It’s been almost one month since our last post on Auckland New Zealand and a busy month it has been. We left Melbourne on 18 December flying home to Boston by way of Hong Kong and experienced our first real travel misadventures of this now almost three year odyssey. Our flight out of Melbourne was delayed just under three hours causing us to miss our connecting flight to Boston by a few minutes. Our choices were to layover in a Hong Kong airport hotel for 24 hours or fly into JFK and drive home to Boston. We opted for the scramble to make the JFK flight and arrived in NYC just before midnight, still on the 18th of December even though we had been traveling for 30 hours. We rented a car and Jim drove us home as he had slept for most of the long flight and was still on Melbourne time. We arrived at Peggy Scott’s home in Boston just before 5am with one piece of luggage still in Hong Kong. We had a busy but very enjoyable three weeks stateside and arrived in Sevilla España on 10 January. We may write another blog about the three week holiday at home.
Leaving Logan International Airport for Lisbon.Champagne toast to being on the road again.This was our plane from Lisbon to Seville.We had to circle Seville for almost an hour as on an otherwise clear day the airport was socked in with ground fog and the small airplane could not land. This is the airport on our first aborted landing attempt.We finally made it.
So, why did we choose to come to Seville? Many of our friends have suggested that we would really love Seville and it has some of the mildest winter weather in Europe. We are expecting temperatures to range from 40-70 while we are here with mostly sunny days and only occasional rain. As per our usual MO we know very little about this place prior to arrival.Our Airbnb host José Manuel coming out of the building to meet us. The apartment is literally over “the barber of Seville”.
The barbershop.Our private terrace off of the living room.Living room with large windows onto the terrace.Other end of the living room.
Master bedroom, very sunny during the day and dark at night. The sun doesn’t rise until 8:30am.One of two guest bedrooms. We are almost fully booked for our last six weeks here.Rear view from our apartment, appears to be an old monastery.We are located right on the edge of the old city with its myriad wandering narrow lanes and alleyways, most of which are littered with cafes, restaurants and Tapas bars.Plaza de Pilatos. The Casa de Pilatos is behind us and is presently closed for a movie shoot.
First pitcher of sangria at a very quaint old Tapas bar where we had a tortilla which is a Spanish omelette, Salmorejo which is a delicious cold tomato soup with crisp ham chunks, curried chicken and warmed goat cheese with red pesto. A very promising start to eating in Seville.This is where we ate, Taberna Aguilas.Typical narrow street where cars and pedestrians co-exist.
The beginning of our first run on Saturday morning the 11th of January.
Our first view of the Guadalquivir River.An old palace, now government buildings.Torre del Oro constructed in 1220. It was badly damaged by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and was reconstructed in 1760. It is dodecagonal, 12 sided.Riverside sculpture.Crossing the river to Triana.The Castillo of San Jorge was a medieval fortress built on the West Bank of the river. It was also used as headquarters and prison for the Spanish Inquisition. It is now the Mercado Triana.Mercado Triana. We spent a long time in here buying fresh fruit, veggies, pasta, cheese and ham. You can look at the produce but NO TOCAR, “do not touch”.The ubiquitous pigs legs which hang everywhere all over Spain. The very best ham comes from southern Spain though.
Portuguese pastel de Nata which we just love.You just step up to the counter and order a glass of wine or sherry and a small plate of olive and cheese tapas shown below.
Lugging home the groceries, yes we run with cash, credit card and shopping bags.The mile walk home from the market was through a warren of table filled alleyways.
This plaza was so noisy and busy we thought there was a demonstration going on, but it was only a Saturday afternoon of drinking beer.Plaza San Francisco. The alleyways open onto many of these squares.
First meal at home with fresh raviolis and pesto. Wine is complements of our host.
Sevilla has absolutely captured our hearts in the first 36 hours. We are really looking forward to exploring this small city quite thoroughly in the next two months.
