Parque Maria Luisa, Seville

On our third day in Seville, we wanted to explore Placa Espana and the Parque Maria Luisa. We walked from our hotel through the Santa Cruz area,  the Cathedral area, and got to this square with the wonderful fountain in the middle

along Palos de la Frontera, a wide avenue, with lots of cafes and restaurants on one side of it

past the grand historic five-star Hotel Alfonso XIII

past the Royal Tobacco factory, which, today,  is part of the University.

The building is massive, walking past it took ages.

At the end of the avenue, another square,

the horse-drawn carriages for tourists are to be found everywhere in the centre of the city.

We arrived at Parque Prado de Sebastian which we had visited the day before,

and eventually, arrived at

Parque Maria Luisa, a wonderful park, with fountains, flower gardens and mature trees - it's  Seville's principal green area.  Many of the historic buildings situated within the park were erected for the Ibero-American exposition of 1929 - the crescent shaped Plaza de Espana is the most striking legacy from this.

We really enjoyed walking around and exploring this park and on that day we did not manage to explore all of it. We did intend to come back and explore the rest of it, but never managed to find the time to do it.

This massive tree was at the entrance, and we never managed to find out what it is called. There are many examples of it throughout Seville

and every time I marvelled at its extensive network of roots.

We walked through one of the main avenues of the park

it was a warm, sunny day, so there were lots of people around

fountains, lots of flowers as well as shaded areas

lots of water birds

 

We could see Plaza de Espana at the end of the avenue

We spent a considerable time here, and then, a bit fed up with all the crowds, 

returned to the park where we spent the rest of the afternoon.

The park was fairly quiet, some people around, but after the crowds of Plaza de Espana, it was bliss.

As I have said before, there were tiles everywhere...

We came upon these rocks with water cascading down them

and then a central square with fountains, statues

lots of paths with palm trees

surrounded by shaded walkways

with the most amazingly vibrant bourgainvillea in two shades of pink/violet

that went all the way around that area.





Amazing.

So many paths all around

We walked through 

and then saw an orange bourgainvillea, a shade I had not seen before.

We left that area and then saw a tunnel beneath a small hill that had a gazebo on top of it

intrigued, we walked through the tunnel

and arrived at the rocks with the water cascading down them we had seen earlier

We looked for a way to get to the top and the gazebo and started climbing

we could see it clearly now,

and then we arrived.

Good views of the park from here - some of the palm trees are so tall

We descended,  past the tall palm trees

and got to this fountain

I loved the frogs

and continued exploring.

We got to a series of ponds, one after the other, 

some with fountains

another tree

with those magnificent roots

All those tiles!

Eventually, we left the park,  crossed the road and went back to Parque Prado de San Sebastian for a late lunch at the cafe.