Day 60 – 7 September 2023 – Lisboa (Lisbon), Portugal to Sevilla, Espana

An early start as we have a long drive today, breakfast is delicious as always, then on the bus at 7.30 am.  On the drive we pass lots & lots of cork tree plantations on both sides of the road, stretching as far as the eye can see at times. Some of the trees have had the bark freshly harvested & in one farm we see workers gathering the slabs of cork. The trees are only harvested once every nine years & have a life expectancy of around 250 years. We also pass lots of eucalypt plantations, then as we move into Spain again, the farms change to grape vines or olive trees, with, in some farms, grapes planted between the rows of olive trees. There are lots of farms with large mature olive trees, but the number of farms with newly planted olive trees are staggering, in some places new olive trees stretch from horizon to horizon. We see the odd hilltop monastery & the odd church as we drive past towns, the churches don’t seem to be as prolific as in the northern part of Spain.

Sevilla is a big & beautiful city, we arrive at around 2.30 pm & stop outside the Plaza de toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballeria de Sevilla, in other words, the Seville Bullring. This is a grand white & yellow structure dating from 1761 & still used for bullfighting. In other parts of the country this is banned, not in Seville, though debate is happening around to stop it. Apparently there is very big money involved with bullfighting for a lot of people.

We pass lots of beautiful old big buildings as we drive into town to the Catedral de Sevilla, a large Catholic church with a belltower 105 metres tall, originally a minaret of the mosque that stood on the site dating from the time of the occupation by the Arabic Moors. The original mosque on the site was used for Christian church services after the Christian reconquest of Seville in 1248 & the new Cathedral was commenced in 1433, nearly 200 years later. There are still parts of the Muslim mosque that can be seen in the Cathedral, the most prominent being the belltower. This is yet another UNESCO World Heritage listed site. The Seville Cathedral is the third largest in the world behind St Pauls in Rome & St Pauls in London.  There is again a long line of tourists waiting to enter the Cathedral & we go to the front of the queue with our pre-booked tickets.

Inside the Cathedral the high vaulted ceilings are wonderful, the main altar is huge, with gold & silver glittering everywhere. The amount of money that has been spent on this building & decoration is staggering. The organ & the choir stalls are also amazingly beautiful, with intricate carvings of mahogany wood everywhere. Down at one end of the church is the above ground crypt of Christopher Columbus, supported by the statues of four men. The detail is extraordinary.

The Cathedral also has 80 chapels scattered around inside, most of them elaborately decorated and built by the wealthy that wanted to be buried inside. There are displays of silver & gold chalices, platters & other instruments used in church services. The stained glass windows are also works of art, plus there are lots of original religious art works on the walls.

We are taken on a walk of the old town of Sevilla, down narrow alleys & tiny side streets that twist & turn around the many beautiful old buildings. The atmosphere is good & everything we see is clean & tidy. We walk past a number of old gardens & parks, all well maintained. Then off to our hotel & check in, our bags are already in our room.

Next we are taken to the site of the Plaza de Espana, a very large semi-circular structure that was built for the Iberica-American Exposition of 1929. Outside the building is stunning, inside it takes your breath away, the Plaza de Espana is stunningly beautiful. There is a canal with rowing boats and four elaborately tiled bridges with tiled balustrades. In the centre of the square is a large beautiful fountain. Around the outside of the square are many beautiful tiled alcoves with tiled benches representing the different states and territories of Spain. The staircases to get to & from the upper levels of the building are also beautiful, overall this is a stunningly beautiful building & plaza combination, we are so pleased we got to experience it.

Dinner tonight is another delightful experience, we are dropped off by the bus near the tribute to Christopher Columbus & the waterfront walk where we walk through the streets of Seville once more to the Plaza del Cabildo, an amazingly beautiful & small, semi-circular plaza that has the El Cabildo Restaurante in the building in one corner of the square. We have a delicious 6 course meal, all local Seville specialties & thankfully all small portions, again washed down with liberal amounts of wine followed by coffee & dessert. We were entertained during dinner by a Spanish guitarist playing & singing traditional Spanish songs, Paco was fabulous & we had a really good time. Tom & Mary from our group got up & danced the Macarena with Chad, it was hilarious. The walk back to the bus was beautiful with the lights on a lot of the buildings & at the river the bridges were lit up as well. It was a beautiful sight. The bus trip back to the hotel was great with more singing & laughing, another good day.