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Coach tour success in Andalusia
Anthony Peregrine, in Britain's Daily Telegraph, reports on his first coach holiday, one that takes in the highlights of Andalusia. He's won over and after visits to Granada and Cordoba, and pleasant drives across the region, he and his party arrive in Seville. These excerpts give some idea of why he enjoyed his trip so much.
"In Seville, the big city heat is frying oranges in the trees. Much of the group opts for an afternoon around the hotel’s roof-top pool. Others wander out for a private exploration of a place at once stately with colonial wealth, idle and scurrying in the southern manner. The unexpected pleasure is that, as you wander privately, you’ll spot another couple (from the coach party) having a coffee somewhere — and be invited to join them. It happens to me several times. It’s like having acquaintances all over a foreign town."
He continues: "We have just visited the terrific Roman settlement of Italica, outside Seville. We are taking a coffee break in a nearby café, and I am watching fruit-and-veg events unfold live on local television. With me is Isidoro Martinez, the third of three first-rate local guides we’ve had on the trip. “They appear to be throwing aubergines,” I say. “Aubergines, eh?” grins Isidoro. “Then certainly it is very serious indeed.”
"Then we drive back to the city and visit the biggest cathedral — by area, not volume — in the world. There’s a Guinness Book of Records certificate signed by Norris McWhirter testifying to this near the main door. And it would indeed be fabulously impressive, if we didn’t have senses already full of the Alhambra and, especially, the Mezquita. Still, it’s not every day you see Christopher Columbus’s tomb, or an altarpiece of such staggering proportions. "
While Travelsavvy and other guides reckon Seville wins the biggest cathedral title on its volume rather than area, whoever is right doesn't affect the impact Seville's magnificent cathedral has on most visitors. That one building is enough to justify a city break in Seville, never mind the two other attractions, the Giralda Tower, once the tallest building on the planet; and the Alcazar, the superb palace of Seville's rulers, both within a few metres and right in Seville city centre.
This article was written for TravelSavvy Europe by Bob Cartwright. If you know of an interesting European travel related news story, please get in contact.
