Seville, Spain

It is said that Seville is the driest, hottest place in Europe. It claims to have the highest recorded temperature in the world – 56 degress C (40C = 104F)! However, somehow, we managed to stay for three rainy days in Seville and put our Vietnam Northface knockoffs to good use! This was coincidentally the same time Sandy was pounding on the East Coast, perhaps climate change should not be dismissed….

Seville has an amazing network of narrow streets built by the Moorish that make it super easy to get lost, and very amusing to watch all the tourists with their maps trying to figure out where the hell they are. On our walking tour with Medi, we learned that Seville has decided to give each street at least two names, and in one case we found a street with 5 names that was only 25 meters long, so you can only imagine the confusion this creates on the tourists, and even the locals!

Do the words ‘Seville oranges’ ring a bell? These orange trees are literally are all over the city. Sadly, the oranges are very sour and terrible to eat, but they are perfect for drinking in Beefeater Gin… Check the back of the bottle next time you have a G&T and you will see that the recipe includes oranges from Seville!

Seeing how loads of famous bullfighters are from here, we were least impressed with the bullfighting ring, yet most impressed by the Plaza de Espana because it displays so much history in the architecture including flags for each province and a small map. It’s really large with a uniqueness to it that you might have seen before since it was used for hit films like Star Wars.