Gosh I had a lovely time last weekend in Seville. So many lovely places to visit and so much delicious food to eat. I travelled out to Seville late on wednesday evening . It’s always a joy travelling by Ryanair but I do have to say now that the checkin desk this time was very helpful. We had filled in my husband’s details wrong and we were in great danger of a whopping £160 surcharge. But no, compassion was the order of the day and we boarded and arrived on time.
It is useful flying in late at night as it gives you a head start in getting in to Seville’s late, late hours. We stayed at El Rey Moro a very beautiful but somewhat chilly hotel in the Barrio Santa Cruz. To be fair to the hotel Seville was unusually cool for the time of year and extra blankets were provided on demand.
Barrio Santa Cruz is the oldest part of the city and the closest to both the cathedral and the Real Alcazar and only a short walk from the Plaza Espana . Walk we did, endlessly searching the narrow streets for some sort of path to our intended destination. The medieval streets are a maze, indeed we found one tapas bar, Casa Roman, was directly behind our hotel, visible from our room window and yet we walked for 20 minutes to get to it!!
Our eating experiences were much enhanced by the wonderful folk at A Taste of Spain http://www.atasteofspain.com/ I’d been in touch with them and they recommended some excellent places to eat.
We had tapas at Sol y Sombre a Seville institution and an elegant lunch at Becerrita to the north of the town. We ate churros each morning buying them from a kiosk and eating them in the neighbouring cafe who supplied the coffee and chocolate. We drank a glass of wine in a very touristy place along the river where we watched the rowing on Sunday morning then meandered to Carmen’s tobacco factory , now part of the university, and ate a modern Spanish lunch at Oriza.
We also ate well just stopping when we were hungry and I can honestly say we did not have one bad meal. Quite a feat these days.
Apart form one churlish waiter at Casa Roman everyone was charming and helpful. Altogether a lovely break. Oh and we did do some sightseeing too and we watched Flamenco!
http://www.tabernasolysombra.com
Seville is on our ‘bucket list’…we need to spend more time in Spain. I’ve just bought Claudia Roden’s new book and booked for her talk at Daunts & it is spurring me into action, coupled with this beautiful, sunshiney post! So glad to have discovered your blog at last…I’ve loved your writing since Telegraph days. Have a wonderful weekend
Thank you so much for your kind comments. I love visiting Spain, it has become my favourite gastronomic destination over the past few years.