Rota, Spain; Day 1/Seville, Spain; Day 1

Rota Adventurers

Our convalescing boys and their tireless Dad finished the long drive from Barcelona late yesterday and are settling in to our apartment in Rota. We choose this place for our 4 week ‘stay-in-one-place’ place which was scheduled to start Friday. The hosts moved some things around and were able to get us in a couple of days early.

We will show more of this place later but here’s a quick look at our view of the Atlantic Ocean. As with Diani Beach, Kenya, this is another wind surfing mecca.

Seville Adventurers

Today started as a somewhat early travel day for our 3 wandering Adventurers. We took the 8am high speed train from Madrid to Seville. After our practice run yesterday, it was easy.

After a misty start to the view, things cleared up and we were able to enjoy the Spanish scenery. It was especially lovely enjoying a morning coffee from the dining car.

We arrived without any problems (or rain) and after a short wait we dropped our bags at our new apartment. By noon we were out wandering the streets.

Our first stop was Setas de Sevilla or the ‘Mushrooms of Seville’ which claims to be the largest wooden sculpture in the world. The shape is theoretically based on the vaults of the famous Cathedral of Seville. It was controversial when it was built and to us it honestly feels out of place in the narrow streets and old buildings of its neighborhood. We looked around and then moved on.

After a tapas lunch featuring some of the best artichokes we’ve ever had, we walked by the Seville Cathedral. This is the largest gothic church in the world and the 4th largest overall. It’s also where Christopher Columbus is buried.

We thoroughly enjoyed the outside but after two Cathedral tours in the last 4 days we decided to pass on the inside tour.

Our main objective for the day was to get to the Plaza de España. Featured in almost every article on Seville, this structure and the plaza and the park it sits in were built for the 1939 Ibero-American Exposition World’s Fair. It is huge, imposing, impressive and very well maintained. The whole thing won’t fit in a single photo. We didn’t walk around very much or go in the alcoves or cross the moat so this place deserves another visit.

After getting more than our 10,000 steps for the day we took our tired feet back to our apartment to settle in and spend our first night in Seville.