In Seville Day 3

Another day of walking in Seville, enjoying the sun, the river, the architecture and the bustling but relaxed life of this city of 1,100,000.

This is a little square, a few blocks from our apartment where we go to a couple of mercados for groceries - as it looks in the morning - empty and very quiet.

And this is the square in the late afternoon/evening when school is out or on the weekend, as it teems with kids playing and families socializing in the cafes. It is essentially their backyard.

The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See, better known as Seville Cathedral, was a nice walk from our apartment as was the adjoining Alcázar palace complex. We toured the Alcazar last year and it was amazing with beautiful gardens. The cathedral is one of the largest churches in the world as well as the largest Gothic cathedral.

More lovely buildings.

And always there is the river where you can walk for miles, cross any one of several bridges to the other side, stop at any number of cafes and watch the sculling action. Many high level rowers train here.

There is a replica of the Nao Victoria, the only ship to return from the first circumnavigation of the world under the command of Elcano, portrayed in this piece of public art. Magellan, leading the voyage was killed in an altercation with indigenous people in the Phillipines who were resisting his efforts at conversion to Christianity.

We walked across the bridge closest to our apartment, to the very interesting CAAC or Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo that I visited last year. Apart from the art exhibits, it is such an interesting complex. Located on the Cartuja Island of Seville, in an area rich in mud and clays, it was a 14th C monastery and then a convent. A chapel remains as well as a crypt with a number of tombs. For 30 years, the remains of Christopher Columbus resided there. It was eventually abandoned and in 1839, was acquired by an English merchant Charles Pickman, who would install a porcelain factory in the convent which continued to operate until 1982. Several chimneys ten ovens were built, five of which are still standing. So it’s a fascinating collection of religious and industrial structures with extensive olive tree meadows and overgrown gardens. We weren’t particularly keen on the art exhibited this time but had a good time wandering around, mostly by ourselves.

We were really happy to see these new signs on the water promoting the cycle route we will take from Seville, the Ruta de La Plata (RVP). The tourist office gave us each a passport of the route and we can get stamps in various towns we go through. Well, we at least have stamps for Seville!

This route through the heart of Spain from south to north was an important trading route in pre-Roman times but the Romans put their celebrated infrastructure in place. The Visigoths and the Muslims continued to use it but during the 12th and 13th C as the Christians took over, it became a pilgrimage route from Seville up to Santiago de Compostela, and still is. With the discovery of the Americas, wealth flooded into Spain, through Seville, and north to the towns and cities on the RVP.

We learned about this route after our last trip to Spain and though we got momentarily distracted by the idea ongoing into Portugal, we have now re-committed to the RVP. How far north we get will depend on weather and time. There are a basically two options for the RVP - the off-road Camino route and the road route, which is mostly following the N630, now a minor quiet road due to the construction of a parallel motorway. We plan to mostly follow the road as you never know what you might encounter on the off-road Camino route, particularly in non-summer conditions. We have a really good book on the route. So northward ho! Stay tuned.