Faro - Seville Day 12 - Europe 2023
June 5
Since we didn’t need to leave until 9:15’ish to catch our 10 a.m. bus, Buds and I had our typical morning walk around.
We hadn’t unpacked much, so after scooping up Yessa we made our way to the psychiatric hospital where Flix bus has its stop.
We had seats close together and eventually I was able to move up to sit by Yessa after a few people got off at earlier stops.
The bus was cost effective and easy, but for any trip over 3 hours, I’d prefer the train. My tummy was a little fussy, so I was grateful for downloads of the HBO show “Somebody Somewhere” to distract me.
Final stop: Seville!
We got in around 1:45 p.m. local time and headed right to our apartment to get checked in.
Buds and I ran out to Aldi’s for groceries after a quick stop at “The Mushroom.”
Since we’re here for several days, we got lots of delicious food.
Yessa jazzed up a premade orzo salad with lots of veggies and Buds cooked up a variety of burgers for us.
Buds got in a little work:
Then, in a crazy move for us, we headed out for a walking tour that began at 7 p.m.!! The weather was still hot and sunny, but the breeze and jumping from shady spot to shady spot helped.
We went with white umbrella tours here in Seville. Esther was our guide, she was better than Kwee-veen, but Beatriz still reigns supreme as best tour guide on this trip.
In a lovely reminder of our vast world, we were the only people from the United States on our tour of ~20 people. There were folks from New Zealand, Australia, Morocco, Germany, South Africa, Virgin Islands, and Belgium. And in a classic US citizen move, when asked to introduce ourselves, I said we were from New York, rather than naming the country, as everyone else did. It’s just a little touch of that US snobbishness that does not endear us to the rest of the world. I apologized to Esther and she said, “Yes, but everyone knows New York.”
We started in Plaza de España, the most famous plaza in Seville. It is also the one place I recognized from my first trip to Spain in 1988. Those world expos brought a lot of beauty and inspiration to cities that might not ever have been built without the glory and spotlight of that world stage.
So kind.
The 52 provinces of Spain each have their own seating area, plus Seville gets 8 sections because, home court advantage.
From this beautiful beginning, Esther walked us all over the city. It was interesting and a great way to get grounded in a new place. Most of all, we were grateful for the flat land of this Spanish town.
It’s an impressive building, but what I love is the story in its facade. On the left side you can see the ornate deaths that were the original plan. And on the right, “welp, the money has run out.” 😆
We had a ten minute break in the middle of the tour so people could grab a snack or drink and, coincidentally, purchase flamenco tickets from the tour office.
We popped into a local place for an acai bowl to share.
R saw
We saw many more sites on the tour, and by the end we were ready to eat, then sleep. It was so sunny, despite being after 9:30 p.m., so the sun gave its best for us.
We walked by a tapas place on the tour and headed back there to start our self-guided tapas tasting tour.
It was a good beginning.
Delighted with our day of travel, exploration, and dining, we headed back to the new apartment to settle in.
