We got up about 5:30 so we could get an early move on driving over to Sevilla (Seville – but they spell it with an “a” so henceforth I will use an “a” unless we are discussing Cadillacs.) They are an hour ahead of us, so we’d lose that once we arrived. It was about 2.5 hours from our apartment in Portimao to the city center. Traffic was nonexistent until we got into Sevilla. It was more of what you would think of driving in Rome or New York, but it wasn’t horrible. Thankfully we have our GPS which has been excellent – well worth the investment if you’re not using public transit.

 

While on the subject of driving we have to mention how refreshing it is to drive here again. Even in the masses of Sevilla there is sense to the aggression. People understand sharing the road and there is no “entitlement” just because you are in a truck or Mercedes, and the left lane is for PASSING. Case in point – I was driving about 80mph in our trusty UP! on the way back from Sevilla and was passed by a guy in a Porsche 911 convertible. He was easily going 115-120 mph. He came up on our car, signaled, got in the left lane and blew by, once past he signaled and got in the right lane then closed in on a truck up ahead and did it all again, etc., etc. You see no one on their cell phones – you absolutely have to pay attention. It will be hard transitioning back to driving in the U.S.

These were a great sight on the drive over and back – sunflowers make us happy! Vast areas of nothing but sunflowers – it’s almost like a John Denver song. They were so moving we removed all of our black fingernail polish and eyeliner.
 

Sevilla (and Spain in general) LOVE their motorbikes and scooters.

It definitely made me wish I had Spawn of Choppy over there so I could demonstrate what a proper asshole was like.

(Speaking of proper – when I showed the Yorkshire clan photos of S.O.P. they all said, “Awww nice one man! Eye’d ‘ave that. Thaz ah proppa choppa!”

We didn’t see a lot of places while in Sevilla. We spent the most time at the Real Alcazar (Royal Palace) that was mostly built in the 1300’s, but it had additions through the 1700’s. It was amazing! Take a look:

Game of Thrones fans should recognize this – it’s where scenes in Dorne were filmed.
     

These trees were incredible. I have no idea how old they might be.

 

We had lunch in this nice rotunda. Lots of grapes hanging there waiting to be made into wine.

Who new Maggie actually had three legs? I’ve never noticed.

  

Massive cathedral on the opposite side of the palace.

   

There were people up there around the bells. Maggie thought many of them were hunch-backed.

We then went into this lighthouse/outpost place (can’t remember the name of it.) that was on the river in the center of town. It was like a customs house, light beacon, etc. The old map was pretty fascinating – if you look closely you can see Asia, Europe, Africa, etc. All of the dark green on the left was the new world.

 

Defy authority.

Lastly, we went to Maria Luisa Park  which was a huge park, kind of like Central Park in New York but larger. It was very peaceful to be right in the heart of the city.

We then had a short siesta then drove back to Portimao. (These trains/streetcars went all over and were very quiet. Pretty neat)