Travel journal: Seville

December found us on the Costa del Sol. An excellent place to meet in the European winter. The weather is incredible, and for those of us who live by boat it is a privilege.

We toured several cities and towns, but today we will talk about Seville. Although the city is on the banks of the Guadalquivir River, we left the boat in Almerimar and decided to go by car, which we rented at Goldcar.com.

In my case, whenever I had rented cars, I did it in front-line companies like Hertz or Avis. But the price difference was so great that it was very tempting. On the site, the rental of a car for 4 low-end people is for Christmas dates, around € 9 per day. The most accessible pick up and drop off points are at airports. You just have to pay attention to the insurance contract. In my case I had selected the standard, but when I got to pick up the car, they asked me for € 1,100 as a guarantee. Instead, paying the Plus insurance, the guarantee was € 65. Since the rent would be for 17 days, we opted to pay the superior insurance on site. As Argentina was just defining the date of the impact of 30% on expenses made abroad, I did not want to risk having 30% added to € 1,100, since I was not sure how this concept would be taken for the purposes of calculating the tax and much less its refund.

The highway from the coast to Seville is 2 lanes each way. Very easy to operate. Both with Google maps and posters you can get there very easy. But the big issue is parking. It took us exactly 90 minutes to get a parking space. The historic center of Seville is a wonder, its narrow streets and thousands of people walking. My recommendation is to try to park the car on the outskirts.

There are many hotels, it depends on the tastes and budgets, it is advisable to stay within the historic center and from there walk to the points of interest, and book through the renowned portals such as Booking.com or through your trusted travel agent. Its gastronomic offer is excellent and so varied that you can choose a place every day without making a mistake.

I just want to give you two personal recommendations:

1) a typical breakfast with coffee with milk, squeezed from orange, toasted bread rubbed with olive oil and raw ham, an exquisite way to start the day.

2) tapas in a typical bar called Las Columnas where you can vibrate the Sevillian air, with some excellent local tapas and a delicious beer (if you go on a Sunday you will feel the passion for football in the Spanish town), where diners and waiters they will pay more attention to the TV than to you.

Seville has 84 monuments and points of interest. But if you only have two days to visit it, I would focus on: The Cathedral and the Giralda, the Real Alcazar, Plaza de Toros, the Torre de Oro, Triana, the Setas de Sevilla, the walks along its Costanera, the María Luisa park are places that you can not miss if you go to Seville.

But there are two things that will be unforgettable for me: the walk through Plaza España and walking through the streets of Seville at Christmas.

Plaza España is a hug to America. It was built for the Ibero-American Exposition in Seville in 1929. To visit the architectural complex of the Plaza de España in Seville is to take a walk through the country. Along the curved wings there are large benches decorated with ceramics, and on them the Spanish provinces are represented.

The square is divided into four sections in which there are 48 provinces (the Canaries had only one then and Seville has mural representations on the margin) with its own ceramic mural, generally showing some characteristic monument or a specific historical moment. You can rent a boat and row on its internal channel or enjoy a wonderful street flamenco show. The location was also chosen to shoot famous motion pictures, such as Lawrence of Arabia and Star Wars..

And walking through its streets with Christmas lighting is an unforgettable experience. People at sunset wait for them to start lighting up and this year from 7pm the classic light and Christmas carol show began which left everyone speechless. Of course the crowd was such that you couldn’t walk but it was worth it.

A detail to take into account, for dinner the bars begin to open from 8:30 p.m. / 9 p.m., therefore it will be important that you take this into account when scheduling your day.

Seville is another place that I fell in love with, rather I love all of Andalusia. First of all because my paternal grandfather was born in a town near Granada, but above all because the Andalusian air catches you without letting you go.