Seville, Spain (September 2006)

My first trip over to 'the Continent' since I got here in April was to Spain's fourth largest city and the capital of the southern Spanish region of Andalucia. Steph and I made the trip in honour of my birthday, and as a place to kick back and relax, see some great sights, eat some fantastic food and enjoy some absolutely splendid weather - well, it was perfect! The architecture is amazing and quite unique - a mix of middle-eastern (Moorish) and Roman influences.

Seville now sits a close second in my list of favourite European cities (right behind Venice. Ahhhh, Venice.).

The main, and most obvious, feature of the Sveille is the absolutely enormous cathedral - one of the biggest I've ever seen! In fact, I think it's the largest of all medieval and Gothic cathedrals in Europe (or could be the world?). It was actually built (about 500 years ago) on the site of the city's former mosque and still features some of the original columns and elements.

Seville is also famous as being the birthplace of the guitar, as well as flamenco - a combination of Spanish dancing and guitar. Pretty cool and high-energy stuff - this is from a a Flamenco show we went to one night.

The Torre del Oro on the river - an old watchtower on the river.

This is the Plaza de Espana - a huge crescent shape complex of palaces and monuments (it was actually very exciting to be here as some of the scenes from the new Star Wars movies were filmed here!). They had tile mosaics built into the plaza to represent each of the regions of Spain - these were quite cool too.

There's also the Alcázar - the city's old Moorish Palace. Again, huge, and the gardens were amazing - a blend of Moorish, Andalusian and Christian traditions.

The local bull-fighting stadium - we did a tour in and around the ring and got a detailed (and often quite disturbing) insight into the quite brutal sport of bull-fighting, which is still one of the most popular sports in Spain.

This is the bridge of triana that crosses the river, as seen form the outdoor restaurant district of the town (where we spent many a night enjoying tapas, gorgeous wine and a lot of sangria!).

It's also worth mentioning our hotel - we got a ridiculous bargain on a room in a luxurious converted 18th century palace. It was bsolutely gorgeous, with lots of marble and fountains, and cute little outdoor courtyards. And a rooftop restaurant with views across the city.

Seville is an inland city, but not too far from the coast so many saeside towns are easy enough to get to and back in a day. Feeling the need for a swim, we took a bus south to Malaga for a dip in the Mediterranean. The beach itself isn't amazing, and it has a very touristy feel (and is full of English people!!), but after topping up on the sunburn we went into the town itself and explored a bit, and discovered some really cute buildings and a great fort to wander around in.

And that was Seville - go there, you'll love it! :)