The River That Is Not 10-31-25

The day dawned cloudy again and we even got a few drops of rain as we walked to the bus stop. But by the time we arrived at our stop the sun was peeping out.  This day we decided to take a boat tour of what we thought was the river. But it seems that the river is actually a canal off of the river and in fact doesn’t connect to anything beyond the north part of the city.  All the water in the canal flows in from the river where it meets the canal.  Another surprise for us is that Sevilla is actually below sea level, not far but still, and there is a lock down by the mouth to control the water level.  We learned all this from the guide/captain on our boat as we slowly cruised along the city.  He was very well versed in the history of the city and had a very developed sense of humor.  Our tour lasted about 90 minutes and traversed pretty

much the entire length of the main part of the city.  One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the replica of the only ship to have returned from Magellan’s round the world voyage with its 18 sailors who were more dead than alive. Magellan was killed in the Philippine Islands and thus didn’t complete the voyage. There were only 12 people on board and we sat next to a nice woman from Ireland and her daughter and across from a couple from Argentina, then there were 4 from England and 3 from India, all congenial. Before we started our captain served everyone a complimentary glass of wine or a beer.  As we were getting ready to leave wouldn’t you know it the young Irish woman turned over the table and spilled drinks all over the floor.  😆😆 just like the Irish. But seriously they were very sweet. It was an excellent little cruise and we were sorry it was over so quickly.

It was just after 2:00 when we landed so we headed into the old quarter to find a place for lunch. We were right in the heart of tourist central and had resigned ourselves to getting a mediocre lunch. Primarily because there were a line of at least 10 restaurants facing the old Royal Tobacco Factory (the setting for the opera Carmen) and it was a main pedestrian walkway. We walked along and ignored the pushy hustlers and settled on a place that was lower key. The waiter gave us menus written in English and French (red flag) but we figured it would be no worse that any of the other places, and their paella looked pretty good. Long story short it was a decent little restaurant and we had a nice lunch, Deb had pork tenderloin with chips and I had a grilled seabass with fresh veg and potatoes.  I can only think that the competition is keen enough that these places can’t afford to let the quality slip.

Following lunch we walked through the Maria Luisa park to the Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares, a museum dedicated to the culture of the area.   The park covers several hundred acres and originally was the private park for royalty even up to 1929 when it was gifted to the city by the queen. Along the way we walked past the front of the Plaza de Espagna, a beautiful large plaza that has tiled monuments to every province of Spain and also for the major cities. It’s one of the most beautiful plazas I think I’ve ever seen. In 2013 we spent well over an hour just going around the plaza looking at the monuments with almost no other people around, today not so much. It was getting late in the afternoon and we wanted to see the museum before it closed.  

It is at the south end of the gardens and built in the Mudejar style, 

originally for the Americas/Spanish Exhibition in 1929.  The exhibition rooms run over 3 floors but the upper floor was completely closed and the middle floor was partially closed too.  But the bottom floor was open and turned out to be a really enjoyable intoduction to Sevilliana culture.  There were room sized exhibits showing many of the major industrial arts of the area, like tailoring, leather work, lace making, and tile manufacturing shown.  We had a very enjoyable time and after our visit we took one of the local busses back to our apartment. 

We had a long, but enjoyable day. There were little goblins, angels, and fairies coming out for the trick or treating as we got to our building.