Sevilla, Spain - July 31

ancient graffiti on the cathedral

34 degrees, blazing sun…again, today…humidity

The weather today is again very similar to yesterday’s, except for even more heat and humidity.it was the first day I’ve really felt HOT. There have been moments here and there, before today, but today I was drenched.

I suspect most people do the free walking tours on one of their first days in a place, we decided to do this, today on our last. It was an interesting approach, knowing a few of the places we visited. These free

world's coldest beer!

walking tours give a brief overview of the main monuments and give tips about the city and try to drum up business for other pay tours. We had about 25 people on this tour and, although that is a pretty bit number, the guide was good at picking quiet spots in the shade to talk to us. We mostly visited spots we had at least already walked to but a few we hadn’t.

One the new spots was the university, which was formerly a tobacco factory. This place, like a lot of the rest of Seville, was palatial – this place

Plaza de España

was no UofC. The king built the former tobacco factory, so whatever the king builds is like a palace apparently.

We also visited the Plaza de España or Spain Square which was built for a world’s exposition in the 1920’s. Apparently because of the world economic crash of the

Plaza de España

time, no one came so this was a bust. It is a very impressive place nonetheless.

Salvador church

Seville’s Torre del Oro or Golden Tower was also a new stop for us. This is a tower on the river erected to control access to Seville via the river. I’m glad we stopped here, because it’s on the ‘not-to-miss’ list for Sevilla, but it was a bit of a let down.

We made a comfort/beer stop about 2/3 of the way through the tour. The facilities were great, and the beer was the coldest we’ve had in all of Spain, maybe even in all of my life. I’m convinced it had small shards of ice in it – I loved this. €2.50 (3.80 CAD) for a pint!

the 'mushroom' - underwhelming

After the tour and before lunch we visited Iglesia Colegial del Salvador, or the Salvador church. Entrance to this church was included with the cathedral entrance we paid yesterday, so we made a point of visiting. This place was a bit hard to find as it was completely integrated with the shops around it – no grand entrance, or much for steps leading to

La Antigua Bodeguita

the door etc, but once we were inside although not huge, it was super ornate. We were hot, tired and hungry, so we decided against the audio guide and just wandered around for 10 minutes or so. I probably stayed longer than I needed to simply because of the big fans I found myself lingering in front of.

Lunch was tapas and wine. Our meals of tapas have always been good here, but I have to admit I haven’t found anything I’m

La Antugua Bodeguita

particularly in love with. I have been longing for the tomato bread we had in Barcelona a few years back but haven’t found – guess I’ll have to move along to Barcelona…maybe tomorrow.

Our intent was to head straight (however straight things can be here) back to the hotel at this point but stumbled upon La Antigua Bodeguita – a small beer

outside the Salvador church

and tapas place in the square opposite the Salvador church. Our guide yesterday mentioned this place to us as a happening place, which it certainly was. When we walked by yesterday and earlier today it was packed, but when we were in the mood for a post lunch cervaza there was a spot just for us. It was pretty obvious this was a place for locals and workers. We had a couple of beers (smallish) for €1.30 (2.00 CAD) listened to a busker and moved along, this time back to the hotel for sure. 

Stacey – good idea on the Tom Collins…I’m now inspired

Heather – yup, the gin was yummy, I’m now inspired to make my own flower infused booze when I get home!

Katherine – sadly I’m getting a tan without the misters…you have your own mister (you don't mean a human mister, do you??) ?? Just another reason for you to be my  personal travelling assistant!

Sevilla, Spain - July 30

cathedral tower/minaret

33 degrees, blazing sun

The weather today is a carbon copy of yesterday. The difference today is that we decided to make the 3k pilgrimage to the soccer stadium/mall in the heat. There was some shade and a bit of a breeze, but by the time we got there we were just a bit warm. And…the soccer shop and mall were a bust. We wanted some soccer gear souvenirs and hoped the mall would have Fitbit stuff – I broke my bracelet, so hoped to get a new one – nope on both counts.

Today we decided to visit Seville’s cathedral. That’s basically what everyone calls it and it actually wasn’t until the guide told us the name did I know that it was called The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Sea. Apparently, this is the third largest church in the world. The tour we were on was nice because there were only 7 people on it. That’s how tours here seem to go when they are pay tours - the free ones are packed – obvious. I think the free tours are

tomb of Christopher Columbus

intended to motivate you to pay for other ones if you like the tour company.

This church is interesting because it used to be a mosque. After the Seville was conquered by the Christians they turned it into a church. Because of this, there are many things here that you wouldn’t see in a church, like an inner court yard with water for

tomb of Christopher Columbus

the pre-mosque cleansing. There were also ornamentations unique to mosques. In this courtyard (as there are all over Sevilla) there were orange trees.

There were many huge paintings by famous Spanish artists, but the claim to fame of this place was the tomb of Christopher Columbus.

At the end of the tour we climbed the tower which is the former minaret of the mosque. There was a ramp and not stairs as it was once used

huge bells at the top of the tower

for donkeys! The views there were pretty awesome.

Found some interesting chips today – ‘huevo frito’ or fried egg. I thought they were just plain, Chris thought definitely the white of a fried egg.

Lunch was tapas, then back for a nap. We’ve been trying our best to use some (extremely little) Spanish when we can, but figured at lunch today that we need to just pretend that we don’t know any at all. When we even say hola, they assume we can speak Spanish (reasonable) and spend 5 minutes talking to us in Spanish, then we have to sheepishly say

view of the city, including the bull fighting ring

we didn’t understand.

Last night in the evening after I posted the blog, we decided to go to an area we hadn’t visited yet, across the river - Triana. We had higher hopes for this area being a bit hopping and lively at night. We had a pizza and a bottle of wine, and there was a really good busker (one guy who played the guitar, pan flute and singer) so this was good,

cathedral door

but as far as liveliness went, it was a bit deadsville. The deadness could have been on account of it being a Sunday, but who knows – it seems like we blamed a lot on the fact that it was Sunday. One thing so blame on Sunday was that most shops were closed. Some smaller tourist shops were open, but the vast majority of bigger shops were closed. This was the case in Munich too we noticed.

One of the things we bought at the sweets/booze shop was hibiscus gin…it was just a small bottle, but

lunch

I couldn’t resist! It was quite tasty. One the way back to the hotel

hibiscus gin

at a small corner shop, when looking for a room-beer, we found lemons, which was delicious with the gin. I mixed the gin with water and half of the lemon – I’m sure this is also good for my water intake!

Sevilla, Spain - July 29

on the way to the museum

33 degrees, blazing sun

The temperature indicates that it is HOT, which it is/was, but it wasn’t at all unbearable. Although anything above 25 is way too hot for me, I don’t find these temperatures oppressive. Things aren’t at all humid here, and once the sun goes down (around 9:15) things cool significantly. In the tiny courtyard outside our hotel room it is quite cool in the morning for a bit of a sit out. Also, during lunch we sat outside under awnings with misters (I’m pretty sure misters are

on the way to the museum

some of my favourite inventions in the complete and entire world) and it I wasn’t one bit hot.

We visited Sevilla’s Museo de Bellas Artes, or fine arts museum today. This museum has arts from about the renaissance through to about the beginning of the last

this place is huge

century, and all of it Spanish. Admission was €1.50! That is pretty incredible. There were very few English descriptions and no audio guides, so we didn’t read much, but it was enjoyable nonetheless – and quicker I suppose. Often the buildings that house these kinds of museums are former palaces, or fancy houses and today was no different. This building

mostly religious art

was a former convent – beautiful. This museum was about a 20 minute walk in a direction we hadn’t been before which was a nice reason to venture into an unknown area.

We chose to visit this museum today as Sunday is where there

mostly religious art

is an artists’ market outside. It was interesting to stroll through the park outside the museum checking out the art for sale – we didn’t buy.

After a bit of grocery shopping, we had lunch of tapas and wine. We definitely don’t over eat here. I think we should be ordering more…we sat next to a group of women today who ordered a ton of food…good for them, we need to learn. We had manchego cheese, squid (of course) potato omelet (of course) and a meat stuffed pepper – all good, each dish was about €3.00

lunch

and accompanied by bread. The first time we ordered food here we wondered before the bill came if we had to pay for bread – no, this time yes - €1.00. All of this of course was washed down with wine - €12.00.

One thing I’ve noticed here in Seville is how many flys there are. It’s kind of incredible, not even when we’re necessarily eating which I when we’d expect them, but all over the place.

si, por favor

Sevilla, Spain - July 28

carved walls

32 degrees, blazing sun, a bit breezy

The main attraction of Sevilla is the Alcazar royal palace. It is very close to our hotel which is always our goal in choosing a hotel. In fact, as we were waiting for our tour to start today, we decided to pop back to the hotel to use the loo. This morning, we found a tour to book on line, and this afternoon we were on the go with it – very slick, this was our system in Munich as well, and so far it is working just as well.

carved walls

This tour was only about an hour, but that was all it took to see and hear about the Alcazar palace, with about 10 other people, the tours in Munich were way bigger crowds at 25-30, so Sevilla is winning in this department. I don’t think the tour has fewer people because there aren’t very many tourists

carved walls

here…there are…everywhere. We decided against the extra 30 minutes add on to this tour that could have been

taken to hear about parts of the palace where a bit of Game of Thrones was filmed. This palace was built for a Christian king by

tiled walls are everywhere

Muslims who stayed in the area after it was conquered by Christians and were not forced to convert. This style is called Mudéjar – basically the workers were Muslim and their style was not what we’d think of as Christian, but Muslim, although the building was never Muslim, only made by Muslim workers. We’ve visited a few other buildings in this

garden pool

style, actually Muslim or not and they are stunning. Very different from what we would typically think of as a palace. Almost 100% of the walls are covered with tiles or carved design, not all depicting a scene or message, but for much decoration. There all some large paintings here depicting the Spanish royalty of the time and explorers…Christopher Columbus.

garden fountain

After the tour we had a snack and a beer and toured the massive gardens surrounding the Palace. It was very hot today, so we didn’t explore all of the gardens. One of the benefits of taking a tour is that we can skip the line up to get in, today the line up was long – the amount of visitors seems to be quite controlled and once inside there aren’t too many people.

At this point we were tired hot, so as the guide suggested…went

back to the hotel for a siesta during the hottest part of the day.

Spain’s selection of potato chips isn’t particularly blog-worthy, but I still have to make the effort. This bag of ‘receta Cammpesina’ was the best I could find. There was ham and cheese (almost everything here needs to have ham), but I decided

more tiled walls

against those…maybe tomorrow. The ‘receta Cammpesina’ were pretty plain tasting…apparently the name means ‘peasant recipe’…tomato, onion, and garlic…and thankfully no gluten…I guess the Spaniards resist the gluten too…not sure chips ever HAD gluten, but that’s a whole other blog.

Munich, Germany to Seville, Spain - July 27

25 degrees in Munich, 35 in Seville

Today is a travel day…first a 10 minute walk to the train, next a 40 minute train to the airport, then a flight to Seville (or should I say Sevilla, as the Spanish do?) followed by a 20 min bus ride (€4 each) again to the Sevilla hotel. Taking public transit instead of

ham legs

taxis or other type of car service is not nearly as complicated as I anticipated. I admit, most of this is because Chris figures it out ahead of time and takes me along for the ride. However…I’m sure I could cope with it without him! I have to say again how primo the location of our Munich hotel was. We were basically able to walk everywhere we wanted and when we did need the train, a stop was 10 minutes away.

Sevilla has a totally different vibe compared to Munich. Firstly, it is HOT, not unbearable, but HOT

tapas

and humid. And the public washrooms have totally lived down to my expectations. The only one I’ve used so far was in the airport – there was a seat and paper, so I was thrilled. German facilities were 100% of the time awesome. Washrooms are a big deal to me.

Our hotel is very cool. It is in the old city of Seville built within the historical complex of the Reales Alcázares Palace. To get here we turned down a tiny side street not wide enough for a car. If you didn’t know

where you were going you definitely wouldn’t have found it. There are only 18 rooms here and it seems like we are the only ones here. We know the hotel is not totally full, but not sure how empty it is – we saw one other couple all day. The vibe of this hotel is very different from the Munich one, that hotel was mostly about function and this one is a lot more about form.

We spent the afternoon unpacking and resting, before partaking in the hotel’s complementary afternoon tea. This nothing fancy, just an espresso

maker, teas, some cakes, fruit, flavoured water and cookies. It absolutely hit the spot. We enjoyed our coffee and cake on the courtyard just outside our room.

The rest of the evening was spent wandering and finally picking a spot for our first of likely many tapas. Once the sun was down the temperature went down as well and it was quite pleasant sitting outside to eat. The photo of the food isn’t the greatest but shows how we had a few small plates – grilled squid, stewed ham and

back of a church

mushrooms and potato omelet. All was delicious and washed down with a bottle of wine. As the evening gets later and later, more and more people come out as do the buskers. These are strolling buskers…they announce their presence, sing one song and want a tip…I’m more than happy to tip a busker, but for one song? Really?  We figure it’s actually a group of guys on the way to the bar, who decide to sing a bit.

We also find a grocery store before turning in for the night…most

things here are typical for a grocery store except for the display of pork legs. I’ve never seen anything quite like it in a grocery store…in a restaurant, sure, but the whole leg for sale…this is new. We figure each leg goes for a few humdred euros each – I guess that’s why they have security tags attached. Oh and don’t miss noticing the feet still attached - ugh!

where are we?

Munich, Germany - July 26

Hitler's former office - now a music university

28 degrees, clear, hot

A tour describing the rise of the Third Reich was on our to-do list for today. All the tours we have done here in Munich have met and started in Munich’s main square which is about a 10 minute walk from our hotel – super convenient! Today’s guide is the first

Third Reich rallies were held here, now it's meeting place

German to guide a tour – the other 2 being from the UK. This guy was very interesting and as were the other guides, didn’t just stick to information about the specific tour topic.

Although this 2.5 hour tour had us we walking all over the old part of Munich, there really wasn’t much to actually see – not too many photos today. Hitler and the Third Reich certainly aren’t commemorated or memorialized. What we did see

Lowenbrau brewers and beer gardgn

were locations such as streets, parks, buildings today used for other things and heard stories of what took place in these locations during the rise of the Third Reich. There were a few memorials to victims of the Third Reich, so those are there to look at.

One thing our guide told us that we’ve heard again and again is how clean and drinkable the Munich water is – I guess it seemed clean, it tasted fine to me. People fill water bottles straight from decorative fountains, not drinking fountains, but the kind of fountain designed to be looked at - interesting.

obatzda

Our tour ended very near to the Lowenbrau brewery and beer garden, so ‘when in Germany’… This place was a lot smaller than the other brewery beer gardens we visited, and more ‘local’ filled with what looked to us to be workers on their lunch break. We decided to make this our lunch stop also. We had Obatzda a German cheese spread made from Camembert, butter and spices. We ate this with a couple small loaves of bread.

refill

Next, we realized that the Augustiner brewery was just around the corner, so we stopped to check that out. This place was by far the biggest beer garden we’ve seen. They even had little flat-bed trucks driving around to pick up used glasses! This was a lovely place to spend the afternoon under the shade of huge trees, enjoying a beer and people watching. Many people bring pic

Augustiner beer garden

nics here and set up their feasts on the tables. Apparently, as long as you are buying their beer, you can bring in your own food. There is still food for purchase of course. I did have my eye on another giant pretzel but didn’t bother. One thing I wish I took a picture of was the guy filling beer glasses. He was filling 1 litre glasses with a hose! An actual hose! Everything to do with beer here is serious business. My first instinct when we get

Augustiner beer garden

these giant beers is to think I got cheated out of a bunch of beer because the foam is about 1/3 of the glass, but in the end,  it settles and most of the glass is full – plus…if I don’t get the full litre of beer I don’t think I’ll suffer!

Before we headed back to the hotel we stopped for a bit of Bayern Muchen soccer shop shopping – of course we did. It never ceases being hilarious that Chris is an XXL in European sizes…they didn’t have shirts bigger!

A bit of napping, packing as today is our last day in Munich and we headed out for dinner. By this point we think we’ve had our fill of German food and go for good ol’ Italian, followed by a pint at an

Irish pub – another thing that is always funny is how no matter where in the world we go, we seem to be able to find an English/Irish pub.

post shopping and hotel in the distance

It seems like so long ago we were unpacking to start our time in Munich, but it’s only been 6 days. I guess this is pretty long to be on one place. I think we’re able to check most of the things on our Munich to do list…there are a few left for next time.

Lori – yup, the surfing was super cool