Around the Adriatic Sea
The challenge: cycling round the Adriatic Sea. Will I manage it before the weather in the Balkans gets too rough? I’m curious to find out myself….
7-8 March: Seville
Seville is truly a cultural highlight, many of its monuments can only be described with superlatives. For me, it was a bit overwhelming. Apparently, I can no longer properly 'digest' such cultural overload.
Cathedral and the Church of Salvator
On Tuesday afternoon, I visited the cathedral (early XVI). It is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and the third largest cathedral overall, after Saint-Peter's in the Vatican and Saint-Paul's in London. The main altar and 80 chapels are richly decorated with valuable paintings and gilded altarpieces.
One fact worth knowing: Cristobal Columbus and his brother Diego are buried in this cathedral under an impressive monument representing the four kingdoms of Spain during Columbus' lifetime: Castile, Aragon, Navarre and Leon.
According to Columbus' own will, his corpse was first buried in the Dominican Republic and, after it was taken over by France, in Havana until Cuba's decolonisation in 1898. Then his corpse was permanently repatriated to Spain and buried in Seville.
The entrance ticket to the cathedral included the Salvator Church. There was a chapel dedicated to the local Saints Justa and Rufina, two sisters who died martyrdom for their Christian faith in the 3rd century. They are now considered the patron saints of the city and more specifically of the Giralda Tower.
After the reconquest of Seville in 1248, it became Royal Alcazar built on the site of the former Islamic Alcazar. It is a typical example of Mudejar-style. Fortunately, some of the Almohad palaces preserved. The construction and continuous extensions of the palace took 500 years, so it integrates different architectural styles, as can be seen in the photos I took.
City walk
My last evening in Seville, I took part in a city tour that started at Plaza de España, a huge, semicircular square and building built to commemorate the Ibero-America exhibition in 1929. Due to the economic crisis of 1930, expo attracted few visitors, but most of the pavilions are now reused for other purposes, such as museums, science centres or consulates of the countries that built them. The Plaza de Espana itself is one of the city's main tourist attractions.
To accommodate visitors to the exhibition, the huge Alfonso XIII hotel built. It is now a luxury five-star hotel frequented by royals, heads of state, rock stars and Hollywood celebrities. Room rates range from €500 to €4000.
Torre de Oro (XIII)
Defensive Almohaden watchtower against attacking ships on the river the Guadalquivir. After the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, it was badly damaged and threatened with demolition. It is called the golden tower because of the building materials used to make it: mortar, lime and pressed hay. The latter cast a golden light on the river.
The town hall (XVI) was built after the royal marriage of Charles V to his niece Isabella of Portugal. Parts of it are made in plataresque (<like a silversmith's) style with highly detailed figures. The popular belief in Seville is that whoever passes under the leftmost arch will never marry.
Giralda Tower (XII)
The tower was built with stones from former Roman buildings. The upper part of the bell tower was added by the Christians. The tower has 35 bells, each representing a Sevillian church. The tower is 104 metres high and has no stairs but 34 ramps.
And one last interesting fact about Seville: it has no less than 40,000 sour orange trees in its streets. The Muslims planted these because of their delicious smell.
The challenge: cycling round the Adriatic Sea. Will I manage it before the weather in the Balkans gets too rough? I’m curious to find out myself….
From 2026, Eva will be raising funds for the International Campaign for Tibet Europe, the world’s largest Tibetan advocacy organisation.
