Saturday Paseo 10-25-25

This is the final day of European Daylight Saving or tomorrow we’re not completely certain.  We do know that it’s Saturday, so we decided to have a little quieter day. Our goal for the day was to see “Los Setas de Sevilla” which is an architectural marvel in the heart of the historic center of the city.  It is only 20 minutes from the apartment by foot or 17 minutes by bus.  The streets are so small that the buses can only go on the major streets and one then walks the last several blocks to their destination.

The entire structure is made from micro-laminated Finnish pine.  Completed in 2011 and claimed to be the world’s largest wooden structure,  it’s about three blocks long and eighty-five feet high.  It hosts many public functions, for example today there was a large youth basketball tournament with probably 10 or more temporary courts setup and hordes of young ballers mimicking Nicola Jokic. The nickname for the structure is “the mushrooms” due to their design. There is a stairway going up to a walkway on top of the structure which overlooks the skyline but Deb is not up to that kind of climb right now and frankly as hot as the days have been I’m not all that excited to be climbing a completely enclosed stairway. Also, there is no relief from the sun once you’re on top.  We haven’t emphasized it too much but it has been scorching here for the entire trip so far, like 80 degrees plus everyday along with high humidity, so in the later afternoon we just retreat to the apartment and the air conditioning.  Some intrepid travelers 😅.

Following our visit to the Setas, we walked a short distance over to Calle Sierpentes, reputed to be the highest class shopping area in the city.  It’s a pedestrian mall so one doesn’t have to keep a weather eye out for vehicles. It runs for many blocks through the Casco Antiguo, old town, and has many small streets and alleys intersecting along its length.  Being Saturday the street was filled with families and couples out for a mid-day paseo and at the far end from where we entered was a plaza with several little restaurants and bars where people were having tapas and beers.  At one of the intersecting streets was located a 16th century chapel dedicated to San Jose,  it was small but I don’t remember any of the Rococo churches in Rome where it would have been outshined in decoration and ornamentation. Our timing was fortunate in that we had about 15 minutes before one of the chapel wardens turned off the lights and ushered everyone out.  Presumably for lunch, as it was about 1:00 so we took it for an omen.  Assessing the general area we decided that heading back up to our area, Alameda de Hercules, would be more a enjoyable and less frenetic place to have our own lunch.  We got back to what has become “our plaza” and considered where we might want to eat.  

A bit of a side note, the Alameda de Hercules is where one the oldest gardens in Europe was originally located before it was paved over for a plaza.  It is very old and at the southern end are located two Roman columns topped with statues of Hercules on one and Julius Caesar on the other, again of ancient Roman origin. At one time it was a swamp when the Guadalquivir river overran its banks and flooded the area.  

Back to lunch, we decided that we liked the Maestro Rufino so much last time that we would try to have lunch there again.  When we arrived we could see that someone had made a reservation for about 12-14 people at one long table and another had been reserved for 8 people. When we asked if we could be seated the waiter had to go inside and get the go ahead to seat us.  But they did and we started out with a couple bowls of Salmorejo again and a large tuna salad.  For our main course we wanted to try the seafood 

paella and compare it to the meat one we had before.  The soup and salad were both delicious and we loved the seafood paella, but decided that the meat paella we had the previous time was more satisfying to us.  By the time we had finished every table in the place was filled and there were people waiting to be seated if a table came available.  So after a small glass of dessert sherry that was as heavery as a syrup we paid our bill and went to find a market noted as the oldest still functioning food market in the city.  We found it unfortunately the part that sells produce and meat was closed, but the little restaurants around the exterior were jumping and there was not a seat to be had anywhere. The heat was really turning up so we walked back to the apartment.  A very nice day out.