Rowkin Rovings Blog

So, let us start with the flight over. There are the regular airlines, followed by the budget airlines and then at the bottom of the pack there is the “OMG, what have I booked myself on” airline. So, you can gather that we ended up on the third type. It was Lufthansa who had hived it off to one of their lesser carrier cohorts. Give them credit though, as they did spend the money on de-icing the plane which was a substantial bonus, and it was on time. 

It was only an 8hr 40-minute flight into Frankfurt followed by a 2-hour layover and then we swapped to a real proper Lufthansa plane to Seville. Our friend Chris picked us up from the airport and brought us to their home in a small village just out of Sevilla called Bollullos.

Our aim of the day was to stay awake as long as possible, and we were so proud to make it to 10.30pm before we face planted into our bed. Chris and Melanie date back to our arrival in Canada in 2003 and have lived in Indonesia and are now in Spain. The have two tween boys (Quentin and Cohen) and two rescue dogs Lucky and Leon who are almost impossible to tell apart as they are brothers. The hooman boys have amazing Spanish and have only been here for 18 months. We are very envious of anyone who can speak more than one language.

Bollullos/Sevilla/Tomares – 5^th April 2024

Di has given herself a goal of achieving 10,000 steps per day whilst on holiday. This is so she does not feel quite so guilty eating stuff she knows will go straight to her hips. Her goal will be totalled at the end of the day and documented for prosperity and to make her feel as guilty as all hell if she does not achieve it. Fras will of course plot it into a spreadsheet and then turn it into a graph!!

We luxuriated in bed until 9.00am and then our day began with a breakfast in a local café/restaurant where the boys introduced us to a local delicacy called a churro – basically, for us oldies, it was heart attack material dipped in chocolate but very palatable indeed.

We then drove into Sevilla to visit the Plaza de Espana. 

Amazing place with intricate tiling. It was built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. It is a landmark example of Regionalism Architecture, mixing elements of the Baroque Revival, Renaissance Revival and Moorish Revival styles of Spanish architecture. Some of you might just recognize if you are a Star Wars fans as it featured in the movie, Return of the Jedi.

It is an interesting weekend to visit Sevilla as there was a football (soccer) match between two Spanish teams. The teams were from Majorca (holiday island) and Bilboa (northern Spain). What was surprising was that neither team were from Sevilla and each of the teams colours were identical – red with white longitudinal stripes. 

The Plaza de Espana was a sea of red and basically it was testosterone on steroids🤪 There was spontaneous tribal chants emanating from the crowds and all in good humour. The stadium they were playing at held 90,000 so Sevilla was inundated. FYI – Bilboa won.

Then to the village of Tomares for some Tapas at a small café where we tried out the local snails and sardines. We were also there to watch Cohen play basketball 🏀 where his team were the victors.

Back home for a few hours before heading back into Sevilla for dinner. The culture here is that you eat very late, so we fitted right in and sat down at 8.30pm. The center of town was buzzing as besides the usual local people out on a Saturday evening, the football crowd were only just making their way to the stadium for the game commencing at 10.00pm. Our dinner was exquisite – it really pays to know locals wherever you go as you get to experience the hidden gems.

Following dinner, we meandered around the beautiful quaint narrow streets and then we finished at what is called the Setas de Sevilla. This is indeed an amazing wooden structure. Our photo hasn’t done it justice, so we got this aerial screenshot from the website to give you a better perspective of it.

A design by German architect Jürgen Mayer, it was inaugurated in 2011 and stands 26 metres tall. Composed of six large mushroom-shaped parasols, the structure offers fantastic views of Seville from its walkway-viewpoint. The basement houses the Antiquarium museum, with relevant archaeological remains from the Roman era. We walked along its roof and got great views of the city by night where major landmarks were lit up to orientate us.

This photo is from the rooftop of the Setas de Sevilla and is of the cathedral which we will visit tomorrow.

The guys are trying to teach us some Spanish words to help us get by, but we know we are going to end up butchering the language due to our Aussie accents, so we apologize to all the Spaniards in advance. Our good German friends have also tried to assist us in learning German but even they realized that we were a lost cause.

All in all a great day and we managed to leave the city prior to the footy crowds disgorging from the stadium.

Di is skiting as she achieved 15,998 steps today (skiting is a New Zealand/Aussie term meaning to boast/brag).