo, I believe. It's really impressive - I was kind of sad it didn't have more of a history.
We also attended a flamenco show. I try to do something cultural every time I visit a new country and I figured in Spain, flamenco is it. It was interesting - the dancers do amazingly fast things with their feet. It was also neat how much of the music can be made just with hand clapping and finger snapping.
We had dinner at this great restaurant one night (recommended by the receptionist at our hotel), Ovejas Negras. Amazing tapas here. The pork cheek melts in your mouth. Below is a picture of the bruschetta we got - tomatoes, olives, basil, fresh cheese ... delicious. Most of the good restaurants don't look like much from the outside ... you have to get away from the touristy areas and onto darker streets to find them.
Some pictures of streets in Seville. There is this one area, Santa Cruz, where the streets are especially narrow. I love it. Also, it gets really hot in Seville. It was in the mid 90's when we were there but the streets stay pretty cool. This is partially due to their narrowness but also to the cloth that is draped across the streets from the tops of the buildings. I'm not sure I ever would have thought of that. The second picture below is the street our hotel was on. There is also a picture of some tea from one of the shops in the Santa Cruz area.
And yes they do squeeze restaurants and shops into the narrow streets:
And, finally, a picture of the courtyard in our hotel. Our hotel, El Roy Moro, was great. I'd highly recommend it. Super helpful and friendly staff, good a/c, the best wifi I've ever had in a hotel (they had 7 networks!), clean, centrally located, etc, etc, etc.
