Exploring on foot

We slept in again, till around 0830.  Rather than repeat yesterday’s breakfast at Plaza Alfalfa, we had some cereal in our room before going out for a morning cuppa.

We continued towards the river and the bullring, Plaza de Toros.  The bullring was huge, seating 14000 spectators.  It even has its own operating theatre in case of serious injury.

Continuing along the river, we reached the Torre del Oro, a twelve-sided military watchtower from the 13^th Century. It now houses a naval museum.

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For lunch, we returned to Santa Cruz, the area around the cathedral.  We finally had the great-value set meals that we had missed yesterday.  We had two set meals, swapping half-way in our usual manner so we could sample more of the local flavours.  The first set was a gazpacho and tortilla (frittata).  The second was pork fillets and schnitzel with ham and cheese.  Each set came with bread, wine or beer, ice cream and tea, for a total of EUR6 per person!

We walked off our lunch, going through gardens and the university, to get to Plaza de Espana.  This huge square was built for an exposition in 1928.  The beautiful and huge ornate buildings have now been adapted for use as government offices.

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Our last stop on foot was Plaza de America, located in Maria Luisa Park.  There were a couple of museums here, namely the Archaeological Museum and the Museum of Popular Arts.  The latter was used in the movie “Lawrence of Arabia” as an Arab-style building).

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Hot and tired, we took a taxi back to our area around 1600.  We stopped outside Casa de Pilatos, a palace originating from about 500 years ago.  We looked at some of the pictures on the outside and decided it was too similar in style to the Alcazar, so we didn’t spend the money for the entry.

We rested till it was cooler before walking to the cathedral area.  We spent a little time at an internet café before having another set meal with wine or beer, dessert but unfortunately no tea included.

We returned to our hostal for our last night stay in Seville.  We have booked a number of hostals for our stay in Spain.  From the pictures, most are rich in character and our first one here has lived up to our expectations.