Out and about in Seville

We slept in but still got out and about by 10.00 because we knew that the streets would descend into Semana Santa chaos by mid afternoon. 

As we walked we saw a tourist bus debouching a crowd of people at a tall column. This turned out to be the Christopher Columbus monument. One side said Christopher Columbus and Isabel. This is the more enigmatic reverse.

We walked to Plaza de España, which is a huge semi-circular building on the edge of Parque de María Luisa. It was built for a great exposition in 1929. It is impressive enough public architecture but its real glories are the numerous alcoves with tile depictions of every region of Spain.

Parque de María Luisa is huge so we hired a vehicle to explore. After Lyn’s Herculean effort yesterday it was my turn to steer, and pedal too, because Lyn claimed her legs were too short.

We saw stunning gardens, orange groves, water features, nesting doves and mudejar architecture. The only unsavoury note was that the ubiquitous horses had left the road a little whiffy in places.

Our last sightseeing effort for today was the archaeological museum. This had terrific prehistoric galleries and a very fine Roman section too, including excellent mosaics and a large chunk of a temple of Diana.

We were much saddened last night and this morning by the news from Paris. We visited Notre Dame in 2013. The thought that the rose windows could be gone is dreadful.