So yes, I walked around the city a lot. Sevilla is very walkable -- also very easy to get lost in the city center. It's all flat and most all is built up maybe 4-5 stories high, so with the narrow not-perpendicular streets and paseos in the city center, VERY easy to get turned around. Even with a map. As the street labelings aren't the greatest.
Knowing that the main sites I need to visit are the Alcazar and the cathedral, I headed into the city center to see about visiting. Turns out that on Good Friday the Alcazar was closed, and the Cathedral has a crazy, crazy long line. Next. Ended up walking across one of the bridges over the Guadalquivir river (same river that runs through Cordoba), and (this was pretty laughable, actually)... I thought I saw what appeared to be this great archway that looked to be some type of blend of Moorish and Spanish architecture. So, despite my map from the hotel indicating that nothing on the other side of the river would be worth my attention, I was determined to see this archway up close.
It had to have been 3/4ths of a mile... anyway, not what I was expecting.
Apparently the entrance to some not-open theme park? Fairgrounds? HA HA. I was that guy, looking crazy laughing to himself as I came upon this. Rick Steves would be shaking his head back and forth at me, ha ha.
I did stumble upon a plaza with a poem engraving that I particularly dug.
Anyway, I was able to make a big loop and come back across the river on another bridge further up, and I checked out the Parque de Maria Luisa and, specifically, the Plaza de Espana.
That parque was great. So much vegetation... you could smell the excess oxygen. And that Plaza de Espana -- that was pretty grand.
Apparently it was built around 1928. I loved that around the entire semi-circle of the plaza they had tilework for each of the 50 different provinces in Spain. They were in alphabetical order, and each had not only tilework attributable to the province specifically, but also showed geographically where the province was located.
Exhibit A, Granada (for the record, my favorite city visited to-date):
Walked around some more -- the parque had an epic rose garden, too. Different sections had different colored flowers.
Anyway, ended up heading back for the room -- was hella tired. As I stopped in at an Alimentacion shop (the convenience stores here are all called that) for some H20, I couldn't resist the purchase of a 4-0. I mean, who doesn't drink a 40 while in traveling in Spain?
EVERYONE drinks Cruzcampo beer everywhere here in Andalucia -- including some tercera edad viejitas I've seen hanging out at the cerverceria right by my hotel, so why not me? 40 ounces of it. No paper bag though. But done. Had a nice lil nap afterwards, too :)
Headed back out to catch some more Semana Santa processions. As it turns out, it's actually pretty difficult to stumble upon some good viewing in Sevilla. Lots of the larger streets and walkways are built up with premium seating.
Upon further searching and walking, I found a good vantage point for a paso.
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