Seven reasons to select Seville as a destination

People kept asking me whether I had been to Seville before and in truth I had, but you could hardly call it a visit – it was more of a drive through. In the ‘80s I did a 3 month campervan trip through Europe and travelled across Spain and through Portugal before coming across the Spanish border at the Guadiana river not far from Seville. “Stay away from Seville” we were warned, “there’s a lot of thievery from campervans, even at traffic lights, so keep your doors locked”. So that is what we did, bypassing Seville and heading for Granada, which we absolutely loved.

Fast forward 30 years, and I had a deep regret about my neglect of Seville, so added it to my bucket list of places I wanted to visit while I was on my middle-aged gap year. When I discovered a friend who was equally keen to go to Seville a plan was hatched to visit Seville during a Bank Holiday weekend.

I absolutely loved my long weekend in Seville and have come up with seven reasons why it makes an ideal city break/long weekend destination.

1. The Tapas Culture

Seville is, at its essence, a very traditional city and nowhere is this more obvious than in its tapas bars and what is served. Tapas has become a bit of a catch cry world wide for casual shared snacks, but Spain and Seville is where it all started and it is fair to say in Seville tapas are taken very seriously. There are tapas bars everywhere, and the tapas tradition is part of daily life. We were lucky enough to be staying very near the Santa Maria church and El Rinconcillo the oldest tapas bar in Seville and so headed there on our first night. We stumbled into this beautiful Tapas bar with very little Spanish but managed to order some wine and traditional tapas that we could see the guy behind the bar preparing in front of us. We started off with cheese and traditionally cured ham – both quite delicious. From here we watched other people and when we saw something we liked the look of we pointed, and what we got was equally delicious. A running record was chalked up on the wooden bar top.  I was beginning to get a bit worried about it’s length, but the total cost was only  20 Euro, and cheaper than London prices. The experience was like those credit card ads – priceless!

2. Shopping and shoes

To my mind one of the key things you need for a city break/long weekend is a chance for shopping, and the shopping in Seville is superb. The shoe shopping in particular was to die for. We found ourselves heading to go and see a tourist sight but then getting distracted by the shop windows of shoe shops – the choice was amazing, as were the prices. Both of us ended up with a couple of pairs of shoes, and then had to figure out how we were going to fit them in our hand luggage. It was a case of where there is a will there is a way, but I would recommend leaving plenty of room in your bag when you visit Seville.

 

3.Flamenco

This is the dance of Seville, and like the tapas bars, there are Flamenco performances on offer everywhere – even busking performances on the street. Obviously a lot of shows are put on especially for tourists, but we managed to find an AirB & B experience that had the real deal. We met our host on the river and headed into Triana, where we were first taken for tapas – I told you tapas is embedded into the social fabric of this town – before being taken to a small bar on the riverfront. Our host was the main flamenco dancer of the evening , and she was able to explain the history and traditions of the dance, and to tell us what we would be seeing so that we could understand what was going on in the actual performance.

 

4. Royal Alcazar

This is one amazing palace, and a definite must do – it is so beautiful. We spent around 3 hours here. First we did a tour I discovered on AirB&B experience ‘The Royal Alcazar Secrets’ and I was so glad I took this option. We met Beatriz our guide in the nearby square, and because we were with her we bypassed the long queue and entered the palace straight away. She was an amazing guide – she talked passionately about the history of Seville, and its implications on the architectural features of the palace, which also allowed us to understand other buildings in Seville too. The tour took us through the main buildings, with only a cursory look at the gardens, because as Beatrice explained – it was better that we took the time to explore these ourselves, which we did. After we left the tour, we spent another hour or so exploring the gardens, but also revisiting some of the rooms we had visited on the way through. The cost of the tour was €44, plus the cost of entry (which you need to book and pay for online). It was well worth it.

5. Paella

I love paella, and when I discovered you could do a paella cooking class I was quick to sign up for our third AirB&B experience. It was held in the Triana market, where the chef who runs the class has set up a couple of commercial kitchens. As I have said before, Seville is a very traditional city, and has a very traditional way of doing things, and this is also the case for paella. We were told that paella as I know it, with chorizo and perhaps prawns, is just rice with those ingredients and cannot truly be classified as paella! The chef took us through the steps of paella making Sevillian style, and we were all involved in its making – chopping and preparing the stock, the chicken and the vegetables, and adding these to the great big paella pan in just the right order. We also made gazpacho, so simple to do and so delicious – as was the paella which we got to eat with sangria and then red wine. It was dusk when we left the market and headed back across the river, and we enjoyed the golden light and warm temperatures as we walked back through this beautiful city to our apartment.

6. The Parasol

This meandering wooden structure is located at La Encarnacion Square in the heart of old Seville. It was designed by German Architect Juergen Mayer and was completed in 2011. As wth most architecture that pushes the boundaries, the stucture is somewhat controversial and you either love it or hate it. I’m in the love it camp as I think we need new and challenging buildings for cities to evolve. The Parasol is imposing without dominating the beautiful buildings around it, and it affords some glorious views of Seville from its upper reaches. We spent a very happy hour there on the day we were due to go home, recognising the places we had visited.

7. Its a city to get lost in, but easy to get around

This is a city that begs to be explored, and get lost in – discovering beautiful old buildings, courtyards and narrow cobblestoned lanes. It was easy to get lost in – one wrong turning and you were heading in a slightly different direction but it was always rewarding, and with the help of google maps we are able to get back on course.

When it mattered, such as getting from the airport into town, navigation was easy, the bus system was efficient and the people only too happy to help with directions.

Amazing May Days …Badminton and the Royal Wedding

It was amazing how quickly the weather warmed up in May and thoughts of the Beast from the East vanished as Spring arrived. For London this meant the most wonderful blossoms and Instagram was awash with Wisteria hysteria – to be fair it was more of an emphasis on anything pink – from doorways to cars to blossom. Temperature wise it was as if Spring had been completely bypassed, and we suddenly found ourselves caught unawares in the midst of summer temperatures.

Badminton

I had long had Badminton on my bucket list, I come from an equestrian family, and knew that Badminton was the pinnacle of equestrian eventing. My brother competed at Badminton twice, and the photo of him jumping the Whitbread drays had held pride of place in my parents house for many years. The year my parents went to watch him compete it poured with rain, it was slippery and cold, and apparently hard to see anything – there were no big screens in those days. So I was prepared, I borrowed my daughters gumboots and made sure I had a raincoat and an umbrella.

I was lucky enough to be driven to Badminton, which is in Gloucestershire – we had an early 6.30 a.m. departure because it was a 2-3 hour journey, and because last year our driver had encountered significant delays in the narrow laneways around the Badminton estate. We also had some important cargo, as the coffee machine in the Equestrian NZ tent had broken down and we needed to deliver its replacement, which was needed for breakfast due to be served at 10. It dawned a reasonably crisp, but fine day – one of those days where there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Still I wasn’t to be fooled and made sure I had that wet weather gear and those gumboots packed – I wasn’t going to be caught out!
We started off on the motorway system and made good time, eventually coming off the motorway and onto gradually narrowing country lanes. The countryside around Badminton is quite simply glorious – thatched cottages, magnificent and ancient trees, and green fields as well as several yellow ones. The sheer size of this event blew me away – they were expecting 150,000+ spectators and the infrastructure required to deal with such a crowd was impressive.
We were lucky enough to be hosted in the Backing Black (ie NZ) tent, which overlooked the lake and the water jump complex at Badminton. When we arrived we were provided with breakfast and some of that coffee we had brought down with us, and then it was time to walk the cross-country course. It took us quite a while to find the start – as we got lost winding our way through the ever growing crowds and the very many lanes of stalls selling everything imaginable. In New Zealand you can walk the track that the horses and riders take, but here because of the crowd numbers you can’t. We got about half way around before the first horses started on their journey and from then on we were able to watch horses jump the fences as we walked.

I felt particularly proud to be a New Zealander when at the far end of the course we watched Sir Mark Todd be the first rider to take the direct route and make it look relatively easy. After this we headed back to the tent, where we had lunch and were able to watch the horses gallop in front of us, and then negotiate the water jump complex. We could then watch the rest of the course via the TVs in the tent.

It was a really exciting day because by the end of it Jonelle Price from New Zealand was in the lead – a magnificent effort from someone who is the mother of an 8 month old baby, proving that you can do motherhood and operate at the top level.

The Royal Wedding

It was too good an opportunity to miss – I was in London, and there was a Royal Wedding. I decided I wanted to go as much to observe the English at such an occasion, as to be a participant in it. We knew we would have to be organised, and planned as there would be huge crowds but I don’t think I was prepared for quite how many people there would actually be.

It was such a special day from start to finish! Because of our early start, and the fact that the train we were booked on was departing from Paddington I stayed in Kensington the night before. When we checked CityMapper (the ap you need to have to navigate your way round London) we discovered that it would take 30 minutes whether we took the tube or whether we walked – and the walk would take us across Kensington Gardens. It was an easy choice, and so we started our journey with a walk across the park – it was another one of those clear, crisp sunny mornings which made for a magnificent start to our day.

Paddington station was busy – but prepared for the onslaught and they had plenty of royally themed staff on hand to direct everyone. The train came and the fight for seats was on! We managed to lose some of our group at this point as we ended up on different carriages but we weren’t worried because we thought we would catch up with them when we changed trains at Slough. Alas this was not to be and we didn’t find them again until much later in the day, quite some time after the wedding festivities were over.

As we pulled in to Slough station we could see the lengthy queues ahead of us, and before long we found ourselves in one of them, twisting and turning and snaking back on ourselevs. We could have bought water, flags and even cupcakes as we spent our 10-15 minutes in this queue. At the last minute we were directed onto a bus rather than the train we were expecting and we were off once more.

The bus deposited us outside the Windsor and Eton railway station, and we wandered through the royally themed shopping centre, and then Windsor itself heading towards the LongWalk  which we thought would be a good spot to watch from, as well as being a place we could sit under the trees and enjoy a picinic while we waited for the wedding to begin. There were serious numbers of people, and serious crowd control – especially as we got nearer to the LongWalk where you had to go through airport like security checks.

We managed to find ourselves a good spot about half way up the LongWalk in front of the Big Screen and settled in to wait. Once the celebs started to arrive the crowds began to cheer as they recognised them. Sarah Ferguson got a cheer, as did the Duchess of Cornwill – something that would have been unimaginable not so many years ago. The biggest cheers were of course for the Princes, and then the bride. We were able to watch the whole service on the big screen, and then watch the carriage procession, as it slowly but surely headed our way. We had to fight to get a view of the carriage as it went past, but we did get a glimpse of the happy couple.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon picinicing  and wandering the RoyalWalk, eventually catching up with the rest of our party. Getting back to London was a logistical exercise as well, but as we were in no particular hurry, we didn’t get on a train until around 6pm when things had quietened down considerably.

By the time we headed back through Kensington Gardnes, the sun was beginning to set on what can only be described as a glorious day of Britain at its best.