Seville

Giralda

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While waiting for the early morning train from Granada to Seville we had breakfast in the station cafe and saw first hand that yes Spanish people really do have a morning tipple of sherry!  The train ride was relaxing and the scenery had changed from endless fruit orchards, to endless olive groves, all very pretty to see cows grazing under ancient olive trees..

Seville was a busy town, lots of tourists, but the weather was perfect, mid 20's and blue sky.  Our hotel was right in the middle of things so we wandered around the narrow winding streets enjoying the sights and then headed back to sit in the central courtyard of our hotel, all fountains, colourful tiled walls and columns.

While in Seville we visited the 15th century cathedral, the 3rd largest (after St Peters and St Pauls) in the world which was quite impressive, if all a bit over the top... we climbed up the 12th century Giralda which was the minaret of the mosque that was originally on the site and had a great view of the city.

Alcazar palace

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We also looked around the Alcazar, another Islamic influenced palace complex which while not as spectacular as the Alhambra, it was still made up of beautiful buildings and gorgeous gardens.

When it began to rain, we made a quick detour to a cafe that i think i could actually live in..  This place looked like it had been there for 100 years and was all my dreams come true.  It had an ice-cream counter, patisserie, deli, 1.5 metre long espresso machine and a 10 metre long wooden bar running almost the length of the store.  Bliss....

Comment of the day: Jonno asked the waitress if they served Guinness, her reply, "of course, this is an Irish pub"