El ritmo callente

We planned our walk to the Plaza España and Plaza América early, to avoid the burning sun at noon. Yet this turned out to be unnecessary, as the Parque Maria Luisa offers lots of shade. It was a nice walk to the plaza. We passed by the Teatro Lope de La Vega and the University (former Tobacco factory), which is an example of some beautiful architecture. There should be water surrounding it, but there wasn't, just as there wasn't any at the Plaza España's moats or fountain. I don't know if this is regular or maybe had something to do with the extreme temperatures, but I felt like it was a real pity.

Plaza España itself, on the other hand, was wonderful. The place is huge and there are so much little details to notice as you walk around. The tiles against the lower wall that represent the different Spanish provinces, the design of the towers, the sweet little bridges, the columns,... Basically everything that can be seen is remarkable. We waited until the sun shone over the largest part of the square, to see the colors brighten up and the merchants installing their goods. Than we walked through the Maria Luisa park to Plaza América. It was a nice and relaxed walk. Plaza America is were most of the white Filipino doves hang around, of which I wrote earlier. There were plenty, and they are enjoying flying against people or sitting on there shoulders and heads whenever the victim carries some food. The sight was crazy! Most of the passengers enjoyed the doves at first, than took out some bread or something to feed them, and before they knew they were covered with the birds and screaming and running to get away from them. I figured that secretly putting some cookies on top of my fathers hat would have caused a great spectacle, but didn't take the risk of getting him in an evil mood for the rest of the day...

We didn't visit any of the museums around Plaza América, yet the buildings the museums are in are wonderful, so we sat down for a while to enjoy the sight. Than we walked back to the Ponte de San Telmo. When studying the street map of Sevilla, this looked like a nice walk. The Paseo de las Delicias is a busy road, yet the map showed many green spots and gardens, and a nice view over the water. This turned out to be extremely disappointing. The gardens were crab and the green spots tiny, old, closed or dried out. The view over the water wasn't at all romantic neither, so I was glad when we reached San Telmo and the Torre del Oro. We didn't go up this tower, since there was no way it could beat the view from upon the Giralda. Instead we walked over the bridge to the Triana Quarter. It is described in many travel guides as a nice place to hang around and walk through, but I don't think it is at all. It definitely can't compete Santa Cruz: in my opinion it is busy, a bit dirty even, touristy, and lacks atmosphere. We didn't stay long, yet bought some home made chips here from a stall that tasted absolutely delicious. Apparently, in Spain, there are many of these stalls.

Bridge in parque Maria Loisa

They don't exist in Belgium. Chips only comes in Lays and Crocky bags where I live. But this one was like heaven, and the salt was really welcome to in the Sevilla heat.

Back at the other side of the Guadalquivir we sat down once again at Plaza del Triunfo. We had quite a walk during the first part of the day and could use some rest. Sevilla is a great town to walk through, by the way. It is one great museum in open air! Wonderful architecture everywhere! You can't cross a street or turn a corner, and all you see are these great old buildings. Downside is the many construction works that are going on everywhere. There are so many monuments and houses to renovate, the metro network that is being set up, parks to maintain,... It makes Seville a bit noisy and dirty, and most streets are really busy too, but nothing unpleasant.

Plaza de America

There are so many other great things to look at, that it is easy to ignore the more uglier sights. I do think it would be nice however, if cars were banned from the historical center. It would safe the city money too, since the gasses must pollute the monuments a great deal!

In the afternoon we visited the Real Alcazar, the old Moorish palace. It is like the Alhambra in small, and the Gardens were one of the most beautiful and largest ones I've ever seen! I can't believe this little paradise has a free entrance for students. If I'd live in Sevilla I'd go here every damn day to hang around between the beautifully decorated walls of the palace, and to stroll around in the royal gardens! No need to say that this is a must-see! I you're only able to visit one attraction in Sevilla, I believe it should be the Alcazar.

The Torre del Oro

It is majestic! We've spend many hours inside, first in the palace and later outside in the shade of the threes and exotic plants. The only reason why we finally left was because we got really tired from walking in the burning Seville heat. There wasn't a breeze at all, and even in the shades it became a real effort to move. So after de visit we thought we definitely deserved a tinto de verano at the Flaherty's pub. We had some tapas here as well, basically full of garlic :s Extremely tasty, yet not such a strategic choice since we planned to go out at night...

A Flamenco show was on the agenda! Personally, I would have chosen a professional show, one of the more expensive ones. Yet we hadn't the funds for that, or in other words, my parents didn't wanted to pay that much.

Inside the Real Alcazar

The compromise was a more simple, cheaper flamenco introduction in the Casa de la Memoria de Al-Andalus. I'm a huge flamenco fan, both of the music, the singing, and the dancing, so I enjoyed the show big-time. It only lasted for about an hour, and as I said it isn't at all the best show to be seen in Sevilla, but I was glad I came, and fully impressed by the magic of the dance by the time I left.

Our return to the hotel was one of horror. There was this HUGE beetle in the bathroom! And I really mean huge! I haven't dared to go and take a look myself, but my mother came running of the toilet not even properly dresses yet, so that pictures it. My father, the hero that went to kill the monster, said it was almost 10 centimeters long! I still don't know how the creepy animal got inside, since our window was closed all day, and there wasn't a vent hole were it could have crept through.

Inside the Real Alcazar

My most horrifying theory is that it has been sitting on my mothers clothes somewhere and has jumped of ones inside! That would have been awful!!! So I developed a new theory of the beetle being sitting on the cleaning vehicle of the staff, when they came to bring new towels, and falling of and being unable to get back outside. Probably naive, I know, but the only option that could relax me enough to get some sleep. I have a huge arachnophobia, and any bug bigger that 5 centimeter causes about the same reaction. I should definitely do something about it, because it's going to get me in big trouble when traveling to other continents... Yet brrrr, I still get shivery whenever I think about it!