We arrived in Seville a little after midnight this morning after a long tedious journey from Oxford. Gatwick is as unpleasant as always though the salads in Nandos are actually very good.

The ibis Seville is a lot further from the airport than we’d thought but a quick taxi ride got us there. Ibis hotels are functional and convenient but have little truck with comfort. That said we slept well enough and breakfast was fine.

After a short walk (slight panic prior to finding that my Garmin had managed to relocate itself inside my sleeping kit into the suitcase) to a bus stop we caught the EA bus to the airport where we were scheduled to pick up a car from Goldcar. After loading our credit card with no end of refundable deposits we managed to get going, picked up the Peugeot 208 we’d booked and I’m writing this in a pleasant coffee stop en route to Córdoba where we’re staying tonight.

Córdoba is insanely busy. The hotel has an underground car park but the hotel is full as is the car park. We were given a number of alternatives, all of which were completo but eventually after much amusement all round, I jest, we found a parking spot inside the city (barely). Thankfully we’d had enough sense to drop off the suitcases at the hotel before attempting to park the car.

After walking back and checking in we’ve arrived at a cafe/restaurant where we’re in the process of trying to get something to eat.

The place mat is covered in chess games highlighting in particular Spassky v Fischer. Interesting.

Córdoba, like Seville has streets full of orange trees. I’m not sure of the etiquette but I’ve taken a particularly large orange from one fine tree to try later.

Unfortunately, according to the guy who checked us in, every year the oranges are collected and made into marmalade. Apparently they’re too bitter to be eaten raw. I’ll try mine later to check 😊.

Lunch was basic but we were hungry.

We’re going to hunt for a coffee and cake someplace else now. 🤞

A great little coffee/cake house near to the Alcazar – very impressive palace

All very, very busy with 100m queues to get inside the palace itself. We sensibly took coffee instead.

Back to the hotel to chill out for a while before setting out to find a tapas bar or similar for a light dinner before bedtime.

Across the road from the hotel is a large covered market place. We wandered across and found ourselves treated to a veritable smorgasbord of cuisines. The only available seats were at the counter of a tiny Japanese booth so we sat and were rewarded with great sushi and fried vegetables on a bed of rice. Accompanied by a couple of bottles of Kirin 0.0 who could wish for better.

The food was fresh, tasty and in the case of the vegetables, piping hot. Superb.

Back in the hotel flicking through the TV channels. The Spanish have clearly either not heard of or have decided not to make use of subtitles and instead dub everything. Our Spanish is mediocre at best so we’ve had to resort to reading books or playing podcasts on the HomePod. Usually ‘in our time’ with Melvyn Bragg but he’s an extraordinarily irritating host, totally out of his depth with anything scientific and given to pompous irrelevant comments on anything from the humanities except possibly Jane Austen. The guests are usually excellent and when able to speak at length without his inappropriate interventions are invariably enjoyably informative.

The other good podcast is the Dominic and Tom show on the rest is history but they’ve a tendency to be a little too self indulgent but when they rein it in they’re excellent.

That’s it for tonight. Breakfast tomorrow morning followed by sight seeing around Córdoba.

Buenas noches

PS. I tried the orange – it’s tart but tasty. I think I’ll take more 😉