Seville cathedral

Our sorely won hotel is rather out of the centre of Seville. But there is a bus that takes us to Ponce de Leon bus terminus and from there it is an interesting walk through narrow, twisting streets full of interesting shops and houses to the centre of town.

We arrived at the cathedral in the morning and walked through and around it. It is very big with an superfluity of gilt and carving: a place more of power that holiness. Jo was keen to walk up the tour which is the only remaining bit of the original mosque. But it was closed until 2:30pm. So we decided to walk down to the river. On the way we spotted a procession solemly parading into the cathedral. Jo spotted the king amongst the dignitories. "But wouldn't he be at the wedding?" said Fi forgetting that Spain is so close to the UK that you can do business there and be back home the same day.

As we approached the bull ring by the river, we came across a parade of splendidly turned out carriages full of men dressed to match the period of the carriages and women in full flamingo gear drawn by beautifully groomed horses. It is the Seville Festival and the locals were out in force. Some of the horses had such long ears that I thought they might be related to mules.

After the parade it was just a much fun watching the people walking around in their best clothes. So many were wearing purple and other bright colours. Even the men were in shades of mauve to aubergine. We saw purple shoes and sneakers but no purple boots.

We made our way back to the cathedral to climb the tower to see the view. Luckily the big bell wasn't rung while we were up there. It would have frightened me over the railings. There were photographs of Seville in 1872 which showed how much the city has grown since then.

We had lunch in a tapas bar at 4:30pm and dinner in a local hot spot that sells sausages by the meter at 11pm. How Spanish is that!