Seville

Sevilla, beautiful! We came for the Easter parades. I described these in the Malaga posts. Sevilla’s have a few differences; the Nazarenos often walk barefoot, extra penitence. The “thrones” are smaller – only about 2 tonnes, and the carriers are hidden under it, so the thrones look to float. The men carry them on the back of their necks rather than on their shoulders. Each float is carried by between 30 – 70 men rather the 150 to 270 on the Malaga floats. The city is closed to traffic, and the city is very vibrant, particularly after sun down. Most nights the processions stop at 3am only on Thursday and Friday they continue all night. Sevilla itself has lots to see, it’s a very green city with lots of parks and colourful buildings. Plaza de Espana is a famous semi-circular building created in 1928 for some exposition, with a lovely park full of palm trees and alive with parakeets and hoopoe. The cathedral is huge and worth spending time looking around its 500 side chapels where lots of silver and artworks are displayed. The church likes to remind you just how wealthy it is, while claiming poverty to get you to give it more money. According to local legend the builders said “Let us build a church so beautiful and so grand that those who see it finished will take us for mad”. It doesn’t seem like a place of worship to any god or Mary, just the worship of money. We did the Alcazar, the current King of Spain stays there when he is in Sevilla. We spent 5 hours wandering around the rooms and gardens, the Arabic influence is lovely. Next was Palacio de Lebrija, a house that was owned by a woman who collected things, like Roman mosaic floors. James was in his element, it was a fascinating place. Then the Antiquaruim, Roman villas that also had amazing mosaic floors (the countess of Lebrija need not have gone to Italy for her floors) that were found when they did the prep for a car park. Thankfully they have made it into a museum rather than a car park. Best bit was James was with us over Easter to add to the enjoyment and the weather was stunning, high 20’s the whole time. The camping area was a dock car park, not the best place to stay. 35 mins walk to the centre and 15 on electric scooters to which I am now a convert.