Seville Sunday

Sunday morning the cathedral bells start sounding by 7 a.m., so it was easy to wake up and get an early start to the day. We took our time getting ready, though, then strolled down by the University to a cafe we had passed the night before, and we had Churros y Chocolate for breakfast. I could feel my arteries clogging, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. We each had two huge churros twisted like pretzels, and with them a small cup of what looked like cocoa, but it was creamy, thick chocolate in which we dipped our churros. Decadent. And on a Sunday morning. Probably sinful.

It was a pretty morning, so we took our cue from the locals and hung out enjoying each other's company and observing the passers by. Eventually we got ourselves up and headed through the Palace Gardens over to Naboo (Plaza d'espagne) and Parque Maria Luisa. In daylight, the park was much more enjoyable.

Arriving at Naboo, we heard some locals playing the theme from Titanic on traditional instruments, so we parked ourselves and enjoyed the concert for a bit. After I bought one of their CDs, they invited us to join them. Haha. Won't be quitting my day job.

We walked on. The serious boaters are out on Sunday, so we didn't get any funny videos. Tant pis.

So on we went to the park.

Maria Luisa was Isabella's sister. (Isabella of Izzy and Ferdinand patrons of Columbus fame.) Well, imagine my surprise to learn that Ferdi was apparently unable or unwilling to produce an heir to the throne, so King Louis Phillipe of France decided to set his son Antoine up with Maria Luisa so that he (Louis) could get the Spanish throne for his grandkids. (Since if Isabella had no children, the throne would pass to Maria Luisa.) Well then, imagine Phillipe's surprise when Isabella did have children; perhaps not by Ferdinand, but heirs nonetheless. There's more drama about Antoine plotting against Isabella and Isabella being exiled, but Maria Luisa being banished with her, and then drama having to do with the French revolution and Luisa moving out of Seville until after the revolution, but eventually the telenovella ends with Maria Luisa's daughter, Mercedes, marrying Isabella's son, Alfonso (ew, first cousins), and living happily ever after. Well, I don't know that, but that's as far as I read. (My source is TripAdvisor.com, so who knows if any of this is accurate. At least it's entertaining.)

So anyway, the Parque is like a quarter of the garden to the Palace of San Telmo, where much of this drama occurred. At some point the land was used for a world expo and the gardens were refurbished and are now a beautiful setting for walks, picnics and sightseeing.

Sam and I spent even more time there than I just spent relaying this story, then we walked across the Rio Guadalquivir (yes, via bridge), strolled along to yet another outdoor cafe overlooking the river and had paella for lunch. (I know it sounds like we just ate, but really, we probably covered three to five miles between meals!)

It started to drizzle, so we moved on, walking to the shopping district on the other side of the river. Crossing this time was the first time I saw a bridge with locks attached inspired by a novel of two lovers who commemorate their romance by securing a lock to a bridge before tossing the key into the river. Sounds very Nicholas Sparksy to me, but securing locks to bridges seems to be quite the rage in Europe these days.

The shopping district was closed (oops, Sunday), so we ambled back through Santa Cruz to the hotel. A bit later we walked out to find the bus station and buy our tickets to Tarifa for the morning, then strolled back through the palace gardens (we love that garden), got some gelato -- which is really good in Spain -- and headed back to Alcantara to pack for tomorrow's voyage to Africa!