Honeymoon Part 1: Seville

For our honeymoon we visited Seville, Granada and Nerja, in Spain's wonderful Andalucia region.  Seville, our first stop, was a classy city.  We arrived by train from Malaga, and took a taxi to our rather swish hotel.  A quick freshen-up and a spot of cava, and we were ready to hit the town.

Clockwise from top left: View from our terrace, Seville Cathedral, historic buildings, stumbling across a religious procession.

We had drinks on a hotel terrace, overlooking the cathedral.  I sipped cava and watched bats swoop from the bell tower.  They were huge bats, certainly not the usual British pipistrels!  Wandering around the streets is wonderful in Seville, there is so much to take in.  The shops in the district near where we were staying were incredible.  A mix of olde-world shops full of fans or hats, mixed with boutiques selling unique couture clothing, heavily influenced by both flamenco and vintage '50s/'60s - there were lots of full skirts in gorgeously tactile fabrics, with lofty price tags.

Clockwise from top left: fan shop, haberdashery, covered balcony detail, winding streets.

We called in to a few places for drinks and food, ending up walking along the river.  Crossing the Triana bridge, I had the romantic notion to give my new husband an engraved padlock I'd commissioned for our honeymoon.  The idea was to attach it to the bridge alongside all the other padlocks, or 'love-locks' as they're known.  Alas, I had unknowingly purchased a sort of mini padlock, which couldn't get around the thick railings!  We searched for the rest of the honeymoon for somewhere else suitably romantic to attach a love-lock, but we couldn't find anything so we've brought it home again.  It's the thought that counts.

We attended a fabulous flamenco show on our second night, we walked miles to find it only to discover it was practically next to...our hotel.  Ah well, it's not a holiday unless you get lost at least once!

Clockwise from top left: Milliners, flamenco, sunset drinks, covered streets.

Seville is inland and can get blisteringly hot, but what I loved was how cool the mornings were - because the buildings are so close together, and most pedestrian shopping areas are covered with giant 'sails', it's deliciously cool until later in the morning, meaning you can get a head start on your sightseeing or shopping without melting.  It got up to about 36 degrees while we were there, and normally I can't do anything in those kind of temperatures, but we managed to see a fair bit, including the wonderful Plaza Espana, the old tobacco factory that inspired the opera 'Carmen' (now the university, where they ironically had on some kind of psychology conference, do you reckon I could get work to send me there next year?!) and the old Jewish quarter.  I loved the historic buildings, the narrow alleys between them, all the little bars and restaurants spilling out of unlikely looking doorways. 

I would go back to Seville in a heartbeat - it was a wonderful city, and we barely scratched the surface in our two nights there.

Next up...Granada, and the Alhambra palace!