Ronda to Seville (Wednesday, October 22nd)

Adios Ronda....hola Sevilla. 

We had a lazy morning buying some supplies for lunch, having once last wander of the streets of Ronda, and then lunch in a park before heading to the train station for our 1:30 pm trip to Sevilla (Seville to us English speakers) changing at Bobadilla.

The train ride to Bobadilla was uneventful, but when we arrived there, the ticket seller told us that our train to Seville would go from platform 1. We checked the electronic sign and the written schedule, and both indicated platform 2, so back to the ticket seller, who again indicated platform 1. Who should we believe?  The two trains due before ours were both running late, and one was on platform 3 and the other on platform 1, we could only hope that the two on platforms 1 and 2 did not arrive at the same time and really confuse things.  As it turned out, the train to Algeciras arrived about 3 minutes before ours (on platform 1) and was clearly labelled with the destination.  Ours arrived on platform 2, as scheduled, on time, and was also clearly labelled as going to Sevilla. Another crisis averted!!

As we approached Seville, the outside temperature hit 36 Celsius (at 5 pm), so we splurged on an 8 euro taxi rather than endure a 2 km walk with our luggage.  The hotel is refreshingly air conditioned (the air conditioning did not work in the hotel in Ronda and we endured a 24 hour sauna) and is in a great location - over the road from the Plaza de Espana, which is probably the most impressive building that I have ever seen.  It is built in a horseshoe and has ceramics showing all the areas of Spain, alphabetically, from left to right, below the lower railings.  It is so immense that it is hard to get photographs that do it justice.  Perhaps tomorrow in better light?  Plaza de Espana is adjacent to Parque Maria Luisa (sister of Isabella la Catolica?), which is the biggest park in Seville.

Centre of Plaza de Espana

Plaza de Espana at night

One of the lamp standards at Plaza de Espana (note the ceramic work)

We walked towards the centre of town to get dinner, and there was one amazing looking building after another.  We thought that we had seen the best of Spain, but it seems that Seville may be special....if we can stand being out in the heat to see it all in two days.