We walked into town along the river which is a lovely shady route. We stumbled on the city’s ‘beach’ where folks were sunbathing as at the seaside, a paddle steamer cafe, a picture of extensive floods in 2019 and details of on the place where a Spanish inventor demonstrated a diving suit 300 years before the Brits!
We were enjoying the riverside walk so much we went as far as the Parque Campo Grande where we saw peacocks and tame red squirrels plus a few very lovely statues
The plan had been to go to the Columbus museum but, by the time we had explored the centre and the Parque Campo Grande it was closed for the afternoon siesta. So we were forced to join the Spanish habit of a leisurely Sunday lunch at a cafe with views of the cathedral. The venue was great, the staff attentive, the food was excellent and the wine equally good - what is not to like.
We looked briefly in the cathedral but a service was taking place so we did not stay, the interior is very stark unlike all other churches we have visited in Spain, much more similar to cathedrals back home.
A slow stroll took us to the Columbus museum for its 6PM opening, in fact we were earlier so we found a nearby cafe for a coffee. The museum was fascinating although we had to use Google Translate a lot because none of the information was available in English. He died in Valladolid in 1506. He was buried here, then his body was moved to Seville Cathedral in 1513. In 1536 his body went to the Dominican Republic and in 1793 it went to Cuba, and in 1898 at least some of him went back to Seville Cathedral. (DNA confirmed in 2003). However an arm and a leg may still be in Dominican Republic but no DNA testing of these bits has been allowed!
Our walk back to the hotel took us to 16Km of walking for the day so we had a coffee to relax and chilled for the test of the evening.
