Off to Seville

Thursday, May 25, 2017--Caceres to Seville

It's a rather long bus ride from Caceres to Seville, and our bus didn't leave until 11:30.  We ate breakfast at the apartment, cleaned ourselves and it up, and left there around 10:30 for the 30-minute walk to the bus station. 

After 3 hrs. 20 min., we arrived at the Plaza de Armas bus station which is near where they had the 1992 World's Fair.  Then we walked for about 35 minutes to get to our hotel, the Pasarela Hotel, across the street from the Plaza Espana on the grounds of where they had the 1929 World's Fair.  On the way we passed the Seville Bull Ring, the Golden Tower, and stopped at a tourist office in the Queen's Sewing House at the entrance to the former fairgrounds.

We needed to buy some tickets, so we went to a nearby bus station to buy one of them to get us between two cities next week.  Then we went to a nearby train station to buy two more tickets--to get us out of here on Monday and to get us between two other cities next weekend. We needed some supplies from the store, so we walked to a supermarket near the train station to buy happy hour supplies--wine, nuts, chips, and olives.  While there, Wes got cola and chocoate. 


By the time we were back in the room, it was 18:30, so we had our in-room snacks with half of a bottle of wine, then we went out to explore Seville around 20:30.  A block away is the old cigar factory which was the setting for Bizet's opera Carmen.  It is now a part of the local university.  The building was open, so we wandered through it. 

Across the street from the cigar factory was the Alcazar.  We walked by it and toward the center of the old town.  In town, we noticed the interest in coffee!  Within two blocks, we passed 3 Starbucks location, 2 Dunkin' Coffee locations, and 2-3 local coffee shops. 

In that area, we passed the Cathedral of Seville, a massive structure.  It was too late to try to tour any of the main tourist sights in the city.  So we just looked at the exterior of the building.  There was a next-door chapel open which we entered briefly.

Many of the buildings here have Moorish designs.  The tiles, the carved ceilings, etc., are very beautiful.  Our heads were raised to scan both sides of the street as we walked.  When we reached Plaza Nueva where they were having a Book Fair with lots of stalls selling books and tents with authors reading from their books and answering questions from the audiences.

From there, we realized we should head back to the hotel.  We took some back streets that took us through the narrow streets of the Barrio of Santa Cruz, an old Arabic quarter to one side of the Alcazar.  The streets were jam-packed with people sitting on sidewalks in front of small atmospheric restaurants having dinner.

We were back at the room by 22:00 and tired.  Although we didn't really see anything specific except for the inside of the university building that was the cigar factory, we got a good orientation to the city.  Tomorrow, we will be out for exploring specific sights.