July 21 Seville

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The Ten Plaza Tour

In Spain a Plaza can be anything from a giant pedestrian area like Plaza del Sol in Madrid or Plaza Catayuna in Barcelona to a tiny intersection where the four streets didn't line up exactly, and left enough room for a tree, a statue, a fountain, or an outdoor cafe. Within 100 metres of our hotel there are five plazas: Plaza de Santa Cruz, which is a little urban park, Plaza Alienza, which is a cobblestone square with two trees and a bar (where we have been known to have a beer), Plaza da Elvira which we have yet to find in this maze called Bario Santa Cruz, and Plaza Virgen de Los Reyes and Plaza Del Triunfo, which are large spaces that flank the Cathedral where the carriage drivers and con artists solicit customers. Today we decided to do a tour of 10 plazas that formed a circle starting and ending at our hotel. In the process we saw a lot of very different sides of Seville, from old quiet narrow streets, to working class neighbourhoods, to noisy busy urban downtown streets, to the high end shopping districts.

1.Plaza Reinadores : small plaza in Bario Santa Cruz, nice trees, nice surrounding buildings
2.Plaza Alfalfa: many cafes/bars, more working class, had a beer, dogs playing, some trees. Got a little lost on the way there. Very narrow streets. Passed Inglesia de San Nicolas on the way.
3.Plaza Christo de Burgos: nice plaza, big trees, playground for children, facing Iglesia de San Pedro, you can see Iglesia de Santa Ines from here. Construction - loud! Hot -bought a fan
4.Plaza Ponce de Leon: mostly where the buses to the suburbs stop. A few trees, good view of Iglesia de Santa Catalina
5.Plaza de Padre Jeronimo de Cordoba: small plaza essentially adjacent to Plaza Ponce de Leon, Hotels on two sides.
6.Plaza Encarnacion: Very nice plaza. Giant tree in centre, small fountain. Inglesia de la Anunciacion on one side. On the other they are constructing massive modern weird building/urban art .
7.Plaza Doque de la Victoria: nice little urban park with fountain and flowering trees, also a neat, trimmed lawn . El Corte Ingles on both sides.
8.Plaza Concordia. On the other side of El Corte Ingles (had another beer). Small plaza with trees and fountain.
9.Plaza Neuva. Very large plaza with trees, statues and benches. City Hall (Ayuntamiento) on one side, fancy hotel on the other. One end of the four stop tram line is here. Popular with skateboarders.
10.Plaza de San Francisco: On the other side of the Ayuntamiento from Plaza Neuva. Fairly large, largely treeless plaza with statuary. Many bars.
I am posting a few of my favorite things we saw on our walk Linda

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Photos

Entrance to apartment building
The entrances to many of the apartment buildings are lovely. I really like this one

Vending Machine Grocery Store
This was a very odd little store that was full of vending machines for drinks and snacks off one of the little plazas

Take away sandwich store
This store just sells sanwiches to go but they loo very good. Lots of the are ham as you can tell from the legs hanging above the counter

beer delivery
As many bars and restaurants cannot be reached by vehicles it is common to see beer delivery on foot.

Pretty plaza
This was one of the nicest plazas as irt had these pink flowering trees in bloom.