Our trip down was failrly uneventful except to say that our overnight stop near Tours (where we arrived exactly 2 minutes before they shut for the night) suggested that this is somewhere we would stay a bit longer on the way home. It is on the Loire with cycle tracks along the river into the City and to chateaux along the banks.
Whilst the UK may have had the coldest March ever, Spain has had its' wettest. Seville was sunny and warm one minute and tipping it down the next. A lovely city and one we last visited about 30 years ago! Some great architecture some Moorish and old, some more modern but often beautifully tiled.
We succeeded in meeting our friends from Australia, Gaby and James, who some of you will know and proceeded to have a typically long Spanish lunch followed by a lazy afternoon wandering the streets stopping for the occasional Tinto de Verano.
It was Semana Santa which means a crazy week of religious processions. Gaby and James had literally been trapped within the processions the day before which last from 2pm - 3am and could not break through the cordon to get back to their hotel. The Monday was very busy with the same processions but not quite as hectic as Sunday.
These processions are organised by all of Seville's 50 brotherhoods who march from their local church to the Cathedral. There are up to 5000 in each brotherhood (sometimes including women) and they all wear these rather sinister Ku Klux Klan type costumes with only small eyeholes. Given that this means nearly 250,000 in the procession it is not surprising it takes so long. There are different coloured costumes depending where the brotherhood originates. Some carry various Christian sculptures, some carry crosses and apparently the most penitent go barefoot. I saw a couple in several pairs of thick socks but none barefoot. I guess penitence is a bit out of fashion.
Finally, we drove down to our campsite close to Conil de Frontera.
Adios
J & P
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