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Published: November 24th 2006
A Spanish Thanksgiving - Toro, Flamenco and Miscellaneous Fried Stuff in a Cone
Alacazam, nope Alcazar Now that we’ve been here a couple of days, we’ve gotten the hang of breakfast. In the morning, Mike and I moseyed up to our (now) favorite breakfast joint, ordered our “café y tostada con mantequilla y marmalada” at the bar and savored the yummy coffee and toast we requested. With some food in our stomachs, we grabbed our umbrellas & raincoats - the sky was grey - and started our daily walk of exploring this city.
One of the great sights in Sevilla is a palace called the Alcazar. Built by the Moors in the 10th century (Spanish Muslims for all those who forgot Euro History 101) and decked out by King Pedro in the 14th century, members of the Spanish royal family still live there today. Alcazar is full of Moorish tile work - lots of gold with blue, white and yellow - and was designed to be a truly comfortable palace to live in (comfortable for that day - not so comfy by our standards now). It is surrounded by a beautiful walled garden that
is still carefully maintained today. King Pedro commissioned the renovation when he left the Queen to live with his mistress (some called him Pedro the Cruel, for this and other more violent reasons) so he wanted it to be cool and enjoyable. Keeping a mistress is apparently a more difficult task than it seems. You can see the mixing of the Moorish and the Pedro-ization in some of the Arabic script on the tiles . . . Glory to Allah and the magnificent Pedro. Strange.
Another wing in the Alcazar was built by Queen Isabel after Christopher Columbus debriefed her on what he found in the New World. Realizing that this could be a good (aka profitable) venture, she built the wing to enable administration of New World issues. While Columbus didn’t get a ton of fame & fortune in his lifetime, the Spanish have really embraced him post-mortem. Many statues and paintings everywhere speak of his exploration accomplishments. I guess explorers and starving artists have something in common . . . you only get props after you’re dead.
After looking through the Alcazar, we wandered across the river to the other side of Sevilla, not as rife
with sightseeing items but a nice area with lots of little cafes and bars. It started to rain so we scurried back across to “our” side of the river and camped in a coffee shop to wait out the downpour. One of my new favorite treats is Café con Leche, espresso with steamed milk and sugar. It’s truly delicious and warming on a damp and chilly day. Yum!
Toro, Toro, Toro When the rain stopped, we headed to another major sight in Sevilla, the local Bullfighting Ring and Museum. Toro, toro, toro! Sevilla still has bullfighting today, with most fights happening in June - October. Thus, we didn’t get to see anything serious go down, but the museum was just fine for me. The tour took us into the bullfighting ring where we could see where the bulls (toro) come out, the toreador (bullfighter) comes out and exits and where the Royal Family and President of the Bullfight sit. He’s an interesting character.
Here’s some info on bullfighting that we learned: to be successful as a toreador in a bullfight, the toreador must earn 3 “trophies” in a day. The President of the bullfight decides which
toreadors will receive trophies in each round. The President takes into account the aggressiveness of the bull & fighter, damage to the bull, personal style and entertainment value. If the president deems a toreador worthy of a trophy, he will grant them a bull tail or ear. (All bulls are killed and eaten for food at the end of each fight - tails and ears come off afterwards). At the end of the day, toreadors who earned their 3 trophies get to exit the bullring in front of the Royal Family’s box . . . those who didn’t, have to leave the ring through the door they entered in.
We also toured the stables, infirmary for the injured bullfighters and a historical museum of bullfighting in Sevilla. This bullring is privately owned by a group of noblemen and they carefully guard artifacts from the past. Everything from mounted heads of the Bull of the Year in years past to costumes from successful toreadors is on display. One interesting thing we learned: if a bull kills a toreador, both he and his mother are killed in response. The mother is killed so she cannot birth any more “killer bulls” in
the future. Both Mike and I pondered what value that would have for society if we implemented similar approach to murderers . . .
After some more wandering, we headed back to the hotel for our afternoon siesta. We’ve both enjoyed kicking back on the bed and reading a bit before dinner or whatever our evening plans are. Earlier in the coffee shop, I called and made reservations for us to attend the 10.30pm show at a local Flamenco bar, “Los Gallos”. We had a good amount of time to kill so I did some more online planning and rested.
Late in the afternoon, I got hungry and dragged Mike out to find a snack, knowing that a pre-show dinner wasn’t going to get me fed until 8pm at the earliest. Anyone who’s dealt with a hungry girlfriend/fiancé/wife knows that’s just a bad plan. We found a little bar and got 2 beers, a plate of olives and a plate of Spanish cheese. Completely delicious and felt culturally appropriate as well.
Flamenco Dance Party We went out to find dinner around 8.30pm and just decided to walk until something looked interesting. On a corner
in the Barrio Santa Cruz is a small little restaurant that looks like an ice cream shop - glass counter, one person working and open doors to little tables on the sidewalk. Instead of ice cream, this restaurant dishes up fried fish in paper cones. We had to try it, how often do you see that?!?! We asked what was good and in Spanish, the counter lady said everything, so we said “give us a little of everything”. Into the big paper cone went fried fish, squid, shrimp/prawns (whole, little fried eyes & tail and all), cuttlefish, fish roe and some little pieces of chicken. They also sold homemade potato chips so we got a bag of those too. We snagged a table on the sidewalk and unfolded our cone. A few minutes and greasy fingers later, we figured out what we liked and what was not quite our thing. I loved the shrimp (they had some peeled fried ones, much like you see in a Chinese PuPu platter) and the chicken. Mike really liked the potato chips.
We got a couple of drinks and sat back to watch all the people around us and munch on what was
left. One guy was trying to keep all 3 of his dogs at the table - not a leash in sight - and they were far more interested in snuffling under other people’s tables in hopes of a dropped fried treat. True to puppy form, as soon as his dinner partner returned to the table with their cones of fried goodness, all 3 pups sat obediently at the table and waited for their pieces.
Maybe it’s cause we miss Catfish (our dog) or maybe we’re just puppy-centric, but we seem to notice dogs wherever we go. Portugal was full of really scruffy ones that wandered all over the place but were very obedient whenever their owners called. Spain has all sorts of dogs from big to little, with a strong scruffy contingent in effect. A cute pup sighting is always a highlight in our daily walks.
After dinner, we went to the Flamenco show. I didn’t know much about it but quickly learned. Flamenco is done to the music of a classical guitar as well as musicians that sing mournful songs and clap their hands and feet to a beat. The dancers are very controlled yet dance out
strong, elaborate beats with their feet and shoes that are similar to those in tap dancing. The women are colorful with beautiful dresses and fans while the men dance in a very strong, masculine way in a suit with colorful kerchief at the neck. The dancers also use clapping and snapping to complement the beats they are dancing with their feet. The rapid steps are truly amazing in their control and speed - an experience in sight and sound.
We ducked out of the show at about midnight and headed home. A very full day behind us, the thought of a warm bed and sleep was all that consumed us. It’s truly the simple things in a traveler’s life that make it great.
Today, we spent the morning wandering around Barrio Santa Cruz again, looking for anything we might want to buy as memories of Sevilla. Sadly, since our tastes don’t really run to tacky t-shirts and flamenco dress covers for bottles of wine, the shops didn’t produce anything that we couldn’t leave without. Good for the pocketbook, definitely!
As I write this in our hotel lobby, Mike’s resting upstairs in the room. He’s kind of snuffly
from a cold so we’re taking it slow. Tomorrow, we will pick up a rental car and start driving to little towns in the south of Spain. More to come on that as we experience it.
Enjoy “Black Friday” - let the Christmas shopping commence!
A Note from Mikey T Hope everyone enjoyed T-Giving. We realize this is a day late. Today not much is going on, so we probably won´t post a blog for the actual 24th. Tomorrow we check out and head south in Spain. We are renting a car and driving through the cliff towns of Andalucia. We may not have access to the internet so this could be your last blog for a couple of days. We hope to write more soon. Love you guys! Thanks again for reading!
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Beth
non-member comment
look slike fun!
Seems like you guys are having a great time. I loved the 'bull' pictures! (el toro) And I can imagine that El Alcazar is amazing. I love always getting your pictures. Makes me drool with envy! Glad your computer glitch is better. love, beth