Today we reversed the “manana” lifestyle we have adopted so easily. We had an early start (alarm at 7:30) as we had booked a train ticket to Seville from San Fernando Bahia Sur.

The tickets were booked online at www.loco2.com using information from www.seat61.com. loco2.com is basically an English website with links to all trains and tickets on the Spanish train operators website, renfe.com. Plus you don’t have any issues paying on-line with a UK Credit Card.

The tickets were immediately available for pdf download and were able to print them off on our HP Mobile Printer. A word of caution though. The web printed tickets don’t allow access through the station barriers and at one point, we thought we would miss the train as we simply couldn’t get through – until one of the station staff presented us each with a kind of “platform ticket” to gain access through the barriers.

The Spanish rail net work is first rate. We were on a Medio Express service – the train, infrastructure and stations were predominantly new and the little train sped along at 160km/h. Spain might have borrowed a lot more money than they should have but none of it was squandered. There have some fantastic infrastructure to show for their excesses – unlike the crumbling roads and railways in blighty.

And one more point. The station had plenty of parking and it was all free. Compare that to the 30 or 40 quid you have to pay to park at Reading station for the day.

On to Sevilla. A long day logging some 16km of walking as recorded on the phone pedometers. We had lunch courtesy of a recommendation on the website www.seville-traveller.com where the writer lists six recommended Tapas bars. We chose La Flor de Toranzo and it was excellent for a light lunch of toasted sandwiches.

After lunch we visited the Cathedral (the largest Gothic temple in the world and the third largest of the Christian world) and climbed La Giralda tower to see panoramic views across the city. It’s very difficult to photograph because its just so large.

 

Here is a picture of La Giralda Tower, all that is remaining of the former mosque at this site.

 

 

 

 

 

Christopher Columbus’ mausoleum is located in the cathedral, held aloft by the four heralds representing the kingdoms of Castile, Leon, Aragon and Navarre.

Sounds like a plot from Game of Thrones…

 

The walk back to the station (around 25 minutes from the Old Town) was via the beautiful Plaza D’Espana.