We grabbed breakfast at a restaurant at the Plaza de la Encarnación (Morgan had serrano ham on his breakfast sandwich!) and then headed over to Casa de Pilatos – a really beautiful 16th century mansion. It is full of azulejos (Moorish tiles), decorated coffered ceilings, Roman and Greek statues, lots of arches and two gardens. The bottom level we were free to walk around on our own, but the upstairs we had to see with a tour group and they didn’t allow pictures. Unlike the downstairs, the upstairs is still completely furnished and the walls are covered with big tapestries and paintings, rather than the tiles that are on the first floor.
We walked over to Plaza de España which is a huge complex that was built for the world fair held in Seville in 1929 and is located in Maria Luisa Park. It is mainly made of red bricks, but there are colorful painted ceramic tiles used all over it. We walked through the park and then followed the River Guadalquivir up to the Isabell II bridge (the bridge that goes over to Triana) passing Torre del Oro (a military watchtower that was built in the 13th century). Before crossing the bridge we ate a huge lunch at a pub (we wanted a break from tapas) and went on a tour of the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla. Real Maestranza was completed in 1765 and is the oldest bullring in the world. We did the guided tour which was pretty interesting, but I will admit I was glad we missed bull fighting season.
When we finished up at the bullring we walked across the bridge to Triana – a neighborhood across the river that is famous for its pottery and tile industry. I even talked Morgan into picking up a ceramic dish from Ceramica Santa Ana. J There were also lots of interesting buildings on that side of the town – most of them involving lots of tile! Before walking back across the river we stopped and had some sangria on the rooftop bar of a little building right on the water. It was a little pricy, but totally worth the view as the sun was setting.
We wandered around the shopping district to kill some time until the restaurant we wanted to eat at (another one the apartment owners recommended) opened – restaurants open pretty late in Spain. Most weren’t open before 7, some not until 8 pm. It was another tapas place, but what made it interesting was they had stadium seating in the back. I didn’t think I was graceful enough to eat sitting back there and thankfully we got a regular table! After dinner we bought some roasted chestnuts (there were guys selling these on every corner) and walked around a little more near where we had eaten dinner. We even ran across an area of wedding dress shops surrounding a church – pretty convenient I’d say!
