{"id":1758,"date":"2016-01-25T15:44:36","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T15:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/?p=1758"},"modified":"2016-01-25T15:44:36","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T15:44:36","slug":"getting-lost-in-seville-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/2016\/01\/25\/getting-lost-in-seville-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Lost in Seville, Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting lost in the side streets of a city can be a great way to truly explore everything that a city has to offer. That wasn’t actually our intention when we visited Seville, but it was definitely what ended up happening. Seville is a gorgeous city with wonderful architecture, a vibrant history, and the largest bull fighting ring in Spain.\u00a0 It is the capital of Andalusia and has wonderful sites such as the Alcazar Palace and the Cathedral of Seville.\u00a0 The food is excellent wherever you go in Spain, but while in Seville the Iberian ham is a definite must.<\/p>\n

\"Statue<\/a>
Statue at the Entrance to the Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"On<\/a>
On Top of the Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We drove to Seville from Estepona early in the morning so that we could make the most of our first day there.\u00a0 As we turned off of the highway and started to navigate our way to our hotel, we quickly realized that driving in Seville wasn’t as easy as navigating the highways.\u00a0 Street signs were hard to read, sometimes just on the sides of buildings, sometimes on the street corners, sometimes not to be found at all, at least by us.\u00a0 Our trusty MapQuest directions didn’t seem to match up with our surroundings.\u00a0 We seemed to have missed the turn that would take us to our hotel, so we turned around and reversed direction to see if we could find it going the other direction.\u00a0 Not having any luck, we saw a Ford dealership, so we figured we would stop and ask directions, hoping that since it was a Ford dealership, someone might speak English.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>
View of Seville<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Another<\/a>
Another View of Seville<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were greeted as soon as we walked through the door, obviously hoping that we were there to buy a car.\u00a0 In our broken Spanish, we explained that we were lost and asked if anyone spoke English.\u00a0 The manager of the dealership spoke a little English, so he came out to try and assist us.\u00a0 His English wasn’t much better than our Spanish, but through hand gestures and a few common phrases, we were able to make out the directions that he was giving us.\u00a0 As it turned out, we were actually heading the right way, we just needed to go a couple more blocks.\u00a0 Back on the road, in the heavy city traffic, we finally made it to the hotel and parked our car in the hotel’s underground garage.\u00a0 Glad to be out of the car, we were ready to make the most of our stay.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>
View of the Fa\u00e7ade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"View<\/a>
View of the Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We walked to the Old Town, which is the third largest in Europe, and started our adventure.\u00a0 We found a little restaurant near the Cathedral and had lunch.\u00a0 After lunch, we made our way past the gypsies trying to sell us flowers and asking for donations, and went into the Cathedral of Seville.\u00a0 It is truly a spectacular cathedral.\u00a0 One could spend hours just looking at all of the immaculate artwork, statues, stained glass windows, and reliefs.\u00a0 After enjoying the beauty of the Cathedral, we ventured into the Barrio, or the Old Jewish Quarter.\u00a0 The Barrio Santa Cruz is a maze of small lanes with shops, plazas, and restaurants around every turn.\u00a0 They are too tiny for cars, but there are plenty of motor scooters and horse-drawn carriages.\u00a0 The buildings lean towards each other and the streets are so narrow that they are often referred to as the “kissing lanes” because the buildings look as though they are leaning to kiss one another.\u00a0 We found a little store that carried some amazing perfume, but decided to wait before buying anything as we wanted to explore some more.\u00a0 After several hours of walking around, stopping occasionally for a glass of wine and some tapas, we decided that we would head back to the Cathedral square, buy the perfume,\u00a0and find a restaurant for dinner.<\/p>\n

\"Inside<\/a>
Inside of the Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Restaurant<\/a>
Restaurant for Lunch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Having walked through more than a dozen different side streets, trying to make our way back to the Cathedral square was turning out to be more difficult than we had expected.\u00a0 In fact, at this point, we were thoroughly lost.\u00a0 We thought that we’d been using the dome of the Cathedral as our navigation marker, only to find that it was the dome of another church.\u00a0 Now we were getting hungry, tired, and a little stressed.\u00a0 Every time we thought that we’d found a landmark that we recognized, we turn the corner to realize that we weren’t where we thought we were at all.\u00a0 At this point, the fun of walking into shops had lost its luster and we just wanted out of the Barrio.\u00a0 Finally, after hours of searching and the sun starting to set, we made it to a street that we truly did recognize.\u00a0 A block or two more and we were where we needed to be and found the little shop that sold the perfume, although by this time it was closed.\u00a0 We did eventually buy the perfume, but since we couldn’t at the moment, we went of to find a restaurant to get some dinner.<\/p>\n

\"Streets<\/a>
Streets of the Barrio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Organ<\/a>
Organ Inside the Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like Paris or other European cities, one of the great things about the small caf\u00e9s\u00a0is that they offer outside seating so that you can people watch while you eat.\u00a0 We found a little caf\u00e9 with Iberian ham hanging all around the bar, so we decided that we would try some of the ham as we calmed our nerves from the ordeal of being lost.\u00a0 Iberian ham truly does live up to its reputation as being the most succulent ham that you can eat.\u00a0 It literally melts in your mouth like butter.\u00a0 In talking to the waiter, we learned that what makes the ham so tender is that the pigs are fed acorns.\u00a0 That is also what they use as they’re rating system, meaning that the ham could be a one, two, three, four, or five acorn ham, with five acorns being the highest rating.\u00a0 The more months of the year that the pigs are fed acorns, the higher the ranking.<\/p>\n

\"Outdoor<\/a>
Outdoor Restaurants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Restaurant<\/a>
Restaurant with Iberian Ham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After dinner, we started walking past the Cathedral, through the throngs of gypsies, heading towards our hotel.\u00a0 There we saw the row of horse-drawn carriages waiting to take young lovers on a stroll underneath the starry skies and cooler temperatures.\u00a0 Since we’ll always be young lovers, we decided that was definitely the way to end our evening and let them take us on a little tour while we enjoyed each other’s company in the carriage.\u00a0 We approached the group of drivers and an older driver pointed us to a carriage.\u00a0 He then spoke to a younger man and from what we could discern, told him to take us on the tour.<\/p>\n

\"Look<\/a>
Look Carefully, You Can See the Carriages<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"View<\/a>
View of Palace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The horses hooves clickety-clacked on the cobblestone streets as we made our way back into the Barrio.\u00a0 After several turns, we came to a street that was closed due to construction.\u00a0 Our driver spoke to the workers for a few minutes, seemingly asking how to get around the construction, and then turned our horse in another direction.\u00a0 After another turn or two and we ended up heading into a dead-end street.\u00a0 With nothing else to do, the driver got out of the carriage and slowly moved the horse back and forth in order to turn us around on the narrow street.\u00a0 As we made the turn, the carriage bumped one of the parked motor scooters that line the streets, knocking it onto its side on the pavement.\u00a0 With an embarrassed smile, the drive hopped back into the carriage and quickly led us away.\u00a0 The driver’s phone rang, we assumed that it was the older man who had put us into the carriage and we also assumed that the man was our driver’s father.<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>
Our Horse-Drawn Carriage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Our<\/a>
Our Driver<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few more turns on the narrow streets and we came to the same roadblock that had sent us on our diversion.\u00a0 The drivers head slumped into his hands, but we couldn’t help but smile at each other and giggle under our breath.\u00a0 So, back we went turning different directions than we did before.\u00a0 The driver’s phone rang again, more conversation, but the young driver had a little more defiant tone, obviously it wasn’t his fault that the road was closed :).\u00a0 As we made our way through a couple more streets, the driver started stopping and asking people on the street for directions.\u00a0 We seemed to be making progress when we turned the corner and…\u00a0 you guessed it, we were back at the construction roadblock.\u00a0 The driver looked at us, apologizing, obviously extremely embarrassed at this point.\u00a0 We smiled, we were fine, we looked at each other again and just laughed.\u00a0 We were now lost for the third time that day.\u00a0 Maybe we would never get out of the Barrio.<\/p>\n

\"Cathedral<\/a>
Cathedral from the Square<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Stained<\/a>
Stained Glass Window Inside the Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another phone call, a few more turns, and then there was that flash of recognition on the driver’s face, probably the same flash that we had when we finally found a street that we recognized.\u00a0 At this point we’d have been fine if he would have just taken us back to the Cathedral, but we’d paid for a tour and a tour was what we were going to get.\u00a0 Encouraging the horse to go as fast as possible, while quickly pointing out buildings and monuments as we hurried by, we got the proverbial “2 second” tour.\u00a0 We arrived back at the Cathedral, honestly thanked him for the tour, we’d really had a wonderful time.\u00a0 We don’t think that his father, boss, or whoever he was, believed us, but we really didn’t mind.\u00a0 We went back to our hotel and crashed, thoroughly exhausted.\u00a0 Some other time, we’ll describe the rest of our trip to Seville and the things that we saw, but we just wanted to share one of those travel days where you can’t do anything except laugh and make the most of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting lost in the side streets of a city can be a great way to truly explore everything that a city has to offer. That wasn’t actually our intention when we visited Seville, but it was definitely what ended up happening. Seville is a gorgeous city with wonderful architecture, a vibrant history, and the largest … <\/p>\n

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