Updated the blog, had showers, had a late brekky and headed off on the bikes around midday…
Whilst crossing one of the many bridges over the Guadalquivir River (that Seville is built upon) we took a selfie (first piccie below) and behind us “Torre del Oro” (The Tower of Gold or Golden Tower of Seville). Constructed in the 13th century, when ships entered Seville via the river, they could discharge their gold here PLUS the middle part was a prison… It is dodecagonal (i.e. has 12 sides originating from the Greek dodeka meaning twelve and gon – the Greek for corner – bit of triv for the day !!!)
We’d decided the best way to see the city was on a hop-on / hop-off sightseeing bus tour so we locked up the bikes, bought the 2 x 24 hour tickets (€25 each) and this included maps (with a bar code to scan which downloaded an APP (!!!) so you could see exactly where you were) plus 2 sets of earphones to plug into the side of the bus to access the audio guide…
The guy had advised us it was an hour and a quarter to do all 14 stops and that we should do the FULL tour first and THEN go back and decide what we wanted to hop on/off to see – which was good advice 👍 and he advised that the buses went every half hour…
We sat upstairs (open-top bus) at the front and didn’t take any photos as we wanted to concentrate on the audio & the map and thought we’d take photos when we went round again.
It WAS a good way to see the city and if we were there for a week, we would have got off and spent half a day at each of the 14 stops exploring – but as it was – we didn’t want to get stranded hanging about for the return bus journey so we got off at the end – grabbed our bikes and headed to La Plaza de España (“Spain Square”). This was built in 1928 and is a huge half-circle; the buildings are accessible by four bridges over the moat (which represent the ancient kingdoms of Spain) and in the centre is the Vicente Traver fountain (see me in front with rainbow 🌈 below !!!)
There are many tiled alcoves around the plaza – each representing a different province of Spain (see Dave sat in front of Huesca). If we thought there was detail on the cathedral – then THIS was a whole different level – truly everywhere you looked it was tiled and detailed and it was just phenomenal…
We were also fortunate to hear music so we investigated and under the main central canopy there was a guitarist, a singer & 3 ladies doing flamenco dancing 💃🏻. I was struck – whilst listening – how Arabic the music sounded and I’ve just asked Mr Google why; he never lets me down and informs me that “Spanish guitar and Flamenco come to mind when someone brings up Spanish music. Both are deeply rooted in Arabic culture and traditions.”
We watched this for a while & then heard MORE music and 2 old guys with electric-acoustic guitars & a speaker were playing Spanish traditional music – another treat… 🎵
