Marchena to Seville - 42 miles

I awoke to the sound of what seemed hundreds of birds, like me drawn by the peace and solitude of this high point in town. A cafe breakfast was followed by a cycle through Marchena to join my route towards Seville. The high town area I passed through is like so many of the older places I have cycled through with its narrow streets, white houses decorated with wrought iron, small balconies and pastel colours and everything neat and tidy. I wish I had made the effort to explore it last night.

Most of today was spent on quiet roads that cut through the generally flat Andalucían scenery. There is a notable change to the landscape now than from a couple of days ago. They use a different palette here: the skies are expansive and an intense blue, the crops gold and the earth in the fields and between the rows of olive trees pale and sun bleached. I cycled the flat Guadalquivir plain, climbed up to small towns sitting on the higher ground and gleaming white in the sun, before eventually heading downhill and towards Seville. 

The route into the heart of Seville was long, time consuming and through the industrial outskirts and some of the city's less salubrious areas. Eventually I reached the city centre and the familiar surroundings of the cathedral area where my accommodation lay. It is in the tiny and busy back streets, all tourist shops and bars but it definitely has a buzz. An old converted convent, there are steep stairs and ill fitting doors and my room feels a bit like it is an adjunct off the reception area. Some might say it needs updating but to me it says character.

I was in Seville only two years ago when I walked from the south coast of Spain to the north so today I was ill inclined to rush around the city between tourist sights so simply headed into town to walk around: the cathedral with its massive queues to enter, the river with the Torre de Oro watchtower and then across the water to Triana, the area where Lee stayed. It is famous for producing flamenco artists and bullfighters of renown and it still has a feel of the alternative poorer - although clearly no longer poor - cousin to the rest of the city. The walking, and a couple of tapas bars, took me into the early evening but as I still had to decide on my route to Cadiz and whether it was something I should attempt in one long day or, more likely, two shorter ones the rest of the evening was already spoken for.

Triana

Triana