May 19, 2016

I awoke to the sound of the shutters being pulled up on the front of the bar and the tables and chairs being set out on the pavement below our window.  It still seemed a bit gloomy to me, so I checked my watch – 4.30am!  We are staying in a place frequented by pilgrims walking one of the routes of the Camino de Santiago.  Perhaps they like to set out early, me, I prefer to sleep at 4.30am.

When we set off at 9.30am, like normal people, the temperature was 23 degrees – it’s going to be hot work today.  The run to Italica is an easy spin and we arrive just as the site opening, together with three bus loads of school children.  We’re able to lock our bikes within sight of the ticket kiosk and we set off, surrounded by ten year olds dressed as gladiators.

The ruins really are ruins, with just the floors remaining for much of the site.  There some impressive mosaics, however, many of birds and animals, as well as some of Roman gods.  The biggest structure on the site is the amphitheatre which, despite its dilapidated state, still gives an insight into the tremendous engineering skill of the Romans.

Happy with what we’ve seen we head off on the bikes towards Seville.  We’re not going to stop there, but just pass through, heading on southwards alongside the river and, eventually, down to the coast.  The distance is about 100 kilometres in total with very little in the way of towns or villages along the way.  We plan to get through Seville today and stay on the southernmost outskirts before tackling the long run tomorrow.

  

Getting through the city itself is fairly painless until we try to find the road we want on the south side of the city.  After a couple of circuits of an intersection of motorways we realise that our road has been subsumed into the new motorway network.  This happens a lot in Spain and it is not uncommon to suddenly find yourself cycling along a motorway slip road heading into traffic travelling at 120 kilometres/hour.  We do manage to avoid this fate, but have to modify our route.  As the time slips by and the temperature hits the mid-thirties, we call it a day and check into a hotel with such luxuries as fully functioning WiFi, air conditioning and sockets to charge stuff up with (I resorted to the battery pack last night as none of the sockets worked).  All in all, a good day.