My first impressions of Seville is its a great place to travel with someone but not as great for a solo traveller. Sure you can easily wander the streets and get lost and find little cafes, bars and restaurants, but you’ll be the only one there flying solo. For the extroverts out there, that might sound like a dream, but for the introverts its not as much fun.
I took my third Free walking tour of this trip which was really good. We wandered through the streets discovering som small plazas i probably would never have found and wandered past the blend of muslim and christian architecture and ended up in the Plaza de España which was built in 1928 for the Expo in 1929. Its an impressive ampitheatre with bridges over a canal people seemed to enjoy rowing around in and balconies for people to pose on. Instagram was firing off everywhere so I went exploring further.
The other thing that takes a bit of adjusting is that Seville, very much has a siesta. Many stores close for a few hours in the afternoon, restaurants close and most don’t op[en til 8pm. If you are a senior citizen or someone who generally doesn’t go to bed after just eating food it becomes and issue. I did my best to stay up a bit later and slept in a bit later. I am more of a night owl than an early bird, albeit my work colleagues would suggest the fact I start work at 7:30am makes me an early bird.
The cathedral in Seville seems to be so popular you need to buy tickets well in advance to just go in. I had to admire it from the outside the main tower is an islamic Minaret that has been christianised at the top of it and sits next to the gothic cathedral. They couldn’t be more different but tell a story of how this region changed over many centuries of habitation. From old to new, Las Setas is a far more modern piece of art or architecture thats apparently made from pine and is constructed in a flowing lattice shape. My walking tour guide doesn’t like it, other locals seem to like it. There is definitely a huge contrast to the city that surrounds it. Personally the 15 minute 180 degree movie at the end was brilliantly done and was a good end to the visit whioch also included some great views across the city.
Despite me feeling like Seville wasn’t ideal for solo travellers I ended up leaving thinking another day or two would have been ideal to do the city justice. I didn’t get across the river to the neighbourhood of Triana or visit the nearby roman ruins including a spectaculy amphitheatre. Alas this is a journey from Porto to London and I have to keep moving, the Rock awaits me!
