The day we arrived in Madrid, we rented a car (two cars, actually, because the cars are small and the amount of space we needed for our eight suitcases was not!) and drove to the charming town of Toledo to break up the six-hour drive to Sevilla. Driving through the city center in a rented car with a manual transmission was my first foray into driving medieval Spanish streets that cars have NO BUSINESS driving on. It is nothing short of terrifying to be bumping down a cobblestoned street that you are ABSOLUTELY SURE you should not be on where you could almost touch the buildings on either side if you stretched your arm out far enough. The streets in the city of Sevilla were just as narrow and labyrinthine, and yet cars, vans, trucks, and even buses just motor along them like it’s nothing!
According to Filipino Spanish Walk on YouTube, the streets in Sevilla are so narrow for three primary reasons: it was easier to collect taxes, it was harder for lawbreakers to escape, and the high buildings and narrow streets kept the sunlight from reaching the ground, keeping things cooler during the famously brutal Sevillan summers. Apparently that last is at least true, according to the Hotel Murillo:
“Take a look at a map of the centre of Seville and you´ll see a maze of narrow, winding streets. It looks somewhat chaotic, but there is a reason for this: to block the sun from the streets and sidewalks, because what you´ve heard is true–Seville has a long, hot summer and keeping the streets as cool as possible is a must.
This typically Moorish planning is present in many Spanish cities, particularly in Andalusia, where the temperatures often reach 40ºC or more! In Seville, this architectural sunscreen is exemplified in the Barrio de Santa Cruz, home to many of the city’s historic monuments, including the Cathedral and the Real Alcázares. As you enter this quarter, you can literally feel the temperature drop a few degrees.”
That was definitely true, so there does seem to be something to that.
Still, I have frequently been walking down what I was absolutely convinced was a Zona Peatonal (Pedestrian Zone), only to find myself pressed against the wall of the building next to me or ducking into a recessed doorway as a full-sized car came trundling past. Add walking with two distracted boys to that mix, and a simple walk to the center can get my heart racing!
When we arrived in Sevilla after some side trips to small towns with even smaller streets, I couldn’t return that rental fast enough. And once we got settled in our piso (apartment) near the City Center, I have been grateful almost every day not to have a car to deal with. Because the parking garages here are a whole other story…
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