To Seville

We had a quiet night in the basic but satisfactory Hotel de Gran Avenida in funny little Coria del Rio on the shore of the Guadalquivir River that seems to be dominating our life these days.

Coria del Rio, where the ferry deposited us from the great alluvial plain on the other side of the river, is a small town of only about 30,000 and there is nothing that would make you want to linger. But one interesting aspect is that early in the 17th C, a delegation from Japan was sent to Europe and visited the Spanish court of King Philip III. An embassy was established and 6 samurai stayed in Spain. Consequently, about 1/4 of Coria’s residents use the surname Japón, identifying them as descendants of the first Japanese official envoy to Spain. There is a statue of the head of the delegation, samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga, donated by Japan, in the town.

Before we left Coria del Rio in the morning, Jim found a nearby cafe for breakfast that had a desayuno menu with granola, fruit and yogurt. When I ordered it, I was directed over to a counter on which was displayed many boxes of commercial cereal. The only granola-like cereal had bits of chocolate in it, a common feature - oh well…. I asked if the yogurt was “natural” and was shown a plastic bottle that clearly was fruit flavoured - oh well…When my large bowl arrived, the granola was swimming in a soup of pink liquid yogurt with some slices of pear and banana on top - oh well…
The fresh orange juice was good, the coffee was terrible. But it was clearly a very popular spot. Oh well….

We had a short ride into Seville - 16 km. Our hotel was right near the road we had to take and though it was busy, there was a good shoulder and then we were directed onto a paved cycle path.

That eventually took us down onto a good dirt path along a left tributary of the river, where we encountered a free-roaming herd of a dozen horses.

There, for the first time I saw what I would call a homeless encampment - shacks built of various discarded materials and a whole line of them that had burned. We didn’t see anyone around.

We carried on until we could see some familiar building landmarks across the river, and cut up onto a bridge that took us across the tributary and then to the Puente Isabel II, another of the many bridges across the main part of the wide fast-flowing Guadalquivir River that flows through Seville.

The old town and major attractions are on east side of the river. On the other side is Triana, a working class district known for its artisans (tiles and pottery), bullfighters and flamenco dancers. There are also lots of new commercial and tech industry sites on that side of the river - some big shopping centres, unusual modern architecture and a big exposition park with very interesting structures that we explored last year on our bikes. Good bike paths everywhere. Sevilla is a terrific place to bike.

Seville was a favourite stop last year and I was glad we had a chance to return, cycling in from a different direction. We were lucky to be able to get exactly the same accommodation we had last year, a very roomy ground floor apartment on a quiet narrow street in a less touristy part of the old town, just off Plaze de Lorenzo where we had a coffee while waiting to check in to the apartment. The cost was $357 CA for 3 nights, certainly more than we have been paying for accommodation but a splurge we felt we deserved. Also, we would be able to do a real laundry as the apartment has a washing machine. And we could easily bring the bikes right into the apartment.

It feels like a real neighbourhood there with interesting cafes, bars, restaurants and shops everywhere. Two mercados for groceries are a couple of blocks away and we were really looking forward to doing some of our own meals. After a few tough days cycling, it all felt very homey and comforting and we were happy to kick back for three nights in Seville. Our host put a complimentary bottle of Cava in the fridge and I was planning on enjoying that!