Day 1:
Arriving in Madrid
Day 2: Madrid to Toledo to Cordoba
Day 3: Cordoba to Granada
Day 4: Granada to Costa del Sol
Day 5: Costa del Sol
Day 6: Costa del Sol to Gibraltar to Seville
Day 7: Seville
Day 8: Seville to Lisbon
Day 9: Lisbon
Day 10: Lisbon to Salamanca
Day 11: Salamanca to Madrid
Day 12: Madrid
Day 13: Madrid (extra day after tour ends)
The Toronto Reunion (plus additional links)
Sign my Guestbook
View my Guestbook
Placa Espagna
Me at Placa Espagna
The bullring in Seville
Me, Naureen and Roni enjoying tapas
The Cathedral of Seville
The tomb of Christopher Columbus in the Cathedral of Seville
The view of Seville, 34 floors above
From the top of the tower of the Cathedral: Elena, Naureen, Atonietta,
Federico and Me
The evening flamenco show
Sunday, September 3, 2000
I had never seen a bunch of people look so rough and tired in the morning as I did on this day. Some had stayed out the night before at the club as late as 6:00AM and thus got only an hour of sleep before we were roused up for our morning tour of Seville. Seven people were complete no shows this morning from having too much of a good time the night before. I had to tip my hat to some for actually being able to make it out of bed. We were joined on the bus by a local guide who talked a little about the history of Seville and pointing out some of the more interesting buildings, most of them from the two world Expos Seville had hosted. Of course, most people were completely wiped out from the night before and were half comatose on the bus ride to Maria Luisa Park. I myself actually felt much better than the day before; I was a little more alert and could breathe much easier...it must have been the Sudafed kicking in.
The group photo in front of Placa Espagna (minus 7 people).
Click on the photo for a larger view.
We got off the bus and gathered for the obligatory group photograph (shown above, with the aforementioned 7 people missing) at Maria Luisa Park in front of the Placa Espagna. We were told to form two rows, which normally would be a simple task. But with nearly everyone fatigued, it took us about three tries and Jacquie teaching us how to count ("That's pretty good, guys, but that's about five rows...we need two!") until we finally got it. After the photograph, some just sat down in front of the building (as shown below) and closed their eyes. Some of us with a little more energy walked around and even went up the stairs to a balcony to get a great view of the square and building.
Sitting in front of the Placa Espagna: Audrey, Kevin, Maria Cristina, Me,
Gerardina, Delia, Armando, Naureen, Holly, Martha, Mary Cris, and Louisa
We then hopped back onto the bus and proceeded to the
Taurin bullring and museum. There was no bullfights scheduled for the day,
so we never got a chance to see an actual bullfight. However, we did get to
see the bullring from the inside as well as visit the museum inside, which
showcased everything from mounted bull's heads to statues to costumes.
We continued on the bus a little further into the centre of Seville where the tour continued on foot. We were then let go to roam around Seville. Quite a number of people headed right back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep. The rest of us decided to make the most of our day and explore Seville.
A handful of us decided to go to a tapas
bar and at least have our first taste of tapas. A couple of people decided
to head back to the hotel for some needed rest, while the rest of us decided
to see the Cathedral of Seville. There was quite a long lineup, but we found
some other Contiki people
a little further up in the line and so we joined them. Admission on Sunday
was free. Inside was huge and magnificent, certainly matching the cathedral
we saw in Toledo in elegance. We decided to also walk up 34 floors to the
top of the tower. The walk consisted entirely of ramps, not stairs, so it
was easier on the feet than we had thought. At the top, we had a fantastic
panoramic view of the whole city in all directions.
Antonietta, Federico and I headed to an Internet Cafe (actually, it was more like a photocopy and book-binding store that offered the use of their computers, while the others headed back to the hotel. Again, we read and sent e-mails to jealous friends and family. We then headed back to the hotel, map in hand and walking all the way. I was rather impressed with myself for navigating all three of us back to our hotel without getting lost. The whole walk took about half an hour. It was unusual seeing all the shops closed for siesta; it almost looked like an abandoned town. When we got back to the hotel, Antonietta and Federico promptly went upstairs to their rooms, while I spotted Linda and Shirin (both from California), sitting by the bar, having some coffee. There was nobody in the deserted bar and restaurant except for the three of us. Linda and Shirin were among the seven who never showed up in the morning for the tour and group photo. We talked for a while, helping them catch up on what we did and saw during the tour as well as talking about previous personal travels we had taken to other parts of Europe. We headed up to our respective rooms, where we still had a few hours until our included dinner at the hotel and optional flamenco show.
After a couple of hours of additional sleep (doing everything I can to get rid of my cold without missing too much), I headed down for our included hotel dinner. I forgot what we had for dinner. (I had originally begun a journal of the trip for the purposes of creating this website, but by Seville, I gave up on keeping track of anything. There just wasn't anytime for me to write in my little notebook, so from here on in, everything is by photographs and memory!)
After dinner, we gathered in the hotel lobby to head out to see a flamenco show. This was an optional excursion which I originally was not going to go on. However, I am glad that I did. It was a colourful and fabulous display of music, dancing, coordination, and physical abuse as the dancers did some rather amazing things with their hands and feet on stage.
With the night still young, some of us, even after the previous night, went searching for a place to go, something to do. A large majority of the group went back to the hotel while a very small number of us headed out. Some found a small bar and pool hall, while a group of about 8 of us decided to head out to this place Kevin (the man with the great contagious laugh from Texas) heard about, called The Palace. It was supposedly a Palace turned bar/club. We hailed 2 taxis take all of us to The Palace. We took several winding streets, not entirely knowing where we were going, until we got into a very deserted area of the city and then The Palace. It was located in a very tight alleyway that would only fit one car width, and it was just a normal building attached to a string of other buildings, its doors closed and its lights off, along with everything else around it. We all hopped out of our taxis and scratched our heads, wondering one of several things: Is this it? or Where the hell are we? or What do we do now? (Naureen got a picture of us all standing in front of locked up Palace for prosperity's sake.) We then, literally, wandered around the twisted, quiet and deserted alleyways looking for some sign of life. We were a group of 8 individuals lost in Seville in the middle of the night. The whole while, we were thanking Kevin for showing us The Palace; it was something we would remember...for all the wrong reasons. We did manage to find our way into some better lit and wider streets where there were a few people wandering about. There was nothing open, no restaurants, no bars. We asked around to some people who tried to point us in the direction where anything would be open. We did find a "croissanteria" where Kevin got his one beer and most of the rest of us just got coffee or ice cream. We sat outside as the employees in the store began cleaning and closing up. It wasn't long before they had all the outside tables and chairs stacked up and had to kick us back out onto the deserted streets. To save face, Kevin suggested that we tell everyone that we took a long drive to The Palace, and that it was unlike any Palace we had ever seen before. I guess there is truth to that statement! We had no clue where we were, yet somehow, we managed to get back to the main street that our hotel was located on. We recognized the name of the street and then made the walk back to our hotel. This wasn't one of our more energetic nights, but it certainly was interesting and different. Everyone else already in their rooms knew we were back in the hotel because of Kevin's great recognizable laugh ringing through the hallways.
