Passion, flaminco and Seville

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Driving into Seville, I was super excited. As soon as we pulled onto the streets of old town I couldn't wait to get the car parked and checked into the hotel. I wanted to immediately soak in the city. We, thankfully, found our hotel street very easily. And the car park was just around the corner. We had our shortest/easiest car parking/walking to the hotel experience yet! On our walk to the hotel, we turn off the main street into essentially a narrow sidewalk/side street. Our hotel was on this small little area with restaurants on the ground floor on one side and then apartments and whatnot on the upper floors. Again, nothing is more than 5 or 6 stories high. As we were walking down this street I was so excited! This was the Spanish city I was hoping for on the trip. So many people had told me about Seville and now here I was and already I was in love!

Our hotel was about half way down the street and had this cute little lobby with an open air atrium part with potted plants hanging all the over the walls all the way up. We had a room on the 3rd floor that was just the cutest thing overlooking the street. This location was outstanding! We quickly dropped off our bags to head out onto the town and try to see a few things. We had very limited time in Seville. I had already decided to give myself an extra day, but John was leaving on Sunday. So we set out for one of the large government complexes not too far from our hotel. We walked along this beautiful park and past the second largest building in all of Seville. The park also had a unique and beautiful statue/fountain in honor of Isabelle. Through a huge round-about and we were at the Maria Luisa Park and looking at the Plaza de Espana. This was a surprise! My book had not mentioned this as a site and I was quite surprised after we saw it. The guy at the hotel had told us not to miss it. It's a massive building and park area build in 1928 for the Ibero-American Expo in 1929. The building is massive. It' arks around the park/square in a semi-circle and have three main buildings, one on each end and one in the middle, and then two or three story building arching between them. They buildings on the ends had their huge spires on them. The center of the plaza was a large semi circle drive with area and then between the building in the center there was a river/mote like area. You could rent small non-motorized boats and paddle through the area. There were several arched bridges that connected the drive area next to the building and the center drive.

The detail on the buildings were incredible. It was all done in mosaic tiles. All along the bottom there were benches built in a u-shape and each one depicted a different region or county or city in Spain. It was fun to walk along just to see all of the different images and ways they chose to represent each area in Spain. We enjoyed walking through the square. The bridges and their detail was magnificent. We walked ht entire length of the building. I think we were there for about an hour. I couldn't believe it had taken us so long to see a building and we didn't even go inside.

On the walk home, I was really struck by a sound in Seville...clackity clack! Everywhere we went...horse drawn carriages. I don't know if part of the beauty of the sound was the many cobblestone streets or just the feeling of the city but it was lovely. We made our way back to the hotel and then back out for the night. We had tapas at a place right near our hotel and enjoyed it very much. And then it was off to Flamenco. Seville is a partial birthplace of Flamenco and I've seen it performed in a few places (Miami and Puerto Rico) but was really excited to see it in Spain and then to be able to see it in Seville! We went to a more formal, theater like place. They had a large stage and we sat in the front row. We had a little table and ordered a couple of beers for the show. The show was about an hour and half of non-stop music, drama and dancing. The show had 11 different performers and 5 different dance sequences and then the finale. Each performance was a minimum of a guitar player on an acoustic guitar, two male singers and then one dancer. Most of the dancers were female with one performance done by a man. Each performance was unique but the consistency was intensity. Each dancer had an extremely intense presence on stage. The female performers seemed to use every muscle in their body to twist and turn and stomp on the stage. They also seemed to use every facial expression out there to communicate the passion involved in the dance. As I watched them, I realized that I may have missed my dancing calling and should have been a flamenco dancer. I too have intense facial expressions when I dance. However, they are typically more on the “I’m buzzed and think I’m the best dancer in the whole place” variety, but still…it’s about the same ;-) The male dancer performance was equally as intense and overall you had this overwhelming sense of how flamenco can really speak to people. Accompanying every dance was a guitar player and two male singers. The entire show seemed to be free flowing. The guitarist and singers intently watched the dancer and the dancer’s feet throughout their performance and did their best to compliment their movements with song. At one point, a woman came out and sang and one of the guitarists played with her. This guitarist was incredible. I’ve never seen anyone play the guitar in such a way. The way he moved his fingers on the cords and would quickly change things up…I was mesmerized. The one female dancer was older and yet still moved on the dance floor with such precision and intent. John and I agreed that she was probably a huge performer when she was younger. At the end of the show, all the performers were on stage together and danced and sang. Some of the women danced in unison and they all sang. Overall the performance was intense with emotion but yet still extremely lively and fun. What a great mix of entertainment and culture!

We rolled out of the show just after midnight and decided to head back to the hotel for bed. We were planning to get a lot in on Saturday and wanted to get an early start!

Saturday morning we got up and John actually had to work out a little issue of how he was going to get to Lisbon. We were both assuming he could just jump on a train but alas, that was not the case. After debating a bit between a bus or flight option, he went with flight (which as it turns out was great because he had even more time in Lisbon to explore!). So we didn’t actually get moving until around 11 AM and we hit it hard.

We picked up sandwiches at the local bakery and a fresh squeezed orange juice to go and started walking. Our hotel’s location could not have been better! We just a short walk away from the Seville Cathedral! This Cathedral is legendary. According to legend, the builders wanted to create something so large that their children would think they were mad. Well, they succeeded! As we rounded one of the narrow streets and found ourselves in a circular square area, the Church towers over you. As a reference, I would say it takes up AT LEAST one city block. It’s nearly impossible to see it all at once. You almost have to scan from side to side. And looking up at the tower is a challenge too. And to make the sheer mass of it even better there is that sound again…the hoofs on the cobblestone streets. All the horse drawn carriages as they pass the church. Lovely…it was all just lovely.



We both just stood there for a few moments in awe. At this point we’ve seen quite a few churches but there was just something far more impressive with this one. In the 1100s, the original structure was a Mosque. In the current building, the only original part preserved was the citrus tree filled courtyard and outer wall. And when I say citrus tree filled…I’m talking rows and rows and rows of them. The smell was glorious! What’s fun about this portion of the Church is that the wall has an entrance on one side that is still in the shape of that mushroom curved top. The portion of the building that is original is the lower 2/3 of the bell tower. These original parts of the building were made with brick. Crazy! In the mid 1400s, work began on the Cathedral as it’s seen today. It took them a little over 100 years to complete it. When walking through it, you can see why.

We started by walking around one half of the outside of the building. High walls, huge stained glass windows, beautiful detail carving work in the stone. This is definitely a representation from the Gothic period. As we’re making our way to the main doors, a woman approaches me with a sprig of green leave like things. When I politely declined she became very intent on having me take it. I declined again and she got more intent and was almost yelling at me. This all went down in Spanish of course and I had no idea what she was saying. I picked up my cadence and John was right behind me. After we broke free from her, I looked at John and said, that was strange. It didn’t seem like she was asking for money or anything and I was very polite saying no, but somehow it just did not go well.

As we came around to the main entrance, the real beauty of the building came to light. Huge iron gates opened into a small courtyard that had a statue and then behind it was a massive set of wooden doors. Everything swept your eye up to the sky. We entered on the left side and then walked into the back corner of the church. You had to just stand there and take it all in. I don’t know how high the ceilings were but they seemed to reach up for every. The main hall was huge! And with some many people in the church the noise and echo was incredible. Standing at one end and looking down to the other was like looking out over a couple of football fields. The small chapels are praying areas around the main hall were amazing. The sheer detail in every single thing in this building blew my mind. And to think they built this place during the 1400s and 1500s! One after another…the next one more beautiful or intricate than the next. Each had a gate made of iron some with gold detail all with a lot of decoration on it. Each had an alter with a dedication to a saint and depictions of scenes from the bible or angels or saints. Overall, the inside of the Cathedral was mostly stone. So it had that grey tone to it. In some ways it felt very dark. Almost as if it could have used more windows. But the windows it did have them magnificent! And the light coming through them was beautiful. The strange part and perhaps this was only because while were there they were in the middle of a huge restoration project, but the center nave area almost completely blocked your view of the main alter from several angles in the church. John and I talked about this. Where did people sit? How did they see the service? The center area was flanked on either side by organs and then had the choir area in the middle. The walls on three sides of it were completely solid though and you couldn’t see through this area. In between here and the main alter they has a few rows of benches sat out. The main alter, which is the main reason most people visit this church, was completed covered with a banner. They are renovating the entire alter. Oh darn…guess I’ll have to plan a trip back to Seville J It was disappointing not to see the alter. Its several stories high and has some of the most intricate carvings on it. Even looking at the banner that was interesting. I can only imagine what it would be like to look at the real thing. Some day…I’ll make a trip back!

I decided to sit down for a little bit in the wooden pews and viewed the choir area. The detail…the sheer amount of detail. John came over a one point and sat down and I said, Look at this…I’ve been looking in the same spot for several minutes and keep seeing more and more details. And it was true. You could stare at one area for several minutes and continue to discover new things in that area. There were scenes and characters carved into every bit of stone, wood and iron/metal. I ended up sitting for quite a while just trying to take in as much as I could. We made our way up the tower which was really cool! When it was a mosque, they had built the tower with a ramp so that they could ride their horses up to the top. When they reconstructed the church they added on what is now the top 3^rd of the tower and continued the ramp. From a modern point of view, the ramp made climbing to the top slightly more appealing. Doing stairs up this would have been tough! There were several windows along the way which made for fun views of the church, the church roof, and the city. I stopped to pause at most of them. From some of the windows you have a bird’s eye view of the flying buttresses and the rose window and the dome. Once at the top not only did you have you sweeping views of Seville (and I fell in love with the city a little more) but you had a choir of bells. This was no ordinary bell tower. I should have counted…I can’t believe I didn’t count how many there were but you landed in a square area and on each side there were at least 4 to 6 bells. All different sizes. And they were all huge. Even the small ones were large bells! I kept walking around each side looking up at the bells and how they were huge and thought…how can they structure hold all of that weight!!! Some rung while we were up in the tower and they sounded beautiful. Looking down and over the entire church was also a site. From this vantage point you really grasped how large the building was.

When we came down from the tower, we headed into a couple of the smaller rooms they have converted into museum like areas. The rooms themselves were very cool. One was all white on the inside. Still with its detail in the stone carvings. They had display cases set up and things like alter pieces and chalices, and serving dishes. Most of the items were all made of gold. Many of the pieces dated back to the 1500s. This entire trip was incredible with all of the historic items and places we were seeing and this Cathedral was keeping on trend. After the museum area we moved over to the other claim to fame…Christopher Columbus’ tomb. Now, there is an argument that Columbus is actually buried somewhere else…where exactly, I can’t remember, but nonetheless they claim that his DNA is in this tomb. It was a beautiful display. They had like four soldiers, one on each corner, holding up a decorative casket. It was ornate and striking and quite the site. Sunlight was coming in from the windows high up on the wall behind it and almost illuminated the area. I have to say, seeing a piece of history like this was pretty special.

From here we made our way outside and into the amazing citrus smells! It was a warm sunny day and the aroma was intoxicating! I love citrus!!! We toured around to look at the Cathedral from a few more views. Then made our way to the exit. There, the final site to see…today it’s just a replica, but legend has it that a Sultan from Arabia gave the King a stuff alligator as a gift and they then hung it in the courtyard at the Cathedral. The replica was a little silly looking, but I liked the historical reference. Out the exit we went and then around the long way to see the rest of the exterior of the building. It was simply huge. We walked along the back side and wandered into the Cathedrals chapel. This was even rather large considering it was the chapel. It was also lighter than the main church. It seemed to be more welcoming instead of feeling so overwhelming.

By this time, a siesta was in order. We stopped off in a little café and got espresso and gelato. Here’s another great thing about Spain…not sure what they use for their gelato/ice cream, but my lactose intolerant self tolerated it just fine! After our cool down and caffeine kick, we were up and going again. For the afternoon we were going to explore the Real Alcazar de Sevilla. The original structure was started as a fort in the early 900s (yes, that’s correct, I’m not missing a 1) and throughout the last 11 centuries, it’s gone through several changes. Primarily most of what is seen today was built in the 1300s and was truly breathtaking. Since its creation it has been used as a home for the Spanish Heads of State and it remains that way today. That makes it the oldest Royal Palace of Europe still in use. The next 3.5 hours of my life were the best of the trip thus far!

One of the first things you notice upon entering is the differences in architecture and style. You can immediately see where they have added on throughout the years. For me, this made movements from one room to the next that much more amazing. We entered into a courtyard with some of the oldest walls still in tact. From here we move through into another open area and enter into the building on the right. When we walk in I’m again struck with the beauty of the tile mosaic walls. Much to my delight, upstairs is a small but very informative museum on the tiles. My brother is the best and willingly agrees to walk through the museum! Eek!!! As it turns out these tiles are more amazing in their beauty that I could have every thought. Each tile which was probably roughly 4”x4” was hand pressed to create the patterns and then painted. What???? Remember, these tiles are a quarter to a third of the way up some of these walls and run the entire length of rooms. That’s thousands and thousands of tiles! In the museum they also talked about all of the different pottery from the area and how it evolved over time. I can’t lie, the 20 minutes in this museum was a geek out moment for me! Moving on…

As we made our way through the different areas of the building we would walk through rooms like a private chapel with a small alter on one wall and a bench lining the entire room. The bench had individually seats worn on it and velvet on the walls. Then we would end up in a small courtyard where you can imagine people sitting and reading or hiding from the world. All around are the different influences from over the years. More of the arched mushroom shaped doorways, more of the small narrow long ponds with the circular fountains on each end flowing into it. Peaceful, small, hidden serene spots to relax. Rooms that are filled with color and light and design. How did they build all of this in the 11^th, 12^th, 13^th centuries! As we continued around we would walk down stairs into a private garden area behind the building. Then we made our way into some of the larger rooms with HUGE arching ceiling all completely decorated. We were seeing the tiles up part of the wall in all different patterns and colors and then the stone was carved out with intricate patterns around doorways and windows and edges and then painted ceilings in specific patterns and lush colors or wood ceiling carved out in small detailed patterns and painted with bright colors. One room to the next and the next and the next…one more amazing than the last. The Lonely Planet book says “if heaven exists let’s hope it looks a little bit like Alcazar.” I have to agree! I could have sat down in one of these rooms and been comfortable for hours!

After leaving all the rooms of colorful tile and decorative ceilings, we end up in another part of the palace that’s painted yellow and has this contracting orange trim. It’s vibrant and alarming and screams, look at me. In this area the décor is completely different. Walls are covered in tapestries with a scene depicted on them. I’ve never seen anything so detailed woven in fabric. And they were massive – several feet high by several feet wide. And when I say several I’m saying they were something like 12 to 15 feet (plus or minus a few either way).

When we finally made our way into the back garden area we were completely transported into another world. You didn’t know you were in Seville. You didn’t know you were in Spain. You were in this quiet, peaceful, serene space in the world that beckoned to be explored. There were some very interesting accents including a wall that seemed to mix all the styles of the building together – white stone with the orange/yellow accent paint and then the tiles and then the carvings. There were some very interesting fountains and monuments. You’d be walking along and then your eye would catch something else. The trees were huge and precisely manicured. Some areas had trees lining each side of the path. Other areas had beds of colorful flowers. One area had a huge long pond. We spent some time wandering through. We probably should have spent more time but it was getting late and we were hungry. For anyone headed to Spain, not only is Seville a must see, but in particular, Real Alcazar is a MUST! It is a complete original and a joy to see.

We headed back to our little of the neighborhood and sat at the Cava bar for a snack and a much deserved bottle of Cava. (I’m back in the US now and I miss the Cava!). We decided to head out for the evening and go to a spot recommended by a friend and some others. It’s a tucked away in a back alley kind of way flamenco bar called La Carboneria. This place was great. You walk in and you’re thrown into a dive bar style place and then make your way into the back area where long communal tables are lined up and a small stage is set off to one side. Drinks are flowing from the bar and a separate “walk up and order your own” tapas bar is at the other. We settle into a seat, order a bottle of Cava and then some tapas and soak in the fun. The atmosphere is energetic and then the Flameco starts! On stage arrives one woman and two men, one with a guitar. Apparently they often switch up with instrument they use…we were there on acoustic guitar night. The woman is not as good as the women we saw the night before but there is something just so authentic about this…it’s so organic. These are three people that appear to be good friends that love the art of flamenco and want to share that with others. This performance makes me want to move and dance with them. It sucks me in with a completely different feeling…and I like it. We stayed for a couple of hours, saw two different performances, ate some interesting tapas and enjoyed another bottle Cava. It was a joyous night! It was a great way for John and I to finish up our trip together!

We headed back to the hotel and settled in for the night. I was getting up early for a big on my own adventure…John was departing for Lisbon and then home. Our week together was filled with one of the best trips ever!

More to come…

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Photos

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Built in the early 1900s it's mainly used for government offices. One special note...It was used in Star Wars.

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The courtyard has an alcove that represents all the cities and/or provinces in Spain. Each one done in the tile work.

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The bridges were so pretty. All tile work.

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The bell towers were really cool!

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Inside the Seville Catheral. This is part of the organ.

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Views of the roof on the climb up the bell tower.

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So many bells!!!! This is only one side of 4!

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View out a window of details at the top.

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The ceiling.

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Well hello Christopher Columbus. Yep, he's buried here.

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Seriously so pretty and so big!

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Part of the one side of the cathedral. It was impossible to get the whole church in the frame.

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Entrance to the Palace.

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The entrance courtyard at Alcazar

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One of the palace buildings. Serious detail!

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The tile on the walls. Not only

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The tile floors through the palace were also amazing!

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One of the more ornate rooms in the palace.

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Detail on in the wood carvings

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Doorways, tile and details in the palace!

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I know this looks photo shopped but I actually stood under the leather stanchion and took this photo. I love it!

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Courtyard in the center of the palace with a pond.

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The transition from the tile and carvings to the brightly colored painted walls.

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The garden wall behind the palace

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This was a hidden character in the center of the fountain.

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A combination of the detail work and then the paint used in other sections of the palace. This was also out in back in the garden.