Casa De Carmona Hotel Near Seville

The Casa De Carmona Hotel has been described as one of the most unique and elegant hotels in Spain. It is a lovingly restored 16th Century palace to a small hotel of character, with 33 bedrooms in the tiny ancient, hilltop, walled, picturesque town of Carmona, only 20 minutes outside Seville and 15 minutes from the airport, and to stay there is to stay in the house of a Spanish Nobleman with good taste.

Our first sight of Carmona, and the Casa de Carmona was in the early evening driving towards Seville. We saw what looked like an ancient walled city perched on a hill, and could instantly imagine it in medieval times holding off hordes of invaders.

Finding the hotel itself was a little tricky through the tiny streets of the town, but it was well worth the effort. I was very worried about parking and unloading our Chrysler Voyager, but very quickly I discovered that the Casa de Carmona is different. The narrow streets leads to what seems an impossible car park, but suddenly there was a porter to park my car, and a hotel boy, dressed in pantaloons and tights, who took our bags to our room.

A charming young lady receptionist will met us at the door of the hotel, and not only showed us to our room, but also around the hotel.

We stayed in room five which is closest to the pool and very romantic too. If you are looking for the ideal weekend retreat, perhaps to impress a lover, or even better a honeymoon stopover, then you have found your almost perfect destination. You can be assured of tactful privacy, in a place where refined good taste is almost a bye word!!

First impressions still remain vivid, and as you enter the Casa through a deep-red terracotta patio, which leads through to the reception area you realise this is different. A second patio, filled with plants in large pots and decorated in the same rich colours, forms the central focus of the hotel. There are lush plants, marble colonnades, fragrant flowers, the singing of birds and the gentle gurgling of fountains. A romantic walled patio with an exquisite formal garden features a picture-perfect swimming pool fed by five fountains.

This is an oasis of tranquillity, and whilst it may just lack a little of the luxuries of a top hotel, you will know you have found a gem.

After looking around the courtyards and gardens you will end up in the library and a complimentary drink from the free-bar. The greatest joy is that your chambermaid will unpack for you if you want, and you can leave your shoes outside your room to be polished, all you need to do is ask the receptionist.

The public rooms of the hotel are around the central patio, with a chess room, and library, which are a little formal, and could almost be a museum to the antiques. However the ?loggia? Next to the pool is altogether lighter and brighter. As well as everything you expect in a luxury hotel, you'll also find a variety of books and magazines to read, a VCR and music system to play and hundreds of films and CDs to enjoy. However this is definitely a hotel for people who like to relax in the courtyards, shaded from the sunlight, and smell the scent of the orange trees and the jasmine. The world of the 21st century will quickly seem far away.

If you want to see photographs of The casa de Carmona go to http://www.worldwidevacationspots.com/articles/10/1/Casa-de-Carmona-Hotel-near-Seville/Page1.html

Everywhere you will find the same aristocratic elegance, with carefully chosen pastel hues (predominantly pale blues and greens) and a generous range of antique furniture, including cabinet desks, ornate mirrors, brass lamps, and a tall hatbox. It's verging on the fusty, but a range of modern facilities keeps it real: hi-fi, air-conditioning, video, ambient lighting. A concealed mirrored door leads to an impressive large bathroom, with elaborate brass taps and wide shower heads, double sinks, green and terracotta walls. It would be fair to say the plumbing can gurgle, and the paint is a little faded, but somehow it all adds to the glamour.

The restaurant is situated in the space that used to be the stables of the palace. Only the life-size frescoes of eerily staring white horses remind you of its past.

The antique tables, chairs, glassware are all in keeping with hotel.

Breakfast: is between 8.00-11.30 am, and is a huge buffet of pastries, fruit, hams, cheese, and cereals, where you are attended by waitresses in country wench garb. Lunch is between1.30-4.30 pm, and Dinner 8.30-11.30 pm when there's plenty of choice of Andalucian appetizers, soups, seafood, stews, meats, tarts, fruit and creamy desserts

If you choose to dine out, the San Fernando (on the plaza of the same name) and La Ferrara (attached to the Hotel Alcazar de la Reina) come recommended.

Summary

The Casa De Carmona Hotel is just right for anyone seeking elegance and tranquillity, with a predominance of British and American couples.

Although one child under 12 stays free in the parents? Room, this hotel is only really suited to calm and sophisticated young adults, and definitely not for small children.

It’s a great base for exploring Seville, and a week would not be too long

The Casa De Carmona will give you peace and quiet, great comfort. The town of Carmona is a gem, but realise as with many town centre hotels, there are no large gardens, but if it is a romantic dalliance you are after, and then look no further!!

Porsche Before Porsche: Ferdinand’s First Fifty Years

Ferdinand Porsche was around 72 years old when the first hand-made, hand-beaten Porsche 356 rolled down the road at Gmund. It was 1948 but Porsche had started his career before the turn of the century.

Just what was he doing for his first fifty years?

The one word answer is “plenty”. A slightly longer answer is designing some of the top motoring icons and fastest cars of the twentieth century. Or, getting all the experience, knowledge and skills needed to produce one of the hottest and most charismatic lines of sports cars in the world.

It all started in the late nineteenth century. Porsche’s father was a tinsmith, but young Ferdinand preferred the new-fangled electricity. He worked for an electrical equipment manufacturer before designing electric automobiles for Lohner. The Lohner-Porsche, with electric motors in the front wheel hubs, (one of the first front-wheel drives), was exhibited at the Paris exhibition in 1900 and won a Grand Prize for 25 year old Porsche.

Porsche kept developing the Lohner. Motors in all four hubs made it one of the earliest four-wheel drives and a petrol engine and generator instead of batteries made it one of the first mixed drive vehicles. Porsche himself raced one of the petrol-electric cars.

In 1905, Porsche moved from Lohner to Austro-Daimler where he became technical Director, and later Managing Director. His first petrol car there was developed into the sports model that won the 1910 Prince Henry Trial.

Cars weren’t the only mechanical designs of the self-taught automotive genius. In 1912 he designed a four-cylinder aero engine. Its layout was a flattened X, almost a flat four.

World War I had Porsche working for the military, designing gun tractors, motorized artillery pieces and an enormous road train carrying an 81-ton gun and pulling four trailers each with eight-wheel drive. Total weight was 150 tons! It used the Lohner-Porsche method of electric motors in the hubs with a 20 liter, 150 hp traction engine providing the power.

In 1917 he received an honorary doctorate from Vienna Technical University.

Porsche turned to small cars after WWI, designing the Sascha, which could hit 89 mph with a tiny 1100 cc engine. These cars came first and second in their class in the 1921 Targa Florio. However, differences of opinion with other directors of Austro-Daimler led to a move to Daimler in Stuttgart, as Technical Director with a seat on the board.

Here Porsche fixed the poor performance of Daimler’s new two-liter supercharged race car, which went on to take the first three places in its class in the 1924 Targa Florio, including first place overall. Porsche was awarded another honorary doctorate, this time from Stuttgart University for his achievements.

At Daimler he designed one of the most famous cars of all time, the seven-liter six-cylinder supercharged Mercedes which progressed through the K and S series to the SS, SSK and SSKL. These cars dominated racing in 1928-30. As well, he worked on diesel engines for trucks and airplane engines.

Daimler merged with Benz in 1926, and the combined board rejected Porsche’s push for small and light Daimler-Benz cars. Porsche quit and moved to Steyr where he designed a large luxury car with a 5.3-liter straight-eight.

Steyr collapsed in the great depression though, and in 1930 Porsche was unemployed.

At the age of 55, when many people these days are taking early retirement, Porsche opened his own design bureau with a select group of engineers that he had previously worked with, including his own son Ferdinand “Ferry” Porsche.

His first job was the Wander W.17, a small medium-priced six-cylinder car. A small car for Zundapp followed. Named the Volksauto, it was an early ancestor of the Beetle, with a rear-mounted radial engine and fully independent suspension. It didn’t go into production because of an upturn in Zundapp’s normal market of motorcycles.

In 1932 Russia offered Porsche the job of State Designer. It was an attractive offer, but he turned it down.

Another tilt at a small car came from NSU. The Zundapp was dusted of to give the basic ideas, but this time a flat-four air-cooled engine was used at the rear, along with torsion bar suspension and swing axles at the back. Three prototypes were built before the project was abandoned, but the VW Beetle was getting closer.

Hot racing cars were still on the drawing board, with the Porsche team building a real monster for Auto-Union. It had a 4.4 liter supercharged V16 mounted at the back. With the weight at the back, swing axles, skinny tires and tremendous power, (it’s reported they could spin the wheels at 100 mph) these cars were a handful to drive, but they won races!

Meanwhile, Hitler was also gaining tremendous power, and one of his ideas was for a “people’s car”. Porsche got the job of designing it, and all his previous experience went into the best selling car ever, the Volkswagen Beetle. Three Beetles were turned into lightweight sports coupes for the proposed 1939 Berlin-Rome road race.

The race never took place because the Second World War started.

During WWII the Beetle was turned into the Kubelwagen, the German equivalent of the Jeep. Porsche designed the Tiger, Ferdinand and Maus Tanks, which all used the mixed drive with an internal combustion engine driving hub-mounted electric motors.

The war ended and the French threw Professor Porsche, son Ferry, and son-in-law Anton Piech in prison as war criminals. (Totally unfounded). Ferry was released after a few months but the Professor was kept with France demanding 1 million Francs for his release.

Ferry and the design bureau took on new projects to pay the money. When the Professor was released, the design of the very first Porsche branded sports car was well under way. This car was the 356, the start of a line of exciting thoroughbreds which are some of the most desirable sports cars in the world today.

Ferdinand Porsche may have had a humble start in life but he was an automotive genius and for half a century he designed some of the most magnificent machinery ever. The Porsche cars of today continue his legacy.