El Fin de Semana

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our friend Pavel is staying with us for a few days. His ankle is on the mend from a soccer injury, so we had an excuse to finally try out the city bikes.

In September, Sevilla implemented a bike sharing system. Throughout the city, you see little stations with bikes locked up. For a few euros, you can get a 7-day pass (or a year-long pass) and check the bikes in and out. We have a little bike station on our corner. So, we just grab a bike, cruise over to the Plaza Nueva, river, cathedral, etc. and park the bike at the stations there.

B on his bici
On Friday we went out for tapas in Santa Cruz (old Jewish barrio.)

Pavel, Brad and Rob at Las Teresas, a tapas bar in Santa Cruz – the calamares and croquettas here are to die for! (Those are cured hams hanging from the ceiling)

Saturday, we decided to take our day trip to Cadiz. From Sevilla, it’s a 2-hour bus ride. We saw the beach – and most of town – from the top of an open-air “turibus.” Cadiz is a town on a teeny peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic. Needless to say, it has historically been a valuable port. Most notably, Cadiz is . . . drum roll please . . . the oldest city in Europe!

Cadiz . . .
La playaLa cathedral

We only spent a few hours there, and we hope to return. We heard about a night train that goes from Sevilla to Cadiz during Carnival. Cadiz during Carnival is like New Orleans Mardi Gras – crazy fun and crazy expensive to stay in a hotel.

To finish out our weekend, on Sunday, we three went to the Festival of Nations – a temporary festival at the Parque Maria Luisa (beautiful city park.) We had gyros for lunch from the Egypt tent. We then set out for the soccer stadium – Betis was playing Real Satander (those are soccer teams for those of you don’t already know.)

Betis player

As we neared the stadium, everyone who passed us was wearing green and white (Betis colors) and most of them were yelling and/or drinking. I was getting so excited. We squeezed through the crowds outside the stadium to get up to the ticket counter . . . And the cheapest seats were just too expensive for us. We didn't go to the game. Muy triste! We felt a bit defeated and extremely hot. Man, it is still hot in Andalucia!

Anyway, that’s life. I bet the bullfights are cheaper anyway. Soccer here is like U.S. football and bullfights are like baseball. That’s my inexpert opinion.