Thursday – 23 August 2018

Seville

It was a change to spend the night in a stationary bed, and have limitless water available for showers and no long route march to get there.  Ironically, we were told that the hotel’s water supply had been cleaned that day, and we should not drink the tap water until well into the evening.  This did not cause us any particular problem.

When we were collected yesterday, the driver had asked us which sites we had visited, and was surprised that we hadn’t been to the Plaza de Espana, so we made this a priority today.  We were dropped off at the same place as yesterday and wandered through the pedestrianised lanes in search of somewhere for breakfast.  We are not big fans of hotel breakfasts and wanted something more authentic.  Eventually we found a place and sat at a table on the pavement, eating warm pastries and drinking coffee. 

The Plaza de Espana was built for the Ibero-American Exposition World's Fair in 1929. The entire southern end of the city was redeveloped into an expanse of gardens and grand boulevards. The centre of it is Parque de María Luisa, in the "Moorish paradisical style", with a half mile of tiled fountains, pavilions, walls, ponds, benches, plus various plantings of palms, orange trees, Mediterranean pines, and stylized flower beds.  Aníbal González, the architect combined a mix of 1920s Art Deco, Spanish Renaissance Revival, Spanish Baroque Revival and Neo-Mudéjar styles to what was the principal building, built on the Maria Luisa Park's edge. The Plaza de España complex is a huge half-circle of buildings  accessible over the moat by numerous bridges representing the four ancient kingdoms of Spain. In the centre is the Vicente Traver fountain. By the walls of the Plaza are many tiled alcoves, each representing a different province of Spain.  The building and the gardens are spectacular, and lived up to our drivers billing of “the most beautiful place in the city”.

We continued to stroll around the city until it was time to head back to the train and return to Cadiz.

Distance covered today	0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	1372	nautical miles
Distance covered 2018	2092	nautical miles
Steve (and Tricia)