March 27-28, 2023
We have a house sit coming up in the Algarve region of Portugal, but with a few days yet before that starts we decided to take a slow journey in that direction. Just eighty miles or two hours up the road from Cádiz is Seville, or Sevilla. Since (once again) I’m not a city-tourist person, I assigned Diana the task of laying out a route of where she wanted to go in Sevilla. Based on that, I searched for a place to stay with the usual requirements:
1. Within our budget
2. Within walking distance of where we want to go.
3. Parking for the bike that looks/feels relatively safe, which usually means off-street and/or within view of the room we’re staying in, and/or secured.
In this case, we ended up in Central Sevilla, which is not the first time that the most exciting part of the ride involved trying to get to the place by going in decreasing concentric circles while maintaining awareness of the direction of the narrow, one-lane, one-way streets I was turning into. After a couple of landing attempts with a go-around, we managed to find the correct block of the correct street, but still hadn’t located the exact apartment building.
Look far enough down this row of scooters, and you’ll find the one open spot where we could temporarily park the bike while searching for the apartment. Hint: look for the yellow bag on the rear rack of the bike.
We decided to have a coffee at the sidewalk cafe (La Gorda) next to the bike, while I set off in search of the address. The apartment address was listed as Number 4. I walked one building to the left and saw Number 2. Then I walked one building to the right, and saw Number 6. So I asked the waiter where Number 4 was located, and he just shrugged. There was no number on the cafe, but of course it turned out to be Number 4. There also didn’t appear to be any other door to gain access to the upper floors aside from the entrance to the cafe. Eventually we wandered around the corner into the alleyway, and about half-way down the alley, out of sight from the street due to a bend in the alley, was a door. Bingo.
Hiding in plain sight. Across the street was the entrance to a large underground parking garage where we parked the bike. Parking here, like in Cádiz, does not come cheap. I could have parked the bike in this alleyway with the other local scooters for free, but I wasn’t comfortable with that. Just me being paranoid.
The architecture alone in Seville is worth the visit.
The Catedral de Sevilla.
Plaza de España, built for the Ibero-American Exposition in 1929. This panoramic photo flattens out the building; it’s actually built in a large half-circle, with a fountain in the center (just to the left and behind where the photo was taken).Tip: save your money and go here to see a free Flamenco dance presentation./em>
Parque de Maria Luisa. This 99 acre park sits on what was originally the gardens of the Palace of San Telmo. The park was built over a fifteen year period (1914-1929) in preparation for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 (which, sadly, took place just as the US stock market crashed). We could have wandered this park for hours.
We spent about half a day wandering central Seville, and saw many more historic sights in addition to the ones here. We chose not to enter several of them (such as La Giralda and the Catedral de Sevilla), due to either the entry fee, the large crowds and long lines, or both.
That evening, we attended a Flamenco presentation at the Teatro Flamenco, which was also just a five minute walk from where we were staying. It was interesting to watch this native gypsy dance, but we both found the guitar player to be even more impressive. As I said above, I would highly recommend a walk to the Plaza de España to watch the free Flamenco presentation on the steps at the center of the circle before spending the money on tickets to a theater show.
Sevilla is a beautiful city, if pricey, and if we were “tourists” in the normal sense (ie, spending a fortune on a two week trip), we could have stayed here for a few more days.
After bailing the bike out of parking prison ($20 a day), we somehow managed to easily find our way out of downtown and towards our last night in Spain.