The Purple Penguin

Up early as we were off at 6am as the others were flying out that morning. We briefly thought of staying and making our way to Seville, but the weather was the same damp and cloudy, with no improvement; so we headed back to the airport with the group. Due to the early start it was another sleepy ride, dozing in the back and watching the fog. At one point the mist cleared and we saw a lovely sunrise with the full moon on the other side of the van, really beautiful; but then the fog rolled back in.

The airport was wild, very crowded. The guide tried to pull in but another car ducked in behind us taking the space. So he pulled into another and another car tried the same manouver but this time we just sat it out until we could pull in. I watched a car stop beside us and the car behind it pulled right up to their bumper nearly hitting the first people who were getting their bags; so the first people very passive aggressively opened the boot and made a show of pulling out their bags over the bonnet of the second car, then made a show of making sure the boot closing didn’t hit the second car. It was wild! Our group all got out and safely to the airport, Joe and I said our goodbyes, then headed off to find the taxis to Seville.

Found the taxi rank which was full as they were waiting for the flights to come in (or so we think). I think they were a bit surprised to see us. It was an interesting ride to the hotel, started on the main highway, then normal main city street, then turned onto a very very narrow cobbled street – at one point the driver pulled in his wing mirror as the passage was just about wide enough for the car. We pulled up to the hotel door, but as the street was so narrow the driver couldn’t get out – we piled out and grabbed our bags. We were far too early to get our room, but the hotel actually did the check in and stored our bags saying the room would be ready around 4pm.

We headed off into the historical part of the city, down the little twisty cobbled streets. We got turned around several times and later learned we didn’t really get far from the hotel to start! We did find the gardens, Alcazar, and Cathedral finally. We also had breakfast/brunch in a little cafe (Naturalmente) where Joe had the best cinnamon roll ever, served warm and soft. We then spotted the Torre del Oro and headed for that which was on the river. So we walked down the river and saw the Nao Victoria museum and replic ship – we didn’t go into the museum but did have a look at the ship from shore. We also checked where we needed to go to see the Cathedral and Alcazar before heading back to the hotel.

Got our room which was very nice and had a bit of a rest. We had a quick, light meal at the restaurant before crashing for the night.