For many British people, going on holiday to Spain is very much a common occurrence but my family just never went there when I was a kid, and I have still only visited the country once. That happened 15 years ago whilst I was back in the UK for the Christmas and New Year holidays, and decided to finally take a short trip to Spain. The islands of Ibiza, Majorca, and Tenerife are hugely popular as are cities like Barcelona and Madrid but I chose a slightly less tourist destination.

The fourth biggest city in Spain is Seville, and my reasons for choosing it were that it possesses a Star Wars filming location, was cheap to fly to and has relatively easy access for visiting Morocco in Northern Africa.

A lot of my time in Seville was spent at Plaza de Espana which is a semi-circular open place featuring ceramic tile buildings, a fountain, bridges and a canal. It was located within fairly close walking distance of my hotel and was my first port of call due to its 30 second appearance in ‘Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones‘ (2002) when Anakin and Padmé (followed by R2-D2) arrive on Naboo and walk to the Queen’s palace.

There were basically only three parts of the plaza used by the Star Wars film crew and they included the fountain, one of the bridges and the undercover rim of the plaza. CGI was used to add domes, modify buildings, alter towers and mirror the whole place to create an oval. Whilst no such technology was used in the epic ‘Lawrence of Arabia‘ (1962), all was not quite what it seemed as the plaza portrayed an officers club in Cairo.

First impressions as I entered the site were of disappointment as parts of it were like a building site as often seems to be the case when visiting tourist hotspots. Thankfully, that was only near the entrance and the dirtiness of the canal wasn’t really noticeable as I wandered round the place.

Although it was a bit run-down and decrepit in parts it really was a beautiful place and I was quite surprised that at that time it didn’t seem to feature in the Seville guidebooks!

After a couple of nights away in Morocco, I arrived back in Seville late one night and checked into the same hostel again. My room-mate was a professional Rugby League player from New Zealand and even though he was in bed and I’d just brushed my teeth, he suggested going for a beer. It wasn’t really in my mind to go out but sometimes you have just gotta go for it and it’s not as if you can get a feel for a place by just sleeping there is it? We went to a few tapas bars followed by a local Irish bar which he wanted to go to. After a busy day of travel I eventually called it a night sometime just after 2:00 am.

I didn’t get going till midday the following day but I was still able to walk around the whole city with relative ease, and what a beautiful city it was.

Oranges growing on trees everywhere, cobbled narrow streets, palm trees, flowers, fountains, ornate pavillions, plazas, tapas bars and a huge cathedral with giralda.

One other small point of note on my walking tour were a couple of places which doubled up as Middle-Eastern settings in ‘Lawrence Of Arabia‘. First up was Plaza de America which is located inside the beautiful Parque de Maria Luisa. The pavillions from the 1929 Ibero-American exposition looked wonderful.

Alfonso XIII Hotel was next and another example of some magnificent architecture.

Late afternoon I went to Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza (bull-ring) on a tour of the stadium and museum.

Later that same year it featured in ‘Knight And Day‘ starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz so that was a nice bonus to have seen a locale in advance of a release! Whilst in the museum I did learn a fair few new things about bull-fighting but it didn’t really heighten my interest so much.

The city centre was really busy that evening ahead of the big national holiday the following day (January 6th) and there was some kind of parade which I saw a bit of before having black paella with seafood for my dinner.

I later went out with my room-mate again but this time it was to a house party followed by a bar and this time I didn’t get to bed until 4:00 am! Those were the days eh!

My final day in Spain involved meeting my then-colleague Mark for lunch. Sadly, a local lady collapsed right in front of where we were eating. Such a horrific event was handled well by the staff but I am a bit embarrassed to say that it didn’t put us off finishing our meals!

After that we basically walked around many of the same sites I’d already been to in order  to wile away the hours before our evening flight back to England.

The aforementioned Plaza de Espana was somewhere I went to three times on this short trip! Whilst I did go on to see more of Naboo (the Star Wars planet it portrayed) in Como (Italy) I have never returned to Spain itself. Of course that’s not too surprising given my location in Japan but I would love to explore this mediterranean country a bit more one day to make up for ignoring it so much in the past!

Click here to read ‘Attack Of The Clones Filming Locations: Star Wars Traveller – Naboo (a.k.a. Seville)’

Click here to read ‘Spain 2010: 3 Nights In Seville’

Click here to read ‘The Complete A-Z Of Filming Locations On Tokyo Fox’

Click here to read ‘Dining Out: Tokyo’s Best Moroccan & Spanish Restaurant’