March 2017            Itinerary Link

Seville (population 700,000) is another one of those livable, attractive, laid-back cities of Spain. When we drove into this city, we were not sure whether we would be able to find a parking spot. I picked an Airbnb room near Las Setas de Sevilla mainly because a parking lot was supposed to be nearby even though this was a central location. As we were trying to find our building, a parking spot opened up, and we grabbed it so we could unload our bags. It turned out that was our luck of the day! The spot was good for our entire stay, and it was free.

The Old Town area of Seville is only about 4 square kilometers and totally walkable. In fact, it will be crazy to drive because there are so many alleyways and one-way streets and pedestrian streets. This area contains three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Alcázar palace complex, the Cathedral and the General Archive of the Indies.

From our Airbnb building, we basically walked south first toward the Cathedral, then to Plaza de Espana and Royal Alcazar. There was no shortage of interesting looking streets to take to come back to our apartment.

We ended up eating twice at a taberna near us called Los Coloniales because the food was so good and so cheap as shown in the pictures above. The receipt included a bottle of wine.

March 2017    Itinerary Link

History buffs go to Merida(population 60,000) for the Roman ruins, which qualified the city as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but we went there for jamon(ham).

We drove up north for about 2 hours from Seville, and finding the center of town was not too difficult. We parked the car on a street right outside of the pedestrian-only central zone. Our destination Nico Jimenez was on the main street in this zone. Velvety jamon, smooth wine. We are forever spoiled!

March 2017     Itinerary Link

Caceres was an accidental stop during our driving trip around central Spain. We had planned to go to Salamanca from Seville, but, we decided to cut the driving time and spend more time in whatever town we end up.

We had never heard of Caceres(population 96,000), but a Google search pointed us to this town which is on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. We stayed a bit southwest of the Old Town, but the uphill walk of 15-20 minutes was not too stiff or difficult. The Old Town is pedestrian only, and you can explore the whole area in 2-3 hours. There were cafes and restaurants in this zone as well.

Right outside of the wall on the south side is their main square, Plaza Mayor, and there are places to eat and shop along the perimeter. Overall, the whole town was very low key and quiet. It was a nice break from all the hustle and bustle of the bigger cities.

Where & what to eat: click!