Our Andalucian Adventure: Seville - Plaza de Espana

"The issue is not that Sevillanos think they live in the most beautiful place on Earth...even worse is the fact that they may be right in thinking so"  - Antonio Gala

Whether or not the words of Antonio Gala are true, Seville will always rank with me as one of the most beautiful places we have visited. Its charm, like other magical places such as Paris or Florence, is the ability to walk for days, continually seeing marvellous sights, whilst knowing that in a week you have only just scratched the surface. In fact after reviewing our photographs I'm going to have to break Seville down into smaller posts as there are just so many wonderful photos to share. 

On New Years Eve we checked out of our hotel in Malaga, after spending some time at nearby park to burn off some of the kids energy before our trip to Seville. With the train station just across the street and no queue at all at security, which is much tighter than anywhere else we visited in Europe (all bags are x-rayed and scissors, knives etc. are not allowed), we were off and onto our train in no time.

Ancient Olive Tree at Hotel Barceló Renacimiento

Whilst we have come to prefer atmospheric apartments in historical centres over hotels we decided that arriving in Seville on New Years Eve and staying with the kids in the centre of the city might not be the best idea, plus we had decided to enjoy the amazing Spanish food and give up on cooking for ourselves.  

And so I turned again to Hotwire.com and was able to get an amazing room at the Barceló Renacimiento, adjacent to the Isla Magica theme park, across the canal from the Macarena district, and about a four kilometre walk from the Seville Cathedral.

 

The kids were very excited at the prospect of a five star hotel and we were pleased by the seventy euro price. While it was well away from the city it was quiet, the kids loved it as it was quite "fancy" especially the breakfast (though they were unimpressed that the neighbouring theme park was closed thus explaining why it was such a bargain) and because there was always taxis out the front to take us into the city quickly and cheaply.

Travelling with children is definitely a different kettle of fish from travelling as a couple. Arriving on New Years Eve rather than heading out for a night of celebration we instead planned an early night.  Back home Australia many cities have a fireworks display run by the city, in Seville it is legal to buy fireworks and set them off yourself, and the people of Seville did so from the moment the sun set until the wee small hours of the morning. Once the kids were finally asleep on  their fold out bed, Rob and I watched the fireworks for hours from our window. It was so noisy here on the outskirts that I can only imagine how noisy it was in the centre.

By the time we arrived in Seville we had been away from home some three hundred and seventy two days and by this stage we had learnt a thing or two about travelling with children. We stuck to our game plan of 1. sightseeing in the morning; 2. a leisurely lunch before the hunger turns to grumpiness (we were not always quick enough with this step); and lastly 3. something fun for the kids, such as a park in the afternoon.

On New Years Day after a very slow start we decided to combine sightseeing and a visit to the park in one outing and we all very much enjoyed our visit to the Plaza de Espana and the Maria Luisa Park. We had the taxi drop us at the entrance to the park and enjoyed the walk through to the Plaza de Espana.

 

As we were walking we had to watch out for the many horse drawn carriages taking tourists for rides through the park. We promised the kids a ride, as we had been saying "no" since we had already taken a carriage ride in Bruge, but this was now nine months ago so decided it was time for a treat, and what better than a carriage ride in the park on a sunny winter day.

 

This stands out unfortunately as a negative memory for Rob and I, a case of paying stupid tourist tax, as we agreed to the "usual ride" without agreeing how long for and after a very short ride around the park we were back to the start again. I believe the kids enjoyed it but they did complain it should have been longer.

 

The park itself and the many beautiful buildings, mostly built at the time the Plaza de Espana was built for the Ibero-American expo in 1929, is a lovely relaxed place to visit. We had such perfect sunny days in Seville in winter I  can only imagine that in the extreme heat of summer the park is something of an oasis and refuge from the sun.

 

 Seville is famous for its beautiful painted tiles, and they are seen to wonderful effect in the Plaza de Espana. Looking through the curved colonnade I had that de ja vous feeling that I been there before. As it turns out the Plaza de Espana was used as a set in the Star Wars movies as the courtyard of the Royal Palace of Naboo.

 

We ending up spending close to three hours between the plaza and the park joining a large number of people enjoying a lazy new years day.

 

 Having had such a huge breakfast, and having stuffed our pockets with fruit to fend off hunger it was well past lunch by the time we even thought about it. By the time we did it was time for an early dinner, which of course there is no such thing in Spain, and so we agreed on walk though to the city in search of something to eat.

We wandered up past the Cathedral, and saw a few dining options and Rob and the kids debated the merits of eating at the first place we saw (the kids were strongly pro this idea but Rob wanted to continue on). Luckily it was a lovely walk and we enjoyed strolling along, looking at the lovely buildings. We wandered past the Plaza Nueva, where a Christmas market was set up, but was closed until the evening. Eventually we found ourselves at the Metropol Parasol, which we stumbled across unexpectedly.

In a city that is filled with wonderful old building I am surprised to find this very modern structure, that somehow just works with the old building surrounding it. We didn't stop to ride the lift to the top to take in the view as we were at that hungry cranky stage and we took advantage of the closest café. A mistake as it turns out (Rob was right the first is not necessarily the best) but it led us to plan leisurely lunch in the neighbouring Barrio Santa Cruz, which we had managed to miss altogether on our walk, for the next day after a morning visit to the Real Alcazar, which would turn out  to be another memorable day which I shall tell you about very soon.