Seville

The night before I left Cádiz Ignacio took me down to one of the city's more famous bars, the Casa Manteca, a tiny corner bar in the Viña Barrio, known for its seafood tapas. It was great fun, jammed in the milling crowd swallowing tapas such as mussels, oysters and fried fish plonked down on wax paper by waiters, working at astonishing speed, and drinking the local Cruzcampo beer. The train trip to Seville, whizzing along on Spain's super fast Ave train and looking at the countryside flashing past, was great. In Seville I am staying at a 17th century former noble house and now a lovely boutique hotel, the Sacristía de Santa Ana, on the Alameda de Hércules, an enormous tree-linded square with two huge columns at either end devoted to the man himself. I am quite close to Seville's majestic river, the Rio Guadalquiver, so I took a stroll along its promenade. It has a series of picturesque bridges such as the Puente de San Telmo, built in 1931 as a lift-up bridge, the very pretty 1852 Puente de Isabel 11 and the newer Puente del Cristo de  la Expiración, which is covered with a series of distintive white awnings. Along the way I visited the Castillo de San Jorge, the seat of the Inquisition Council from 1481 until 1785, where for virtually 300 years the Catholic Monarchs had thousands of men and women from all walks of life imprisoned, tortured and garrotted in order to preserve the Catholic faith in Spain. My next stop was the Torre del Oro, a 13th century Moorish watchtower which guarded the river and the city for 800 years. Inside the tower and spread over two floors was a wonderful maritime museum depicting superb models of the barques of the Spanish Armada era, nautical instruments of the time such as sextants and long brass telescopes and paintings of former captains in full regalia. There was a panoramic viewing platform at the summit,  which gave wonderful vistas of Seville. I finished off at the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza, Seville's famous bullring and Spain's oldest built in 1758. The colourful arena was magnificent and special seats and boxes were reserved for the Royal Family and El Presidente. In the adjacent museum were paintings of former matadors in full dress and trophies of long lamented toros. Tomorrow I'll explore the City Centre.