Reus Spain - Ruta del Modernisme

Reus is a city in Spain known for its Modernist architecture - that's Art Nouveau to you and me 😉.

We spent a couple of days wandering and touring - our focus was on two buildings by Domènech i Montaner, the Pere Mata psychiatric hospital, and the Casa Navás private home. 

We went to Pere Mata our first morning - we were the only visitors! We took our time, used the audio-guides, and our cane-chair. When they heard that this was our first day, they gave us a tourist map, and explained how to follow the Ruta del Modernisme (I was very glad of this, since it was hard to find anything about a self-guided tour online).

The old entrance 

After Pere Mata, we rested a bit, went to lunch, then walked along part of La Ruta 🙂

Our next morning, we went to see Casa Navás - this was a completely guided tour (we signed up for English), with extremely limited photo-ops, and booties required! We had forgotten the cane chair, but it wouldn't have been allowed anyway. We usually steer clear of this type of tour, but it was the only way to see the building (and it was interesting, if tiring).

Casa Navás 

Entry hall

Mosaic 

Entry hall balcony 

Entry hall from balcony 

After Casa Navás, we went along more of La Ruta!

We did drive from E to F...

Mural where we stopped for lunch 

Thus ended our whirlwind tour! We stopped at a grocery store (Mercadona) for non-French supplies (black beans and lactose-free cheese), then back to the hotel. We had a fairly easy drive home the next day 🙂

~~~

See more photos in the Reus, Spain 2024 album - there are sidewalk plaques outside of the various buildings; I included those in passing 

I'm glad we got to see everything! We had missed this trip several times - the timing was always just a little wrong! 

Important things to know: 

• visiting hours for both buildings are different throughout the year, and very limited outside of summer
• tickets were tricky to get; the website didn't work with every browser or device, so it looked like things were closed or unavailable 
• parking at Pere Mata was easy, but difficult to be sure of; not easy at all for Casa Navás! I had this backwards, unfortunately - we were waaay early for Pere Mata, and a bit late for Casa Navás (luckily, they hadn't started yet - maybe waiting for us?)
• Reus seemed pretty small (I had guessed a population of only a few thousand), but it actually has over 100k residents!

Sevilla 2024 Wrap Up

This was our second winter in Sevilla, and we are definitely glad we came back! 

Sevilla is packed with things to see and do. Last year we made a dent; this year, we saw a few new things, and went back for more of old favorites ☺️.

New:

Alcázar

Setas 

Return to the plaza (and a lot of flamenco!)

Plaza de España 

Last year we stayed near the cathedral. This year, we thought we'd try an outlying neighborhood - Triana has it's own vibe, and is still close to Old Town (a bus or 2 away). It had it's own long-standing 3 Kings parade. There were plenty of bus lines to get us around, and we were close to the ceramics factories and the Triana market. But we agreed that it was a bit nicer to be right smack in the middle of Old Town - easy walks to major sites and a huge variety of restaurants.

Last year, we sort of meandered down the Mediterranean coast of Spain, stayed near Málaga for January, then spent February in Sevilla. This time, we drove straight to Valencia, stayed one quick night, and drove the next day directly to Sevilla. That was a lot less stressful, even accounting for the insane Google maps behavior getting into both Valencia and Sevilla! The drives were long (9hrs), but mostly easy freeway.

Both times, we left the car in a long-term structure (~100€/mo), and got around by bus. Both times, this was a great idea, and definitely the right thing to do. But both times, we tried to drive to the apartment on the last day to load the car and go. Both times, this *should* have been easy. Neither time was easy... It's something to work on.

Getting around in Sevilla was easy the first time, and only got easier this year. We bought a multiviaje bus pass (1.50€) last year (that was the hard part, as it wasn't obvious where* to buy it). With this, each trip (bus or tram) is only 35¢. Paying the driver in cash is 1.40€ each. Multiple people can use the same pass (just tap it once for each passenger), but transfers are not free. You can refill it for a minimum of 7€ at a large number of newspaper shops. I walked out of my apartment, into the first likely shop, and asked - I was kindly directed to another place just a block away, where I easily added trips. Within the first 2 years, you can even "borrow" trips into the cost of the card (it's really a deposit, and the card is owned by Tussam).

The tools I used the most for getting around were Citymapper and Google maps. I also downloaded the Tussam bus map.

~~~

* where to buy the bus pass: either at the Prado bus/tram Tussam office or at the main train station's Tussam office. 

See these photo albums: Sevilla 2024, Sevilla 2024 Alcázar, Sevilla 2024 Cabalgata

Sevilla 2024 - Alcázar II

We went back to the Alcázar, and were very glad we did! 

After our visit, we stopped for a late lunch, then more takeout for dinner later, and back home!

~~~

On our first trip, we had no idea of what to expect, no plan for how to get around, and the one map we had (a photo of the layout at the entrance) didn't show which sections (and routes) were closed off 🤪. We wasted our feet one (1) standing in line and (2) backtracking

This time, we had a downloaded map - it had a little more detail, but still didn't indicate what was below ground, up stairs, or closed off. But, we knew where we had been before and some of what we had missed. 

We also knew which tickets to buy, and found out that we could enter on our timed tickets 15 minutes early until 30 minutes late. So, once we knew when we were leaving, we bought the tickets for the next hour - bingo! No line to buy, and the line to get in was so short and fast, that we didn't even have time to unfold the chair!

Biggest tip: in the far corner of #13 (yellow area), there are stairs going down (to the underground cavern and pool), and up (to the tapestry rooms, in the orange area). It's easy to miss...

~~~

I added today's photos to the Sevilla 2024 Alcázar album.