Sun-seeking in Seville

We had been looking around vainly for a place to visit in November that was close, relatively cheap and would give Shaun some chance of a suntan ahead of some wedding pictures in December. Seville was the place!

Leaving London's grey skies and cold weather behind us we made the most of a beautiful sunny Saturday in Seville - wandering the old squares and swanning about at La Maestranza bull ring - one of the oldest bull rings in the world (no fights in winter, but you can go and sit in the stands and conjure up some atmosphere of your own).

The bull ring is a major focal point of the city (view from the bell tower on Seville Cathedral):

We spent a few happy hours getting lost wandering through Barrio de Santa Cruz, the old Jewish quarter, on our way to find Seville Cathedral, built in the 1400s and and housing what (may) be Christopher Columbus' tomb - although there is a good deal of scepticism about who may actually be buried there. Nevertheless the cathedral is incredible. While the cathedral was built on the site of Seville's former grand mosque, in other parts of the city its earlier Moorish heritage is still very much on display. The Alcazar, used as a royal palace over the centuries, was originally built as a Muslim fortress in 913. Its gardens in particular are beautiful, as is the intricate stonework in Islamic designs.

Finally after all our hard work wandering around it was only fitting that we tucked into some of the tapas that Seville is famous for. Not entirely sure how authentic this one was but after wide sampling it was declared our favourite - a 'meatball chupa chup' with bacon, strong cheese and mashed potato drowned in a strong mustard sauce. It was so good the cheese stuck to the plate. We had lots.

M