4-18–Cadiz and Seville

Today we are doing something we don’t normally do – taking a ship’s tour! Well, sort of, really it is only transportation too and from Seville – the “Seville on your own” tour.  We had originally booked a car, but then decided to use NCL’s shore excursion promo where we get a $50 credit for each shore excursion we book.  Even though the cost will come out slightly more than renting a car on our own, it will be worth it not to have to worry about the traffic, the drive or the parking should we just rent a car.  So – tour bus it is.

The tour meets at the crack of dawn, actually before the crack of dawn as is evidenced by the sunrise photo I took from the bus.  The bonus of the early meeting time is that we aren’t bothered by the stupid deck chairs this morning, we’re up before the pool boys even start their noise.  We breakfast, then go in search of Bowen to see if he will escort us to our meeting point, but since we are meeting in the dining room and not the theater for some reason, we are on our own to get down there.  It’s actually much easier than meeting in the theater – and we’re situated with our tour stickers (ick) well before our scheduled meeting time.

Bus 2 will be our chariot out of Cadiz and into the city of Seville, a little less than 2 hours away.  We manage to be 2nd on the bus, not that it matters, since it is only transportation, but it is nice to be upfront anyway. After an interminable wait while we find people who are lagging behind, we finally make it out of the port and onto the highway.  One rest stop and an uneventful drive later, our bus chaperone leads us from the where the bus parked to the central square, where we will meet to go back to the bus. 

The “chaperone” is extremely helpful and points us all in the direction of the main attractions. We’ve got a fairly aggressive itinerary already planned, so in typical Stevens style, we immediately leave the group and fast walk through the alleyways to the Real Alcazar – the oldest European palace still in use today as a private residence for Spanish Royals.  There are 2 admissions – the general palace admission and the royal residences, the latter of which are booked on timed entry.  I looked at booking online in advance, but was fearful of our timing – not knowing how we would eventually get to Seville, and not wanting to tie our hands if we needed flexibility.  Turns out I probably should have just pushed the button, because even though it is well before their opening time, there is a huge line waiting to purchase tickets, while the reserve line just walks right in.  As it turns out, we are still in line for almost an hour before gaining access to the palace, and the residence tours are all sold out.  Bummer.

But we make the best of it – because we only have limited time and a lot to see.  We skip the audio tour and just wander around the palace on our own, and it is amazing.  We haven’t a clue what we are seeing – the brochure is only in Spanish, and my Pidgeon translations don’t help, but still – the architecture and the sheer grandeur are incredible to behold.  We enter into the Patio del Leon, then start to randomly wander through the different sections of the palace.

There is gorgeous tile work, amazing Moorish features along with Mudejar style arches and ceilings. Every room, garden, patio, is more incredible than the next. You don’t know where to go, to look, to take pictures!

 

We just wander from room to room, reading placards and trying to avoid the tour groups filling up space and taking over main areas.  Because we have such a tight schedule, we really can’t do the palace justice, but we figure we can hit the highlights.  Our last stop is the entrance to the gardens.  If we had a few days, we would spend at least one whole day exploring the vast garden areas planted by the royals – but for now we confine ourselves to the entrance to the gardens and the Estanque de Mercurio – the Pond of Mercury – and all its beautiful surroundings.

Done with our tour, we head out into the square passing the Cathedral, which we will come back to visit, and forge our way through the city to the Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza – the bull fighting stadium. 

On our way to the bull ring, we actually pass through El Postigo, the most famous entrance into the city of Seville.  This gate was originally built in 1107 and  renovated in 1573.  I had read about it in my research of Seville, but never thought we’d find it.  However as traveler’s fate would have it, we just stumbled upon it on our journey to the bull ring.

Passing through the gate, we only had a few minutes to navigate before we found our next destination, the bull ring.