We write the text for our website in English. The multiple language selection feature is an auto-translation by Google. This translation is not perfect; it sometimes uses peculiar words and even expresses things in a very different way than what we actually meant. So, if you’re reading in a language other than English, and you read something strange, switch back to the English version to read what we actually meant to write!
If you’d like a shorter/summarized version of our posts, read only the “Highlights” section below and stop before “The Captain’s Log“, which is much more detailed, more like a logbook / diary and contains information for our reference as well.
Highlights – the overview
In the morning, we get on our scooters to go explore Seville! After a 2km ride over the bridge and along the river, we turn right, towards the city center.
In the center, we get to the immense cathedral. We tried to get to get tickets online but it seems to be closed till after Easter. Well, from the outside it’s gorgeous!
In a little street behind the cathedral we have a delicious lunch in a tapas bar. Jamon Iberico, some cheeses, tomato salad, bread, Sangria 😋
Some spooks or Ku Klux Klan members on their way to join a procession…. well, to us they look like that, but they are penitents. The history goes back to the 15th century where people had to do penitence for their sins. To do that anonymously, they were covered completely except their eyes. The pointy hat symbolizes the desire for heaven: it points their spirit to heaven.
We meet a big procession. Thousands of pointy hats and in the middle, a float with Jesus. The float is made with amazing detailed wood carving work!
After half an hour, the float passes.
We drive to Plaza Espagna. What an impressive place!
Sher spots little ducklings in the fountain 😍
After a day full of impressions we drive back over the bridge that had to be opened for us coming into Seville, El Puente Delicias. From here we have nice view at the marina and our beautiful girl.
Right behind the Club Nautico Seville, they are setting up the area for the Feria de Sevilla (April 21-26). Thousands of tents!
After dinner in the cockpit the bridge opens and a huge cruise ship comes in, in reverse!
The next morning, we drive into the city again. We have 25 highlights of Sevilla to see 😅 Here’s number 6: the Setas de Sevilla.
After that, we walk trough the very narrow streets of the Santa Cruz district and the historical center. It’s extremely crowded, there are thousands and thousands of tourists and all Spanish people have a couple of days off for Semana Sante. It’s impossible to drive Thelma & Louise through the crowds and often it’s forbidden because of pedestrian zones. After an hour of walking and a little driving we get to Casa de Pilatos, a 16th century palace, well preserved, with beautiful Moorish details and lovely gardens.
We drive back to Dione IV, have lunch and pick up a package at the marina office before they close for the holidays (the cables for the wind generator). We have a relaxed second half of the afternoon. Tonight is going to be a late night…
After dinner, we walk to the cathedral. It’s 4km but we didn’t want to take Thelma & Louise, it will be so crowded that we can’t drive the scooters there. We’re going to see some processions!
It’s a pretty warm evening: around 25ºC. After the walk we have a delicious Italian ice cream first!
We watch a procession near the cathedral, in front of the palace Alcazar.
We gently push ourselves forward through the crowd 😅
Thousands of people…
Then, we see the big doors of the cathedral open. Hm. There’s a line of people waiting to get in but it advances pretty quickly. We queue up and 10 minutes later we’re inside! The cathedral is huge! And very beautiful.
It seems that all processions move through this cathedral. 9 processions today.
It’s unbelievable but it’s not crowded at all. We can view first rank!
The huge organ is playing and a big choir is singing. What an atmosphere!
We have a brochure with all processions of this week. The float of the Virgin Carmen seems to be the most beautiful, with hundreds of candles. And here she is!
Preceded by and followed by hundreds of pointy hats of course. We are very lucky with such a close view!
After that, we walk back to the marina from the processions. Sher goes to sleep and Wim stays awake to watch the Artemis 2 rocket launch live. After the successful launch at 0130h, Wim joins Sher in our delicious nest. 😊
After breakfast, we scooter along the river heading north. We’re going to see the Basilica de Macarena. By leaving a bit early, we hope it will be be not too crowded with tourists.
Along the way we pass the famous Sevilla bull fighting arena. Although we loathe bull fighting — we strongly believe there’s something completely wrong with hurting animals for pleasure — we decide to have a look inside.
Well, it’s a beautiful and impressive building.
On the other side of the river, there’s the attraction park “Isla Magica” where Wim has been working on laser shows in the past.
After a stop for coffee, we get to the Macarena basilica. Hm. There are no tourists but thousands of people, mostly Spaniards, it seems.
There’s a long line of people waiting to go into the Basilica. We even can’t see the end of the line! They are all dressed in black. Ah, we realize, it’s White Thursday today. They mourn about Jesus.
The ladies all dressed up in beautiful black dresses with the “Mantilla” (large ornate hair comb with black veil) on their heads. The men neatly in dark suits. We aren’t dressed appropriately, and wouldn’t want to wait hours to get in anyway, so off we go…
We drive back through the Triana district, it’s supposed to be another highlight of Sevilla. We think it’s a nice ancient and lively area but not really impressive.
Then, we return to the marina.
In the afternoon we take the scooters over to the Palacio Alcazar. We have booked tickets a few days ago. But bummer! Wim has made a mistake: he didn’t look carefully at the date: it’s for 2 weeks from now! Well, we’ll have to skip this for now…
Well, we’ve almost seen all 25 highlights of Seville! There’s only one more to go… (exept the Palacio Alcazar)
That’s this one!
But we have our own cruise ship, so we’re doing a private cruise! 😀
Tomorrow, our stay at Club Nautico ends and we have booked the passage through the bridge and the lock in the early morning.
After dinner, we see the big cruise ship leaving. It’s pretty narrow for him at the bridge!
The bridge is going to open at 0800h. We wait in the marina till we see some action on the bridge (policemen walking out to stop the traffic) and then we move up to the bridge. We’ll go back to Puerto Gelves where we have booked a reservation until May 13th. We’re going to do some traveling and the quiet little port of Gelves is a good safe place to leave our girl, Dione IV, while we’re away.
See you later, Sevilla! We’ve truly enjoyed our stay here! 😍😍 But Puerto Gelves is just over the river, so we will see you again before we head south out of the Guadalquivir!
The Captain’s Log – the complete story
March 31.
In the morning, we get on our scooters and see Sevilla!
Here, we cross the bridge and have a view at the marina (at the right side of the river, in the distance).
After a 2km ride along the river, we turn right, towards the city center.
In the center, we get to the immense cathedral. We tried to get to get tickets online but it seems to be closed till after Easter. Well, from the outside it’s gorgeous!
In a little street behind the cathedral we have a delicious lunch in a tapas bar. Jamon Iberico, some cheeses, tomato salad, bread, Sangria 😋
Some spooks on their way to join a procession.
Well, to us they look like spooks but they are penitents. The history goes back to the 15th century where people had to do penitence for their sins. To do that anonymously, they were covered completely except their eyes. The pointy hat symbolizes the desire for heaven: it points their spirit to heaven.
We meet a big procession. Thousands of pointy hats and in the middle a float with Jesus. The float is made with amazing wood carving work!
An endless row of pointy hats…
After half an hour, the float passes.
A break for the men carrying the float. They get water and snacks.
There must be 30 or 40 men under there!
Everywhere we look there’s beautiful architecture!
We drive to Plaza Espagna. What an impressive place!
Sher spots little ducklings in the fountain 😍
After a day full of impressions we drive back over the bridge that had to be opened for us: El Puente Delicias. From here we have nice view at the marina.
Right behind the Club Nautico they are setting up the area for the Feria de Sevilla (April 21-26). Thousands of tents!
After dinner in the cockpit the bridge opens and a huge cruise ship comes in, in reverse!
April 1.
In the morning, we drive to the city again. We have 25 highlights of Sevilla to see 😅 Here’s number 6: the Setas de Sevilla.
After that, we walk trough the very narrow streets of the Santa Cruz district and the historical center. It’s extremely crowded, there are thousands and thousands of tourists and all Spanish people have a couple of days of for Semana Sante. It’s impossible to drive Thelma & Louise trough the crowds and often it’s forbidden because of pedestrian’s area’s. After an hour of walking and a little driving we get to Casa de Pilatos, a 16th century palace, well preserved, with beautiful Moorish details and lovely gardens.
We drive back to Dione IV, have lunch and pick up a package at the marina office (the cables for the wind generator). We have a relaxed second half of the afternoon. Tonight is going to be a late sleep…
After dinner, we walk to the cathedral. It’s 4km but we didn’t want to take Thelma & Louise, it will be so crowded that we can’t drive. We’re going to see some processions!
It’s a pretty warm evening: around 25ºC. After the walk we have a delicious Italian ice cream first!
We watch a procession near the cathedral, in front of the palace Alcazar.
We gently push ourselves forward through the crowd 😅
Hundreds of black pointy hats…
Thousands of people…
Then, we see the big doors of the cathedral open. Hm. There’s a line of people waiting to get in but it advances pretty quickly. We cue up and 10 minutes later we’re inside! The cathedral is huge! And very beautiful.
It seems that all processions move trough this cathedral. 9 processions today.
It’s unbelievable but it’s not crowded at all. We can view first rank!
The huge organ is playing and a big choir is singing. What an atmosphere!
We have a brochure with all processions of this week. The float of the Virgin Carmen seems to be the most beautiful, with hundreds of candles. And here she is!
Preceded by and followed by hundreds of pointy hats of course. We are very lucky with such a close view!
After that, we walk back to the marina.
April 2.
After we get home from the processions, Sher goes to sleep and Wim stays to watch the Artemis 2 rocket launch live. After the successful launch at 0130h, Wim joins Sher in our delicious nest 😊
After breakfast we scooter along the river in northerly direction. We’re going to see the Basilica de Macarena. By leaving a bit early we hope it will be be not too crowded with tourists.
On our way we have a look at the Torre del Oro. It’s closed but it looks nice.
Then, we pass the famous Sevilla bull fight arena. Although we loathe bull fighting we decide to have a look inside.
Well, it’s a beautiful and impressive building.
At the other side of the river there’s the attraction park “Isla Magica” where Wim has been working on lasershows in the past.
After a stop for coffee, we get to the Macarena basilica. Hm. There are no tourists but thousands of Spaniards….
There’s a long line of people waiting to go into the Basilica. We even can’t see the end of the line! They are all dressed in black. Ah, we realize, it’s White Thursday today. They mourn about Jesus.
Slowly they progress into the church. Inside, there’s the huge float with the virgin and thousands of candles. This is the procession which takes place tonight: from 2300h till 0700h. Wim tries to take a picture from outside through the door but some men send him back: not allowed in T-shirt and shorts!
The ladies all dressed up in beautiful black dresses with the “Mantilla” on the heads. The men neatly in dark suits.
We scoot about a kilometer along the line of waiting people and when we turn in to a gate in city wall we see where the line starts.
We drive back through the Triana district, it’s supposed to be another highlight of Sevilla. We think it’s a nice ancient and lively area but not really impressive.
Then, we return to the marina.
In the afternoon we drive to the Palacio Alcazar. We have booked tickets, a few days ago. But bummer! Wim has made a mistake: he didn’t look careful at the date: it’s for 2 weeks from now! Well, we’ll have to skip this…
Well, we’ve almost seen all 25 highlights of Seville! There’s only one more to go… (exept the Palacio Alcazar)
That’s this one!
But we have our own cruise ship 😀
Tomorrow, our stay at Club Nautico ends and we have booked the passage through the bridge and the lock in the early morning.
After dinner, we see the big cruise ship leaving. It’s pretty narrow for him at the bridge!
April 3.
The bridge is going to open at 0800h. We wait in the marina till we see some action on the bridge (policemen stopping the traffic) and then we move up to the bridge. We’ll go back to Puerto Gelves where we booked till May 13. We’re going to do some traveling and the quiet little port of Gelves is a good place to leave Dione IV.
See you later, Sevilla! We’ve truly enjoyed our stay here! 😍😍
Leave a Reply