16th February 2017. Seville, Spain.

We had an early start today, I began my morning by going out on to the patio to watch the sunrise, it was beautiful but I made the rookie mistake of going outside bare foot and pretty soon my feet were frozen!  Mind you it did stop me from taking loads of photos.

Janet had booked tickets to go to the Alcazar and we needed to be there by 10.15 a.m. but before we met them Darren and I had to go in search of breakfast.  The cafe we’d had our eye on was closed so we went across the road where we had a really nice breakfast and then rushed to meet Janet and Paul at their hotel.

We had a slight problem finding the entrance to the Alcazar and couldn’t work out where we were supposed to go once we’d gone through security but luckily we worked it out and got to our destination on time.

The tour around the Alcazar was great, the decoration in some of the rooms was jaw dropping.  Out in the gardens we watched huge carp clambering on top of each other to get to the bread that some school children were feeding them then a short while later Janet pointed out a bird of prey which was being driven away by a small flock of parakeets (what brave little birds) shortly after that a stork flew overhead, I saw more wildlife in that short space of time than I have seen in months.

We spent ages in the Alcazar, there was so much to see but the thing that caught my attention the most, because it was SO unexpected, was seeing a dumper truck driving through the ornate arches and over the cobbled covered courtyard, that caught everyone’s attention!

It was lunchtime by the time we left the Alcazar so we went in search of a restaurant that had a menu del dia.  We found one and sat at a table outside where we ordered some drinks.  While we were waiting for them the waiter brought out a different menu and we told him that we’d like to order off the menu del dia.  We were then politely told that we could only order from that menu if we ate inside so we picked up our drinks and trundled inside.  We were then informed that the red wine that Paul and Darren had ordered was the wrong wine for the menu we were ordering from and that although we would still get a glass of wine included in the deal they would have to pay extra for those two drinks, then they decided that my small glass of beer was also the wrong beer and would cost extra.  One of the waitresses brought one too many drinks over and then took one glass back, it was a comedy of errors.  We were a bit cheesed off that the staff had not explained before we’d ordered our drinks that there were different drinks for different menus especially as we hadn’t ordered a specific wine or beer.  Unfortunately on top of all this the meal wasn’t the best we’ve had either, not a good introduction to menu del dia for Paul and Janet!  To add insult to injury when the bill arrived they had added an extra drink along with the beer that they’d taken away.  We were pleased to get out of that restaurant although the staff were very polite through the whole debacle.

Our next stop was the Plaza de Espana with its magnificent tiling, it must have taken an age to build and decorate the buildings in that plaza, they are superb.  Darren and I went up to the balcony and spied Janet and Paul taking the opportunity to have a quick sit down, so we photographed them.

We wandered off to a square where we bought ice cream and sat and watched another flamenco dancer, she was brilliant and the lady singing and the guitarist who was accompanying her were thoroughly enjoying themselves, they had huge smiles on their faces which was so lovely to see.  From there we went in search of a drink and found a cafe where we sat outside watching the people walking past.

On our way back to our hotels we came across a barber aptly named El Barbero de Sevilla, I wonder whether he’d had to fight the other barbers for that name.

We were all exhausted by the time we got back to our hotels but what a great day particularly as Janet and Paul are hilarious, they kept the gloom away and kept us laughing all day.