Day 11: Sat 24 Sep - Seville

19-75 deg C
Walk: 9.3km

Sylvain and I did the Hop-on Hop-off bus tour today. We took a taxi into town as were unsure of how long a bus would take and we wanted to be on the first bus of the day. We arrived with 10 minutes to spare and by the time the bus left, it was almost full. Here in Spain, masks are mandatory on public transport, including taxis/rideshare/and tour buses. However, Sylvain and I were the only ones wearing masks. We did one complete trip, making notes of where to stop on the next round. It was 11:30am by this time and we were both seeking coffee. So, after getting off the bus, we had coffee at Maccas and then walked to the first stop we wanted to see - Plaza de España, an architectural complex located in the Maria Louisa park. Designed by Aníbal González, and built between 1914-1929 as one of the main constructions for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. It is 170m in diameter and is semi-elliptical in shape. It is constructed of exposed brick with extensive ceramic decorations. The galleries have wooden coffered ceilings and are supported by marble columns. The Towers are baroque-style and stand 74m tall. It is quite impressive. This was one of the four free walking tours included in the HOHO ticket. Again, I would have preferred to follow my nose and get info from Google (which I just did) and spend the time taking it all in and taking picture. To make it worse, the speeches were in Spanish first and then English, meaning it took twice as long.

After we finished the tour, we walked through the garden/park and caught one of the buses and had to do most of the tour again. We got off at stop #13 and walked the short distance to Setas de Sevilla or Mushrooms of Seville. It was initially called the Metropol Parasol, is a wooden structure completed in April 2011, is 150x70m, about 26m in height, and claims to be the largest wooden structure in the world. It consists of six parasols in the form of giant mushrooms, the design inspired by the giant vaults of the Catedral de Sevilla and also the fig trees in Seville. We took a lift to the top and had a wander and took some photos. It was quite warm by this stage, so we hurried down into the shade.

We lunched at The Good Burger, then made our way to the nearest bus stop for the #27 bus to take us back to the hotel. For €1.40 each, we got off about 700m from the hotel. Easy and cheap. After the late lunch, neither of us were hungry, so we met in the lobby and had a farewell drink. A relatively early night.

Torre del Oro/Tower of Gold

On the big red bus



Torre Sevilla/Seville Tower

Andalusian Regional Government Ministry of Education

Pavillion of the Future, unoccupied and very run down


Barqueta Bridge





University of Seville



Plaza de España












Maria Luisa Park







Seville Mushrooms



Views from the top of the Mushrooms










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