Seville

We drove the 200km to Seville in March 2022 - a straight shot east on the A22 (Portugal) and A49 (Spain) - in a couple of hours, arriving early evening. The journey was a little eerie because the skies of the Iberian peninsula were a muddy orange due to a massive Saharan dust cloud. We have returned several times since to this beautiful city.

Seville is the capital of the Andalusian 'autonomous community,' the most populous in Spain. It was our first visit and we only had vague ideas of what to expect. After checking into our hotel, we headed out for tapas at a local eatery. The hotel concierge insisted that Seville offers the best tapas in the world.

Our expectations were exceeded by this clean, walkable city that offers magnificent architecture, monuments, and parks, and a variety of shops, restaurants and bars to suit anyone's budget. The Guadalquivir river, which has been strategically important throughout Seville's, and indeed, Spain's history, flows through the heart of the city and to the Atlantic.

In the center of the city is its magnificent cathedral. The original Moorish mosque was badly damaged in a 16th century earthquake and was rebuilt in the Gothic style. The Giralda tower survived, however, and was extended with a bell tower. Other landmarks shown below include the Plaza de America (with lots of pidgeons), the Torre del Oro naval defense tower on the bank of the river (and now a museum), the Plaza de Toros - said to be the largest and most important bullfighting arena in Spain, the archives building with its beautiful marble staircase, the luxurious Alfonso XIII hotel, and the Metropol Parasol (a.k.a. the Mushrooms of Seville) in Encarnacíon Square, a large, modern (2011) structure made of concrete and laminated wood that houses shops plus an archaeological site and museum.

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The Real Alcázar, the royal palace dating back a thousand years and still used by Spain's monarchy as their official residence in Seville, is spectacular. It's Moorish origins with centuries of changes and additions, and expansive, lush gardens kept us engaged for a couple of hours and we could have happily spent two more hours there.

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Finally, the Plaza de España, located in the Maria Luisa Park, was most impressive. Its size is lost in the pictures. Complete with a moat, it was built in the 1920s for the Ibero-American Expo.

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