7 Days at South Spain – PART II

I hope you’ve read my 7 Days at South Spain – PART I.

Day 4: Tuesday: March 22^nd: We decided to have a quick breakfast in the café of the hotel hacienda posada vallina. Very soon after that we left for Seville.because without reading that you won’t be able to understand this.

You need to be in Seville, in order to feel the real Spain. As soon as we reached, we had to drive through slim streets of Seville in order to reach our hotel. My husband was hesitating to enter those streets with car, as we did not want to get stuck. But the locals helped us quite a bit and with their help and Google maps, we reached the “Hotel Amadeus”. As soon as we checked in the receptionists explained us about the ongoing Easter festival happening there. We did not care much and ignored anything they have said, but who knew that was the biggest mistake we have ever done.

{A few snaps of Hotel Amadeus}

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After checking our luggage in we got out to have a quick lunch at Tabernas Peregil. We discussed to have a light lunch so it was a few kinds of tapas and a pitcher of Sangria. I don’t like alcohol much but that sangria made me fall in love for it.

We decided to do local shopping that day. I have already chalked out a shopping stores route plan for shopping after Googling. We went to store #1, it was closed even if it was only 4 pm. So we went to the second store and it was closed as well. After that we asked a local policeman and he explained, “All stores are closed due the Spanish Holy Week processions and it’s going to start at 5pm.”

{Pictures of Sevilla and preparations for their holy week celebration}

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[/ezcol_1half_end][ezcol_1half] [/ezcol_1half][ezcol_1half_end] [/ezcol_1half_end] Then it turned 5 and their possessions started. For half an hour the entire route came to stand still. We could not even cross the street and go to our hotel. And this was just the tip of the iceberg.

Tired us came back to the hotel and took a quick shower before getting out for a fancy dinner at a restaurant. Crossing many hurdles we, two hungry souls reached to the first restaurant and it was closed.

We said “Fine, next place is quite close so let go”.

We were on our way but to reach other restaurant but we had to cross a street. We could not as the 3^rd or 4^th (who cares) processions of that night was on the street. We were stuck in the crowd for 30 minutes. It was 9:30 and we were tired and hungry and the locals said “Even if you die, they won’t let you pass”. After 30 minutes, I told my husband “Let just go home, I really can’t stand any more.” So we started exploring roads and way to avoid the processions and after 20 minutes or trial and error we finally reached La Pepona.

The dinner was modern Spanish and we both ate our heart out. After that we went to our hotel back by some ways avoiding the processions and went to sleep.

Day 5: Wednesday: March 23^rd: My husband and I decided to shop in the early morning as all shops were supposed to be closed by 2:00 pm. So we went for shopping and bought Montana, Spices, Pottery. After that we had a quick lunch in a tapas : El Rinconcillo. We went there and asked for us to be seated. The waiter looked at me as if I asked him his kidneys. This is a very old restaurant of Seville so I definitely wanted to eat here. One table got cleared and we decided to share the table with 6 other strangers. Who cares we had to share our table and eat standing but we loved the super hot Spinach with chickpeas.

{Picture of El Rinconcillo}

My legs were getting tired, so we decided to check a few spot before calling it for a day. So we bought the tickets for the Cathedral to check the next morning and went to check Alcazar as it was opened until 6 ish. Those few moments of Alcazar I will cherish forever. It was so romantic, so relaxing. We would not get out from there, unless the security guard was chasing us.

{Photographs of Alcazar}
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It was around 6ish and we decided to check the Central Park of Seville. It’s not so Spanish but definitely a spot to relax your tired legs for a while.

{Photographs of Seville Central Park}

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We watched sunset there and planned to have an early dinner, as we did not want to get trapped by their Spanish Holy Week processions again. So we went to a Victorian restaurant “Restaurante La Albahaca”. It was a quiet restaurant and but the quality of service was exquisite. You will feel pampered and loved. After having a nice burp-y dinner two of us managed to get hotel and call it for a day.

{Photograph of Restaurante La Albahaca}

Day 6: Thursday: March 24^th: As we could not check the Cathedral we decided to checkout early morning and be there by 10:30. As we got the ticket the day before it was an quick entry. After spending few hours in the Cathedral and Giralda Tower, we went to check the local art museum. We tried to wrap by 2 and tried to leave by 3. While coming back to hotel, pick up our car and luggage we decided to have a quick bite at some local Spanish joint.

{Photographs from and around Cathedral}

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Even if our journey to Malaga was amicable the experience in Malaga was quite painful. As we reached past 6, pretty much the whole city was closed due to the Spanish Holy Week processions. It took us an hour to find our way to hotel as every single street Google was suggesting was closed. After reaching the hotel I wanted to buy the red terracotta Spanish pot for cooking. After showing a couple of pictures, the hotel receptionist said “You might get in a big departmental stores as they are not local products”. So we decided to check that but we were lucked out. I saw the shop was right across the street we were standing, but I had to bid adieu to my Spanish terracotta bowl dream goodbye due to millions of people between me and the store.

My husband said “It’s already 9 and the store must be closed by now. Do you really want to check?”

I gave up and we finally decided to have a Moroccan dinner. After having Tapas and Spanish foods for days and nights, Moroccan food tasted like the food from heaven to us. We loved the food, ambience and restaurant so much we decided to have one another dinner there.

Day 7: Friday: March 25^th: It was our last day but I really did not want to miss the view of Sierra Nevada. So we went to Granada in order to capture the view of Alhambra and Sierra Nevada. Going there and taking picture were the best moments of our life, but finding food was not. We went from one restaurant to another asking for some food and none of them were able to serve us anything as they were over packed. We finally had some olives, potato chips and water. We bought some more spices, some more potteries before returning back to Malaga.

{Sierra Nevada}

We did not want to leave too late based on our experience the night before.

{View of Alhambra}

But it was past 6 and the police officer did not let us go our hotel so we had to park far and go to our hotel. We decided to have a simple dinner at the same Moroccan place the night before.

It was fast 7 days and it passed so fast. I really did not want to return from there and if it were possible I would have increased my duration.

A few pointers:

1. By all means avoid any holy week and especially Easter.
2. Take a car and enjoy the journey. The journey was much better than the cities.
3. Look at the restaurants in lonely planet before; I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed. During our entire trip we ate twice in the restaurants not recommended by the book and we repented.
4. Tapas and Spanish food are great but no one can love oily greasy food for a very long period of time. So try Moroccan food there, it’s a good variety to break the tapas boredom.
5. Spanish restaurants open past 8:30 so don’t forget to have a hearty lunch
6. Indulge in Spanish hot chocolate – you will miss it for your entire life for sure.
7. And yes, you pay for the breads and water come to your table.
8. It’s not mandated to tip in restaurants.
9. Alcohol is cheaper than water there.

Must have food in South Spain: No it’s not Paella

1. Spanish Tortilla
2. Patatas Bravas
3. AjoBlanco
4. Salmorejo
5. Sangria
6. Almogrote
7. Lamb Tagine
8. Thick Spanish Hot Chocolate
9. Spinach with chickpeas
10. Chorizo (I liked the hot more) not the cold Iberian Chorizo
11. Marinated fish on toast
12. Fried fish, shrimp and other seafood
13. Turrón

{Women dresssed up for Spanish holy week celebration}

If you have any more points please feel free to add in comment. I will edit the post to add your pointers. I will devote a small post on “What to shop in Spain?” very soon.

A few photographs of me and us

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