On to Spain! We took a bus from the Algarve to Seville and spent a couple of days exploring the city. We started with a visit to the amazing Plaza de España. It was built in 1928 for the 1929 Ibero-American Exhibition.
It’s immense! The building is a large half circle going around moats and a fountain.
Each end has a tower.
There are tiled alcoves along the base of the building for lots of cities in Spain.
After the Plaza, we headed to the Guadalquivir River. We came to the Torre del Oro, a military watchtower on the river constructed in the 13th century. We took an hour-long river cruise, then went up the tower (free on Mondays, lucky us).
The Seville skyline from the tower, featuring the Cathedral.
We headed to the Cathedral next but didn’t brave the line to go inside.
We spent the evening on a food and walking tour of Seville. We sampled lots of tapas staples – olives, jamón, cheese (manchego drizzled with olive oil), salted cod, and more. These were paired with some not-so-common drinks. First was fortified wine (like Port), then some wine that was fortified with orange liqueur. The bar serving the “orange wine” is the only place it is sold; there’s just one producer. It’s an old and very popular place.
We went by some columns from the Roman era and learned that landowners in Seville rarely dig. If you dig up some history, it must be preserved.
The food tour concluded with a sit-down dinner with some traditional wine. There were three or four dishes. The lamb stew won the night.
Before heading to the airport to rent a car for a road trip around Andalusia we went to the Metropol Parasol in Plaza Mayor. Completed in 2011, it’s a wooden rooftop canopy over the plaza that claims to be the largest wooden structure in the world. The locals call it Las Setas de Encarnación (Incarnation’s Mushrooms). A view towards the Cathedral from the top.
