Boy, are we ever glad that we made this decision. Seville is a great place to visit in January. We haven't heard another American voice, or even many Brits or other tourists, so clearly this is the off-season, but still, the place is vibrant and lively. And best of all, WARM. Sunny and 65 degrees in the day, maybe 45 at night, but I swear, everyone likes to be in the streets, and all the cafes have outdoor warmers, so no problem. I have found that my high school Spanish has come back to me in spades when I need it. Thank you, Mrs. Stripe. We got ourselves a lovely Marriott hotel, 1.2 km from the center, but the uber service here is reliable and cheap, so no problem, and it only takes about 10-15 minutes to get right into the heart of the city. Lovely streets, lots of bars and restaurants open. The ladies at the Marriott gave us some good suggestions to start, and then we found another place that we really liked. This tapas thing is great. Even if you have to guess what the items on the menu are, you can choose a few and you will like something. There was only one item I ordered that was a no-starter; it was called bacalao and I thought it was fried cod; to my dismay, it was raw cod in a sandwich.
We spent our time wandering, and only really toured one historic place, the Real Alcazar, which was well worth it.
So everything went well, but we did learn a couple of things the hard way. First, there are gorgeous orange trees everywhere, laden with oranges. Randy tried to eat one; not edible!
Number two, no matter how much you read the official government website, it still is not possible to know everything. As far as we could tell, you needed another negative covid test to cross into Portugal, even by bus. So we did that, not an easy task, and then we took the bus to Faro, a stop on our way to Lagos. We had NO idea how bad the bus trip would be. The bus was packed, and some of the people on it were of questionable sanity. The seats were tiny, no room to move, no bathroom, the trip was supposed to be 3 hours and turned into 5, he stopped at lots of little towns along the way, and the ride was bumpy and jerky. And when we crossed into Portugal, he didn't even stop; there is no border crossing, and no one checking your papers. I couldn't wait to get off in Faro; when we did, we had no idea where we were, so I just called an Uber, who actually came right away and took us around the block to the hotel! We had no idea it was right there.
We ran into another American couple while waiting for the bus, which was half an hour late. Michael, a retired professor from Iowas State, came over and introduced himself and was wondering if we knew anything about whether or not the bus was coming. Clueless as we were, we nevertheless struck up a conversation and I wish we had exchanged numbers, because they are staying here in Faro for three days, too, and it would be fun to get together for dinner.
So. . .so far, so good. The 5 hour bus ride is behind us, the hotel is beautiful, they upgraded us to a balcony marina view room, and breakfast this morning was accompanied by a pianist! All is well. This is the view from our room.
Great pic, mom!
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