Somewhere 'nice' in La Puebla de Cazalla and then Seville - Days 150 to 156

Sunset in Jerez campsite

Another long drive, mission: to find somewhere ‘nice’ (my English teacher at school hated nice, it means precise she used to say, so I do try not no use it) to see/avoid Carnaval. Carnaval seems to be our equivalent of Shrove Tuesday, 40 days before Easter, but here, a big party. We’d made a decision to avoid big towns/cities particularly Cádiz which apparently goes completely mad, so we’d headed to a free Aire with all facilities, very popular, all free, would we get on? We arrived at 11.30, a huge van reversing out, don’t know where from though, I walked in and no spots with services. (Aire location: 37°13'28.9"N 5°18'15.4"W) (Aire facilities with more photos: click on this link then on item 65 in list)

Afternoon beer at the cafe by our Aire in La Puebla de Cazalla

There was a gap right at the end, but very tight, or nose on next to the toilets block. Neither having the free electric. Brian left Ted, blocking the entrance to come and have a look, finally the Danish lady from the van by the ‘tight maybe space’ came and said it wasn’t really a space, but they were leaving in an hour or so, about the same time as the French guy next to her said his girlfriend was in the shower, but they were leaving in half an hour or so....

On our walk to the quarry in La Puebla de Cazalla

Is this a stork footprint - or a dinosaur?

So we pulled in by the toilet block, to wait, chatting all the while to the Danish lady, and her husband, in and out of doing the jobs. She was a hoot, hates the French more than the French hate the English. Said, “have the other space, not ours, someone will keep trying to squeeze in”, “have you got a key for the box?” A triangular electric/water meter type key, to which the answer is no. “We can lock you in and someone will let you out, but never share. There are two sockets in there, but if you let someone else in and between you you trip the breaker, it’s impossible to reset” at this point B worked out that the funny star thing in the socket set would lock and unlock the box, so that was ok, and we could plug both our leads in, though only use one. Really liked her, but perhaps she did spark the strange vibe that I felt for the whole weekend.

La Puebla de Cazalla from a distance

The carnaval in La Puebla de Cazalla

The problem was that beautifully laid out as the spaces were, they were actually just too big. If they had all been a foot smaller, there would overall have been space for one more van, but not all these spaces that, yes, you could just get a van into, but then not actually be able to open the door. I did have to run to the back of Ted at one point to shut our bedroom window before we lost it. I think they thought they were in, until B told them it was full, and amazingly they pulled out and left. This was about 20.30, after dark and where they went, who knows? So what should have been a lovely relaxing stay, as I say, actually had a horrible vibe, of self self self, don’t come near me, this is my space..... all very sad.

Fabulous inventiveness, here's the bow of the Titanic built onto a supermarket trolley and pushed by a man dressed as the captain. Behind him is someone with a violin, playing the last tune before it sunk. In front is an iceberg built onto a double buggy, with two children in it fast asleep. Brilliant!

Seville cathedral (largest gothic cathedral in the world, 3rd largest church)

Anyway, after many people driving in, looking around and reversing out, disappointed, our first night went well, our French neighbours, with their delightful cat on a lead, left, a Spanish family pulled in, plugged in had breakfast and set out for a walk, about the same time we did. B had spotted a hole in the ground he wanted to examine, turned out to be a quarry, but a good hour and a quarter of a two hour walk, the remainder, on the road, was a bit disappointing. We got back to discover the Spanish family had left, to be replaced with a Scottish couple. Don’t think it was something we said....

The Archivo General de Indias building

Turns out Abi (short for Albert, but spelt....?) and his lovely wife, whose name we’ve both lost (really sorry if you are reading this) are travelling with his brother George and wife Jean, who were two vans further down. Don’t think they realised how lucky they were to pull in and find two available spots.

We had good chats with both couples, Jean popped her head in to ask something, though we can’t remember what, and bring me a book, before we kidnapped her for 40 minutes, telling her about housesitting, which she is keen on, though they do have a dog, and George is not sure about. The book she hasn’t read, but has been carrying for three years, she doesn’t really read... I’d only asked if anyone had anything to swap.... but how lovely.

One of the galleries inside the archive building. It was like walking through history, although original documents have now been moved to a new building close by, this was the original building where people gathered to talk business during the conquest of the Americas. It contained all the documents detailing the most remarkable transformation of the world in which we live. It oozes history

The refurbished stairway in the Archive building

We had a snack in the little kiosk in the park behind the Aire with Abi, and wife Sunday night, and another chat before leaving Monday morning. We are all heading in the same directions, Seville, El Rocio and Portugal, so May see them again.

Carnaval, on Saturday evening in La Puebla de Cazalla, was lovely. Everyone under a certain age, 17ish, in the whole town was dressed up, along with many adults of all ages. The youth were all carrying drink of some sort, but seeing how some of them were dressed, can’t really blame them. There were tiny tots in push chairs dressed to match mummy, and kids who had no idea what was going on, but they looked like they were enjoying themselves....

In the Plaza de Espana with Maria, our very knowledgeable guide (in yellow coat). The semicircular Plaza de Espana was built for the 1929 exhibition and is magnificent. It fell into disrepair but has now been completely refurbished. Free to enter it is so worth seeing.

Plaza de Espana from one of the balconies

Sunday we went for a bike ride, my groin has been giving me gyp when walking, to find a ‘pond’! We never found it, it might have been the other side of the fence, but we had a nice little hour out, among the olive trees.

Us in the Plaza de Espana, don't miss this if you're in Seville! 

One of the buildings built for the 1929 exhibition. This one representing Peru

Monday was the end of our allotted 72 hours, and it was probably time, so we headed to Seville. Another motorhome storage place, but this one really is more storage, less community, and with the motorway, train track and airport does have its moments..... but it’s half an hour on the bus into town, and costs less than the dodgy sounding parking nearer into town that is then a 40 minute walk into town. (Parking location: 37°24'41.9"N 5°56'28.3"W) (Parking facilities with photos: click here then on item 66 in list). This way, at least the 13.5km today were all site seeing as opposed to getting there and back too. 

The entrance to the old tobacco factory, now the university - and also the setting and inspiration for the opera Carmen

The exit from the cathedral that used to be the entrance when it was a mosque

On arrival, as I’d failed to secure free Monday afternoon tickets for the cathedral or Alcazar (well, only looked on Sunday, as every other town/city in Spain and South America is shut on Monday, so what is going on here with free entrance Mondays who knows!) we visited Carrefour. Returning to Ted an Austrian van pulled up beside us, a single man, here to collect his wife and dog from the airport. Dog got so stressed on the ferry to Tenerife the vet wasn’t sure it would survive another journey, so has had to fly.... He is from Salzburg, as was Mozart, so he has a job lot of Mozart chocolates that he seems to distribute to all and sundry, well us anyway. On confessing that all I really knew about Salzburg was the Sound of Music, he told us that his Granny had been an extra in the movie. Lovely to chat to random people....

Our first walk round Seville on our free walking tour, plus a bit more (click on it, it's interactive):
We went in early today, 08.15 bus, we only needed the next one, but we are always early, so we could

The Giralda tower next to the cathedral

find tourist information and have a chat before meeting for our ‘free’ walking tour. Maria was lovely, the tour wasn’t free, but she well earned what we gave her. Seville is beautiful, many really impressive buildings, though a few were built to generate trade with the Americans, during the Spanish/American fair in 1929, just before the big crash...... the pictures will speak 1000 words.... but the Plaza de Espana and the Town Hall, plain on one side while hugely ornate on half the other side, due to the stone mason dying are stunning. We went for Tapas at the bar Maria recommended, slightly more expensive than our norm, but beautifully presented and well worth the money

We had a great day, and have to go back, so plans changed, but we can, whether we go back in tomorrow however depends on the weather, if there is as much rain as forecast we’ll have a van day and go in on Thursday.

The luxury Alfonso XIII 5 star hotel in Seville (£467/night on Bookings.com). Many famous people, incl. Madonna have stayed here

The tomb of 30% Christopher Columbus' remains in Seville cathedral

Wednesday was wet, and sunny, and wet, and sunny.... we didn’t go into Seville, think it was a good decision. Went in Thursday, straight to the cathedral, and in through a door a beggar was holding open, only to discover, it was open for mass, not visiting till 11.00, oops. Archive de Indias then, the building was originally built as the trading centre, but not quite finished before the river got completely silted up and the commerce and trade moved to Cádiz! It became a tenement block before becoming the archive for the whole of Spain for their overseas exploration. It was a beautiful building with an interesting exhibition, but we didn’t bother look at any old Spanish documents, we have enough problems with new Spanish!

The main altar at Seville Cathedral. Fleming Pieter Dancart's lifes work

10.45 we’ll go and get tickets for 11.00 entry to the cathedral.... oh no we won’t, the queue was massive, so listening to what Maria told us on Tuesday we went to the church of San Salvador, which was just opening, with no queue, and on the same ticket! Hurrah. Quick look round before heading back to the cathedral, which was stunning, parts of it had originally been a mosque but most of it was all church! Brian’s main reason for wanting to visit was the tomb of Christopher Columbus, or Cristobal Colon, depending on where you come from. A great explorer and traveller, as we know, but Maria explained he travelled further dead than alive!

He was dead and buried in Valladolid, northern Spain, rested in peace for three years before being moved to Seville. Here he remained for 28 years before being shipped back to Hispaniola. This he appeared quite comfortable with as he remained for 358 years. Hispaniola became Santo Domingo (after the French took the island) and Columbus was moved to Cuba, to remain ‘Spanish’. 103 years here before being shipped back to Seville, where he is in fact not buried, but in a tomb supported well above ground. So is he here? Everyone claims he is still with them (there are tombs in Santa Domingo, Havanna and Portugal as well apparrently), but DNA work recently has 99% proved that about 30% of him is here, so I guess we can say we’ve seen the tomb of Christopher Columbus!

Views of Seville from the Giralda tower

We then went up the Giralda tower, part of the original mosque where the muezzin used to go to call the faithful to prayer. As bell towers, as it now is, go though it is an easy one to go up, it only has 17 steps, the rest of it is ramps, so that the poor muezzin wasn’t so poor as he didn’t have to climb up and down five times a day, but could sit on the back of a poor donkey who would take him up five times a day!

Another view from the tower, this one looking down to, bottom left, the old entrance to the mosque that was flattened to build the cathedral

the old mosque entrance at ground level

Got back down and believe it or not walked straight into our Scottish neighbours from the weekend. We knew they were likely to be in Seville, but what are the chances? We are also going to be in the same campsite either tomorrow or the next day....

Lunch was calling, so headed off somewhere new, over the river to Triana, couple of little tapas in the sun before a small museum of the Spanish Inquisition. Not something for them to be proud of, but very interesting. With aching feet and another 12.5km covered, back to the bus, and back to Ted.

View of the cathedral and, in front, the bullring from across the river in Triana by the Spanish Inquisition museum

This is the remains of the San Jorge Castle, used as the main centre for torture and death during the terrible years of the Spanish Inquisition. The castle was flattened in the 1780's and Triana market built over it. These remains were excavated when a new market was built a few years ago. The museum is very moving and the story retold very well, in English as well as Spanish. People suspected of not following the catholic faith were tried without any lawyers present and without knowing who testified against them, all their property was confiscated, they were put on a rack to get a confession and then burnt at the stake. The laws were often misused to convict wealthy people so their property could be stolen by corrupt officials or people who occupied powerful positions others wanted

The Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) building (panorama shot, it's not actually curved), showing the half sculptured and halff plain. The left side to just right of centre is very ornate, but the right is plain. The original artist died over the time of the building so it was decided to leave it plain rather than get someone else to finish it 

Todays walk through Seville and into Triana: