5 days in Seville

We have put the moto in storage and are now travelling by train. A better option than the bus. At least that's my opinion. I'm prone to motion sickness, especially on buses on winding roads.  We left Olvera on November 3rd. and took the train from Setenil, a small town about 20K from Olvera. There isn't a rail line running through Olvera, so this was the closest station. With a change of trains along the route it took about 3 hours to reach San Bernardo station.  It was nice comfortable ride.

If you are 60 or over you can apply for a rail discount card. The card, which costs 6 euros,  gives you up to a 40% discount, depending on the route. Our fare from Setenil to Seville was 17 euros each. We bought the tickets before learning about the discount card but we will benefited from the card on the next train from Seville to Valencia.

Once arriving in we took a taxi to our rented apartment. We could have taken the metro but didn't figure that out until later.  We rented a one bedroom apartment in a residential area, called Triana, located just across the rive from the main centre section of Seville.

Our nice little apartment, which we found on Airbnb, was located on a narrow street two blocks from the river, close to one of the bridges. It was in a typical Seville courtyard apartment. These apartment blocks have a common locked gate entrance from the street with a hallway that leads to an open courtyard.  This apartment building was 4 stories. All apartments face into the courtyard with common balcony walkways to access each apartment.   We definitely prefer an apartment over a hotel room. It is nice have the extra space and laundry facilities. Many apartments have a washing machine. Few have a dryer but usually there is a line, generally located on the roof top, that you can use to hang the washing.

Walking over the bridge near our apartment.

 Below is a view of Avenida de la Constitución. It is a pedestrian area, as is much of the old town.

The churches are huge. Often initially constructed as mosques and later converted to to catholic cathedrals.

 On many of the streets, cars are prohibited.

   However, you do have to pay attention to the trams! 

Most of the time, we walked around town but we also rented the bikes (shown below).  There is a network of bicycle trails throughout the city (over 100 Kilometres worth). The maximum distance between bike stations is 300 metres, so there are a lot of stations.  It costs 13 euros for one week access or 28 euros for a year access.  You buy a ticket at any station terminal with a credit card. Then use the ticket number and pin number to get a bike at any station and drop it off at another.  We used the bikes to explore and also we used the bikes to get to the train station the morning we left Seville.

Here are a few more photos of Seville.

Even though Seville is roughly 100 K up the Guadalquivir River from the Mediterranean coast, it is the port from which Columbus sailed on his quest to find the Indies.

I don't know that much about sailing but it seems to me that sailing 100K down a winding river would be a challenge. Perhaps he just drifted with the current?

On the right is a photo of a dual column structure built in honour of Columbus's adventures. 

There are plenty of parks in Spanish cities. Below are photos of Parque de Maria Luisa and Plaza de Espana

   



Ice cream, & lots of it!  This is a common sight in the tourist areas. It seem impossible that they could sell all the ice cream on display. This photo is only a small part of the selection.

They like to make the fancy!

There are not a lot of parking spaces in Seville (or most cities for that matter). In order to maximize parking space, cars park a lot closer to each other than would be normal in Canada.  The photo below shows an extreme example of close parking. The drivers don't seem to give any consideration as to how the other car driver is going to be able to get out of his spot.

We have noticed a very different attitude, here in Spain, regarding a person's concept of their public space. The attitude we have observed is that people move or stand or park where ever they like and everyone else has to wait for them or finds a way to go around them.

For example; Three people are in conversation and blocking passage on a narrow sidewalk.  Others walking on the sidewalk will either wait for them to finish the conversation or walk out onto the road to go around them.  Seldom would the people in conversation move to make room for others using the sidewalk.

Queuing for a ticket or a coffee or a bus is not normal practice. It is normal practice to walk toward the counter (for example) and squeeze your way to the counter, if you can.  If you cannot reach the counter, then fit yourself into any available space as close to the counter as possible.  Hence, the waiting people stand close together in these situation, so as to not allow someone to get in front of them.

For Canadians, this is very curious behaviour.  At first observation we thought that this was very discourteous behaviour but Spaniards are very courteous in other situations. We believe that it is not a matter of courtesy. It is just the way it is in Spain. It is the same in Mexico.

That's it for my sociological comments.... 

Next we are off the Valencia for a week before flying home. We will be attending the final race of the 2017 MotoGP season.