Trips through Spain - Seville

Tuesday 23rd May 1995

To Seville. This was not quite straightforward, as the road between Lebrija and Las Cabezas was up, so we went up the N4, not bad (Euro-road) but up in one place with long queues and it was sometimes hard to pass lorries, as it was busy. Even so, we got to Seville in 1.5 hours. We parked near the Old Town (to my surprise) and spent the morning doing the cathedral, a huge Gothic contraption, started in 1410 and not very attractive. I went up the tower, which was a Moorish leftover and had a huge view.

Seville River		Alcazar from outside
	Views from the Cathedral tower
	Views of Seville Cathedral

But the building is over-high and supported by enormous pillars, say 10 feet across and designed to awe rather than comfort. Some of the later accretions were in dubious taste. Lunch was had after and cheap and good enough to serve as dinner as well. After, we went round the Alcazar and the trip was worth it just for that. The palace had grown like topsy and included much original Moorish sections. From the outside, one could have no idea of the extent of the buildings and gardens. There was a show of ethnic musical instruments there, with their sounds coming out of the plinths of the stands. I won't go on about the Alcazar - there is plenty of other information on the Web, so I will confine myself to a lot of photos.

Wall of the Alcazar	Garden of the Alcazar
	Below are views in the Alcazar

We had cake for tea in one of the squares in the Old Town. It took a little while to find our way out of Seville and, when we got back to the car, an opportunist tried to ‘fine’ us for parking where we did. This might also have been provoked by our Gibraltar number plate. Anyway, we told him to sod off & he did, note. We found the motorway on the way back (high tolls of 490 pts) which no one used but had to go back onto N4 at Las Cabezas.