Bikes and the Plaza de Espana in Sevilla (and Video #4)

The girls' fourth video is ready re: the Plaza de Espana in Sevilla.  Read below for more updates.




Highlights of the last few days in Sevilla have been our visit to the Plaza de Espana and bikes! We have walked many miles in Sevilla, back and forth across the Triana bridge, up and down the river bank and weaving through the labyrinth of tiny streets.  Enough of that!  Now on to faster transportation: bikes.  (We are still walking a lot, of course, we are just traveling longer distances).


Sevilla is ranked as one of the best cities in the world for bicycles. And for good reason. There is an extensive network of bike lanes all throughout the city, separated from traffic.  They are either in the street but separated with a curb, integrated into the wide sidewalks, or completely separate from the streets on bike lanes near the river or on pedestrian/bike only roads.  Also Sevilla is basically flat as a board, so no sweat-inducing hills to climb.

There is also a vast network of city sponsored bike rental stations where for a weekly (mostly visitors) or yearly (mostly locals) fee you can pick up bikes from any stop and return it to any other throughout the city.  Cool!  The one thing that is completely absent from the Sevilla bike scene is bike helmets.  I think I have seen three helmets since we have been here, two of which were clearly on tourists. We of course did not bring helmets in our one carry on bag each, so we have had to jump into the local custom and just take extra care not to incur traumatic brain injuries.

Servici bike rental station. Convenient and fun.
One of the places we visited on our bikes is the enormous and impressive Plaza de Espana.  It's main function seems to be simply as a tourist attraction, but it is certainly for good reason that tourists go. It is stunning (there was also a movie being filmed while we were there).



The girls rode on a little pony-pulled wagon around the plaza and the afternoon light was perfect for photo taking.








A scene in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones was filed here (with Anakin and Padme) so that added some excitement to the visit for the girls.




To round out the last few days, we also ate too much ice cream from the heladeria right near our apartment and watched Ferdinand (in Spanish of course). Based on the famous book, the movie is set in Spain about the sweet bull who doesn't want to fight but ends up in the ring in Madrid.  Lots of great scenes of Spain, including Ronda where we are headed next week.



Later this week we are renting a car and heading off to Granada for four days to see the Alhambra (yay!) and to Ronda (first time for us).

Comments

  1. ¡HURRA! Bicicletas! Eso se ve muy divertido. La forma perfecta de moverse, especialmente en una hermosa ciudad plana como Sevilla. Debo decir que también estoy disfrutando enormemente de las capas de audio de tu blog, es realmente bueno. Y me ENCANTÓ la poca información sobre cascos de bicicleta que no existen. Encuentro ese tipo de diferencias tan interesantes. ¡Gracias Gracias!

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  2. Me encanta leer sobre las aventuras de su familia! Y me encanta el estilo de la escritura y los topicos importantes y la perspectiva refrescante de las jovenes! Y me gusta "and no sweat-inducing climbs..." Ha!
    I can just picture you all with your ice cream and freely swinging hair and appreciation for the little bits of Spain that are frequently featured in movies and cliches, but that you are gradually claiming as your own little bits to have and know forever more. xoxoxo
    Hamilton tickets on sale Friday here! Going to try to my best (in class online...no one will notice, right?!). Bike SAFELY!

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