Heh … the “just” is a joke. Trust me. Every day is, for me, something new, something exciting … just SO much to discover in our world! So far, too, I feel as if I should revisit each city we’ve been to, knowing we still missed so much. But so it goes. We can’t do it all!

Today we had a very light breakfast (truly!), and then headed to Real Alcázar. What a palace! I had heard it was a “not to be missed” place, but figured we’d spend maybe an hour there. Not so! There was much to explore, so we were there for over two hours. Apparently the royal family still lives there when they visit Sevilla. I’ll just bet you they aren’t there, though, when the weather is so crazy hot.

From there we went to lunch. Again, I managed to do less. Tomorrow I may even go down to the bowl of soup (it’s a cold soup) and nothing more. We shall see. (At home I only eat two meals a day, so this three meal thing is causing rotten weight gain, but hey, we are on vacation and I do really want to experience the foods of the area.)

Back to our hotel we went, where I believe I snoozed for maybe 20 minutes, and then it was off to our 3:00 time slot to see the Cathedral of Sevilla. The first thing we did was head up the tower. I had read a warning about it to Dan a day or two ago, but he handily forgot! As you know if you’ve read this, I suffer when it comes to heights. But I did figure I could simply stay inside at the top if I couldn’t handle it. This tower, though, wasn’t as hard on me: they had bars over the open places. I still had to brace myself, and I had to hold on to something whenever I went up to one of those “windows”, and yes, I still had the pain I get … but I took a few iPhone shots and there was not one whimper!

From there we went to see the church itself. For me it is all a bit much. I appreciate the art. But all the relics and silver and … well … just so much is overwhelming. I also don’t understand the Catholic cathedrals. There are so many different rooms along the sides. Are these all chapels? Do different people worship in different ones? I’ve no clue. There were also at least three organs, or so it seems, judging from where pipes were. I would have loved to have heard an organ while we were there. I took tons of photos, but after a while it all just seems like a whole lot of shiny, costly, stuff. A guided tour might have helped me understand, but we rarely opt for those.

After the Cathedral we headed back (again) to the hotel. I enjoyed a nice shower (but WHY don’t hotels have soap/shampoo holders that don’t allow everything to fall through to the floor? Heh. Such a serious problem, right? While I sat around relaxing Dan finally got a bit of a rest in (he didn’t nap earlier, when I did). From there we went to get our free “welcome drink”, so we sat in what I suppose one might call the lobby of the hotel. I’ll have to take a photo to show you why I wonder what one might really call it, as it serves a number of purposes. We also had an “Andalusian sweet” that they have for us. Nothing all that special — just some wrapped cookies — but hey, free stuff! I love free stuff. (I, in fact, took the free toothbrushes and tiny toothpastes they have in our bathroom as well: I have a feeling I will need to replace the toothbrush I brought from home. OH … and note to self … yes, you should bring your electric toothbrush, despite its weight. You hate the manual toothbrush and you never feel as if you get your teeth really clean!)

We headed up to see the “Parasol” (Seats de Sevilla), but weren’t willing to pay the €15 each to ride to the top, so we headed back to find dinner. The area has a lot of shops … and I assure you I didn’t purchase these even while I loved looking!

We landed at a tapas place and had a nice time there. A couple of guitarists passed by (separately) and we gave them a Euro for their music making. Gotta support music makers, after all!

Now don’t laugh and don’t judge, but on the way home we had ice cream cones. Again. Will we eventually get control and stop doing this? Who knows? Am I again too full. Yeah. Will I sleep? WHO KNOWS!

Of course, as always, the city is quite alive late at night.

But now goodnight … one more full day here and then we are off to the next city. I suspect we could have spent one less day here, and probably one less at the next city as well. Live and learn.

We are back at our hotel finally … it’s 11::38 PM in Sevilla, and it’s currently 86° outside. The high today was 105° I think. (And please don’t tell me we chose a stupid time to travel: the time was chosen due to the beginning and end of the trip, and because of my job we tend to travel at the worst times … but that will change, I know.

We headed out in the heat. and I have to say it was already crazy warm (no, hot!) out, but we knew the afternoon would only get worse and we’d probably not want to venture out then at all. So we wandered in our random way. This place is just amazing! Please enjoy these photos from that first outing, since I am going to try and write this quickly and get to sleep.

After that we came back and I slept for maybe 10 minutes or so, and spent a bit of time on the computer. Then we decided to brave it in the heat. At that point it was 101°. That heat hit us like you would not believe. We walked a wee bit … very slowly.

Since we bought a couple of goodies we headed back to our place to drop them off, and (I might be getting this out of order … too tired to remember!) we made reservations for dinner and a Flamenco performance.

Heading toward the location of the dinner/performance we ended up near the bullfighting arena. Not being a supporter of such things I knew we would never go, but we could still walk around it a bit.

Then it was time for the dinner and show. And both were simply amazing. We can’t film the show, but I was able to shoot a bit inside the place before the show started. Walking home so very late the area is swarming with people. I can’t believe how late everyone stays up.

But it is definitely time for bed, so off I go. I’ve been up for at least 18 hours and I’m exhausted!

Goodbye Lisboa (well yes, I think I should call it by the name those who live there call it. Maybe. When I remember.), hello …

SEVILLA!

We had a car scheduled to pick us up at 5:00 AM for our 7:25 flight, since we just weren’t sure what the airport was like or how early we should be there. I think we could have arrived maybe 30 minutes later, but I love being early so I was happy to wake, quickly dress, and get our car. (We packed all but pjs and toiletries the night before so the packing was quite speedy). I only shot one photo on the drive … just had to get something of the graffiti mostly just to post something from the morning and nothing else was interesting on the drive.

We had had the opportunity to bid on an upgrade for our TAP flight and we went for it, because it would allow us to do all carryon. Had we not upgraded our packs would have had to be checked, and we are not all that excited about waiting for luggage (we DID check the packs on our Lufthansa flight, only to notice people were bringing their larger bags on the plane despite the carryon specifications that would have nixed them … oh well). Because we got the upgrade we also were able to use the lounge. It was quiet, close to empty, and we could grab breakfast there.

And then the flight. It was funny: there were six seats in the “executive area” and only Dan and I were there. The flight was SO short, but still they served us breakfast (first closing the curtain so everyone in the economy section were separated from the two of us. I have uncomfortable feelings about that, but so it goes. (But how crazy that we get the lounge, where we can grab breakfast, and THEN we also get the breakfast on the plane.)

And suddenly we are in Sevilla. A driver met us at the airport (costly, but we did find out we needed him!), and he got us nearly to our lodging. He stopped the car at a dead end and said, “Now we walk.” He grabbed one of my bags and headed out … alley … alley … narrow alley … I highly doubt we’d have found our wonderful lodging without him! We will definitely have to drop a pin to get back here. But it’s rather magical … very private … very pretty, too

We assumed we’d have to leave luggage and return since it was only a bit after 10:00, but no, the man who met us at the hotel said our room was actually ready. IF we’d had the room I signed up for, though, we would have had to wait.

Why did we not get the room I reserved, you ask? (I knew you’d ask that!)

WELLLLLL … apparently when I filled out the form to check in ahead of time (two days ago it arrived in an email) I put my birthdate down wrong. I have NO clue how it happened, but I said I was born in 1928! When the guy saw my age he said he thought, “I can’t possibly make her go to the first floor!” so he upgraded our room to the ground floor for free. Honestly! When he saw me he laughed. But hey, I look pretty darn good for a 95 year old, right? He said he’s going to have to try that when he travels — to see if he gets an upgrade if he makes himself pretty darn old. Heh. I promise I won’t do this deliberately, but I’m grateful for the beautiful room. And I’m not a person who normally does baths, but I think I just might have to give this one a go!

Right outside our door is the eating area where breakfast is served (which we did not purchase (I just can’t see spending €14 for breakfast), but we have a coupon for a free coffee there or some such thing, and I’ll bet we enjoy an afternoon drink at some point. The second image below is looking at the door to our room.

Dan is resting up — waking up so early kind of knocked us out a bit — and I’m not sure what we have in store for today, but I can tell you it is supposed to be killer hot. The prediction is 105° at 6:00 PM. And there is bad air here, too. I suspect this city is an “early in the morning” and “later in the evening” kind of place for venturing out a lot, but tomorrow we have a 10:00 ticket for Alcázar of Seville, and a 3:00 ticket for the Catedral de Sevilla. I did read that the church will be on the cooler (temperature, that is) side even in the afternoon … here’s hoping!

But now off we go … it’s 11:38 and we know that it’s only going to get hotter. Maybe I’ll take a video of how we get back to this place and share it. Time will tell.

Not proof reading this … excuse any mistakes!