Wow...impressed with Seville, Spain!

We packed up and left the campground yesterday morning just before 10:00am. It had rained a little bit overnight, but the skies were clearing and it was looking to be a nice day. Got the holding tanks emptied, and the fresh water tank filled, and we were on our way.

Heading for the city of Seville. I have to admit, I had done very little research on Seville. Most people have obviously heard of both Barcelona and Madrid, and of course we knew of Seville, but I think it flies under the radar compared to the other two. We are impressed with Seville!

When we took off, the entrance road was a little soggy. The picture actually looks worse than it was, and we had no problems getting out.

Leaving the campground. Yikes! But, it was no problem.

Oranges? €2 for 5 kilos.

Almost reminds us of Saskatchewan.

Scenery along the way.

Big bridge entering Seville.

Yesterday's drive, 112 kms (70 miles).

We had made arrangements to meet friends Glen and Steve at a carpark right near the central area that allows 24 hour motorhome parking for €10 ($14.50 CAD, $11 USD) per night. We arrived there just before noon, and Glen and Steve were already parked up and out exploring. They've been here before, so had seen the major sights but there's so much to see here that it's easy to find something new.

We found an out of the way spot for Louis, had some lunch, and set out ourselves.

Louis, parked up at GPS 37.372361, -5.99447

We had no plan, and just figured we would wander about. There are a few major, popular attractions here. The Plaza de España, the Cathedral, and the Alacazar (royal palace) are probably the top three. We'll save the Cathedral for when we stop back in Seville with Helen and Tony in a couple of weeks time. And we'll go to the Alcazar today because we have a couple of photo spots to find from my dad's pictures.

We found ourselves very close to the Plaza, so we went there first.

Crossing the river to the old town Seville.

Lots of people out on a beautiful Sunday.

The Plaza de España is a gorgeous semi circular structure built for a fair in 1928. It's an amazing building, and we found the whole plaza absolutely beautiful. Just to people watch and admire the area itself. Simply fantastic.

These busker were demonstrating flamenco dance.

In fact, here's a short video for you...

Rent a rowboat?

Wow...fantastic building.

Lots of tile work on all the bridges, and a lot of the building too.

Ruth, at the Plaza de España.

There was some kind of photo shoot going on with these two girls.

Wow.

The entire semi circle has a series of these tiled displays for the major towns and cities in Spain.

We could easily spend more time there just watching the things going on. We'll have to go back again. But, we had to continue our basic exploring...

Scenery along the way.

Palacio de San Telmo, completed in 1754.

Check out the detail on the entrance way.

Seville's only skyscraper.

That modern building is just being finished. Lots of controversy around it because UNESCO threatened to remove Seville's standing from  the list because they thought this was such a blight on Seville's "skyline". It's pretty far from the central area though, so I don't really see the issue. Needless to say, Seville still has the UNESCO listed sites they had before.

Somewhere in Seville.

Watching the world go by.

That was the view from where we sat down in a plaza. We rested for about 45 minutes and just watched the world go by. If you click the photo to make it full size, you'll see a guy with a pink shirt sitting on the bench to the right of center. We noticed with his head down that he was having a snooze. But after a while, we weren't so sure. He never moved at all the entire time we were there. People came and went from his bench, a helicopter passed by overhead...nothing woke him up. We started to think maybe there was a dead guy on the bench. He still hadn't moved when we left. Maybe he's still there.

More Seville.

The Cathedral.

More Seville.

The tower at the Cathedral.

Quite a lack of public toilets around though. So we've learned that if you go into any of the larger hotels they almost always have toilets available. We've also learned that if you're going to use a hotel toilet, you might as find a five star hotel!

Inside the Hotel Alfonso XIII. 

It only costs around €300 to stay here. Or, we saw the sign for the Valentine's Day brunch at €68 per person. But, you can use the fancy bathrooms for free. :-)

That's enough wandering around. Back to Louis for a cold beer and a glass of wine. Glen and Steve showed up after their wanderings and they came and shared a meal of pasta and ground beef that Ruth had made. Then, a few games of cards and called it a night.

Glen and Steve are heading off again, while we're staying put here in Seville. We really like it, so we'll probably stay three nights. Plus, we've got our American friends Bonnie and Dave coming to Seville to meet us this afternoon. Coincidentally, they were planning on coming to the same parking area with their motorohome, so it works well for us all.

We've made plans to meet up with Glen and Steve again on Thursday in Portugal.

We've got a stretch of really nice weather happening...20C (68F) and sunshine. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check out today's deals at Amazon...

Click here to shop at Amazon.com - USA

And in Canada...

Click here to shop at Amazon.ca - Canada